Worldwide Movie Pageant Rotterdam, which runs Jan. 30 – Feb. 9, has revealed the lineup of its Focus part.
Retrospectives are given to the work of Croatian-German documentarian Katja Raganelli and Ukrainian auteur Sergii Masloboishchykov.
The seventieth anniversary of the Bandung Convention, the place the idea of the “World South” was ignited, is marked with an exploration of the “movie cultures of resistance and reform that it impressed,” in keeping with a press assertion.
The pageant additionally dives into the legacy of VHS tradition by means of screenings and neighborhood initiatives.
Focus: Katja Raganelli
Raganelli’s work, proven principally on tv, directed consideration to the historical past of girls in filmmaking.
Movies screening embrace “Margery Wilson – Vom Stummfilmstar Hollywoods zur Filmregisseurin” (1996), “Valie Export – Portrait einer Filmregisseurin” (1981), and “Die Liebe ist ein Mythos – Delpine Seyrig” (1978).
The Focus program will current her portraits of main figures starting from fashionable masters like Agnès Varda, Márta Mészáros and Valie Export to early pioneers corresponding to Alice Man-Blaché and Lotte Reiniger, alongside complementary titles from these filmmakers themselves.
This system highlights Raganelli’s “dedication to uncovering ladies’s cinematic contributions.
Focus: Sergii Masloboishchykov
Masloboishchykov takes heart stage with the worldwide premiere of his newest work, “Yasa” (2023), in one other retrospective. This marks his return to IFFR three a long time after the screening of his debut fiction characteristic, “Josephine, the Singer and the Mice Individuals” (1994), which might be screened as a part of this system alongside titles together with “Personal Voice” (2016).
Masloboishchykov’s movies, spanning fiction and documentary codecs, present “a deeply private but nationally resonant perspective on Ukraine’s evolution.” From capturing the Maidan protests to chronicling the continuing Russian invasion, his work “fuses private issues with questions concerning the destiny of his nation.”
The retrospective affords “audiences a profound understanding of Ukraine’s cultural and political panorama by means of the lens of one in all its most distinguished filmmakers.”
Focus: Bandung Convention
Subsequent 12 months marks the seventieth anniversary of the Afro-Asian Convention held in Bandung, Indonesia, the place 29 nations gathered to debate financial and political unity, igniting the idea of what’s now often known as the “World South.”
The occasion additionally impressed the Afro-Asian Movie Pageant, held thrice: in Tashkent (1958), Cairo (1960) and Jakarta (1964).
That includes a number of movies from these three festivals and movies impressed by them and the “Bandung spirit,” together with panels and discussions, IFFR will “discover their legacy, the goals they impressed and their relevance in the present day.”
Focus: Maintain Video in Your Arms
The world premiere of Alex Ross Perry’s documentary “Videoheaven,” which chronicles the historical past of video shops in Hollywood cinema, anchors a program celebrating “the neighborhood spirit of VHS tradition.”
This system “examines the interaction of personal and public movie cultures.”
Rotterdam filmmaker Gyz La Rivière returns to the pageant with the world premiere of his ode to the video retailer “Videotheek Marco,” an investigation into native video retailer historical past and related actions like neighborhood tv.
This system contains screenings of a various supply just like the Indian documentary “Videokaaran” (2011) and David Cronenberg’s newest, “The Shrouds” (2024), in addition to interactive initiatives inviting Rotterdam residents to share their private house video tales.
Pageant director Vanja Kaludjercic stated: “With these 4 applications, IFFR affords a particular platform the place cinematic artistry meets socio-political discourse and cultural reflection.
“Every of those applications is both the primary of their form or appears to be like on the world by means of a brand new prism or perspective: on Katja Raganelli, whose work captures the evolution of girls in filmmaking all through the twentieth century; and one other on Sergii Masloboishchykov, the Ukrainian filmmaker paperwork the current historical past of his nation.
“We’ll discover the worldwide significance of the 1955 Afro-Asian Convention in Bandung with a thematic exploration of cinemas of the World South; and have fun the neighborhