After screening in nineteen countries and winning accolades at home and abroad, the locally (South Australian) produced experimental documentary film ‘A Shift in Perception’ has pushed filmmakers Dan Monceaux and Emma Sterling into the international spotlight. Currently screening at the Burnside Library as part of the exhibition ‘Watch This Space’ until May 4^th, the film has shared the stories of three vision impaired women from the Port Adelaide Enfield area with audiences the world over.

“Since the film premiered at IDFA in the Netherlands last November (like the Cannes of documentary), it’s continued to surprise us. The film’s now screened as far a field as Uruguay and Croatia, and has won several awards at festivals in the USA and Canada. It won first prize at the Black Maria Film & Video Festival in New Jersey, and is currently in their touring program, with over seventy scheduled screenings in cinemas, art galleries, libraries and universities. Locally we’ve screened at Adelaide International Film Festival, and Sydney International Film Festival has it programmed for their prestigious event in June. The audience it’s reaching is enormous.”

For the dedicated young couple, the thrills keep coming with FreeSpeechTV, an American cable and satellite network buying a license to broadcast the work to a potential audience of 130 million viewers. The Danimations team has also been selling the film through their website to people internationally, and are currently producing a version for the education market to be distributed in Australia by Ronin Films.

“The reward of reaching such a wide audience is wonderful,” says Monceaux. “The film aimed to provide its viewers with insight into the blind person’s world, and clearly it’s a concept that appeals to regardless of culture or verbal language. The film puts you inside the heads of its subjects- Leander, Rhonda and Edna- and does so in an often abstract way. The result is a conversational narrative from the women illustrated experimentally- a far cry from traditional documentary.”

The exhibition currently screening the work at Burnside Library is a showcase of emerging artists’ artwork with a focus on animation and short film- a perfect match for ‘A Shift in Perception’.  Incorporating techniques of time lapse, animation and soft-focus, the work premiered locally at Higher Ground, Adelaide during the South Australian living Artists’ Festival last year. The film is also available for sale at the Royal Society for the Blind’s Low Vision Centre, 230 Pirie St, with part proceeds going to the organisation.

 

Visit the film’s website for more details: http://www.danimations.com.au/perception

An Creagan Visitor Centre, at the foothills of the Sperrins, in Northern Ireland, sets the scene once more for the 4th Annual Mid Ulster Film Festival on the 4th, 5th and 6th May 2007. The Mid Ulster Film Festival is unique in that it is the only non-competitive rural film festival held in Ireland, and is such a fantastic ‘homely’ event, especially with on-site cottages available to rent.
The festival organisers say that they have been inundated with entries this year from all over the world. They have been very impressed with the high standard, especially entries from Spain and one 14min short ‘Boletos Por Favor’ – a clever mix of animation and digital filmmaking, by Argentinean director Lucas Figueroa, they were so impressed by this short that they will also screen ‘The Making of Boletos Por Favor’, one certainly not to be missed. In all over 60 shorts will be screened over the weekend celebration of film.The great and the good of the Irish film industry will be there.
A coup for The Mid Ulster this year is the European Premiere of ‘Proud’, to open the festival, written and directed by New Yorker, Mary Pat Kelly and produced by Ally Hilfiger, this film, partly filmed in Derry, tells the story of the U.S.S. Mason, a world War II battleship with an all black crew. Cast includes, Ossie Davis (Lorenzo DuFau), Stephen Rea and John Hume with a cameo role. Lorenzo DuFau is a hero, as a World War II sailor. As a black man, he had to fight to get in the fight — yet his country ignores him … His son dismisses him as a failure. His grandson who hardly knows him, until late one night, when he tells Larry along with his two college friends, about his ship, the USS Mason. (www.proudthemovie.com).
Mary Pat Kelly began her film career in 1970 working with Martin Scorsese on In The Park.
Mr DuFau and Mary Pat Kelly accompanied by her Tyrone born husband will attend the festival, introduce the film on the opening night and have a questions and answers session. Mary Pat will also give a workshop on the Sunday afternoon.
Documentaries feature strongly this year and include Anastasia Cherkassova’s (Russia) – ‘With Much Love and Kisses’, set in Russia, The Solovetskii islands in the White Sea. A strange and very beautiful place with ancient stone labyrinths, according to legend, the labyrinths’ role was to prevent the souls of the dead from disturbing the living. These islands, long considered to be a refuge of dead souls, and later one of the most holy places in Russia, through a strange combination of circumstances, the Soviet authorities built their first concentration camp and sent the best and most talented people in the country here. Was this pure chance, or a cruel twist of fate?
Closing feature will be ‘Bobby’ with a dream like cast including Martin Sheen, who the organisers hope to have along to the festival. Directed by Emilio Esteves, he has constructed an adept and elaborate screenplay, set in a hotel over the day and night before Bobby Kennedy was killed.
The main feature on Saturday will be ‘The last King of Scotland’; by Scottish director Kevin Macdonald followed the ‘One Day in September’ (his Oscar-winning documentary) and ‘Touching the Void’. For his first, entirely dramatic feature film, with an Oscar winning performance by Forest Whitaker (Idi Amin), Macdonald artfully blends fact and fiction in ‘The Last King of Scotland’ – it opens in 1970 as a young Scottish medical graduate, impulsively decides to practice at a small clinic in rural Uganda. His arrival coincides with the coup that ousted President Milton Obote and brought General Idi Amin to power.
Barry Devlin’s – ‘The art of Scriptwriting’ workshop, hugely over-subscribed at previous festivals, is back on the programme again by popular demand. Devlin is founder member of Horslips and has directed U2 music videos, numerous dramas and documentaries for Channel 4 and BBC. Films he has under development at the moment include ‘The Virgin of Las Vegas’. I think the phrase is book early!
With lots of other entertainment, including a film fest pub quiz and a new event – ‘Filmoke’ karaoke style! All in all this year’s festival is definitely the one to be at.
Check out website for full listings, brochure and accommodation info.
www.midulsterfilmfestival.com
info@midulsterfilmfestival.com

PLEASE FORWARD THIS ONTO ANYONE YOU THINK MIGHT BE INTERESTED – WE RELY ON VIRAL SYSTEMS TO SPREAD THE WORD.
THANKS!

The Darklight Festival Symposium will be held on the 21st – the 23rd of June 2007, Dublin, Ireland.

The DARKLIGHT SYMPOSIUM 2007 will be an action packed three day event, a combination of debates, workshops, screenings and master classes.

We will be asking what the developments of the past 10 years actually means for cultural producers from all art forms and genres? How is this impacting and influencing creative practice, decision making, budgets, education, exhibition choices and possibilities?

What is expected of ‘content producers’ in 2007? Does this catchall term of the past 10 years reflect an attitude towards creative process and are we now seeing the emergence of a more curated network?

Are we entering a time; where genres are evolving with a new fluidity between art, design, film, TV practices and platforms, where technology developed for gaming is impacting film, animation and motion graphics and is opening up new possibilities for the imagination, where commissioners are looking to grass roots producers and the tyranny of TV scheduling may be a thing of the past.

In addition to these questions we will be reflecting on past movements in cinema and their influence on contemporary arts practice through a retrospective programme of lectures, screenings and exhibits. At the Memory Technology forum we will be investigating the issue of archiving from long term, historical and practical perspectives.

Details of will be posted on the website http://www.darklight.ie

Other events include; DATA, kids workshop, Open Mike Salon, Swap-meet, Wares area, Pod cast’s, Symposium launch/registration, YouTube video lounge, networking events, music and closing barbeque party.

We are now giving people the chance to book online and this can be done on our website http://www.darklight.ie or send a cheque or postal order with your name and contact information to 69 Dame St, Dublin 2, Ireland.

Enquiries to +353 1 6709017 events**darklight-filmfestival.com

PRE BOOK NOW TO TAKE PART IN THIS EAGERLY AWAITED EVENT, SPACE IS LIMITED.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS ONTO ANYONE YOU THINK MIGHT BE INTERESTED – WE RELY ON VIRAL SYSTEMS TO SPREAD THE WORD.
THANKS!

The Darklight Festival Symposium will be held on the 21st – the 23rd of June 2007, Dublin, Ireland.

The DARKLIGHT SYMPOSIUM 2007 will be an action packed three day event, a combination of debates, workshops, screenings and master classes.

We will be asking what the developments of the past 10 years actually means for cultural producers from all art forms and genres? How is this impacting and influencing creative practice, decision making, budgets, education, exhibition choices and possibilities?

What is expected of ‘content producers’ in 2007? Does this catchall term of the past 10 years reflect an attitude towards creative process and are we now seeing the emergence of a more curated network?

Are we entering a time; where genres are evolving with a new fluidity between art, design, film, TV practices and platforms, where technology developed for gaming is impacting film, animation and motion graphics and is opening up new possibilities for the imagination, where commissioners are looking to grass roots producers and the tyranny of TV scheduling may be a thing of the past.

In addition to these questions we will be reflecting on past movements in cinema and their influence on contemporary arts practice through a retrospective programme of lectures, screenings and exhibits. At the Memory Technology forum we will be investigating the issue of archiving from long term, historical and practical perspectives.

Details of will be posted on the website http://www.darklight.ie

Other events include; DATA, kids workshop, Open Mike Salon, Swap-meet, Wares area, Pod cast’s, Symposium launch/registration, YouTube video lounge, networking events, music and closing barbeque party.

We are now giving people the chance to book online and this can be done on our website http://www.darklight.ie or send a cheque or postal order with your name and contact information to 69 Dame St, Dublin 2, Ireland.

Enquiries to +353 1 6709017 events**darklight-filmfestival.com

PRE BOOK NOW TO TAKE PART IN THIS EAGERLY AWAITED EVENT, SPACE IS LIMITED.

Victory Bible Church
Massachusetts Street
Lawrence, KS

(March 23, 2007) Now in its 41st year, the BAC International Film and Video Festival (May 5 – 12, 2007) screens 58 films over 6 days at 4 venues with three feature narratives having their World or New York premieres at the festival. Keeping with Brooklyn Arts Council’s tradition of showcasing a wide variety of high quality films directed by emerging artists from around the world, this year includes 8 award winning short documentaries, 15 short narratives, 8 animation and 5 experimental pieces, plus 6 innovative installation videos by filmmakers from Brooklyn to China to Botswana. 11 films shot and directed by youth filmmakers will also be screened.

This year’s festival kicks off on Saturday, May 5 from 2 – 5 pm at the Brooklyn Museum with “Brooklyn Filmmakers,” a screening of shorts and feature works. This year Brooklyn Arts Council partners with the Brooklyn Museum in conjunction with the museum’s new Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art by curating Pharaohs, Queens and Goddesses, a wonderful selection of films that deal with Global Feminism that screens on Saturday, May 5, 2007 from 6:30 – 10:30pm during Brooklyn Museum’s acclaimed Target First Saturday series.

We’ve expanded our ability to meet and support the ever increasing number of films shot, produced, directed and serviced by Brooklyn artists with additional collaborations. New initiatives allow screenwriters, for example, to benefit from our “Story Structure and Creative Explorations” professional development seminar and to compete for prizes generously donated by Writers Boot Camp. Filmmakers can enjoy wider, more diverse audiences at the Target First Saturday screening at the Brooklyn Museum, and network with each other at our closing party at Bar Sepia, on Friday, May 11th. The “Independent Filmmakers” screening, also at the Brooklyn Museum, showcases Independent talent from as far as the Chech Republic, while the “New Visionaries” screening at Long Island University focuses on fresh, new films by local and international college students. Sony Wonder hosts our seventh “Youth Shorts” screening at the Sony Wonder Technology Lab in Manhattan on Thursday, May 10. And on Friday, May 11 the festival features provocative new films during the “After Hours” screening at the Brooklyn Museum. We wrap up our festival week with the Sixth Annual Women of African Descent Film Festival, hosted by the Brooklyn chapter of the Links at Long Island University, which showcases films directed or produced by women of the African Diaspora.

BACKGROUND

Each year, Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC) hosts the International Film and Video Festival to give film and video artists an opportunity to show their work to critics, the media and an enthusiastic New York audience. In operation since 1966, the festival is the longest running event of its kind in Brooklyn.  For some young filmmakers, the BAC Film Festival is an important first step in launching a successful career. In 2002, a recent college graduate named Ryan Fleck screened a short film at the BAC Film Festival. Ryan went on to write and direct the critically-acclaimed feature Half Nelson, which won the New York Film Critic’s Best First Feature Award, among others. Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea), directed by Javier Fesser, was shown in our festival last year and was recently nominated for an Academy Award in the “Best Live Action Short Film” category.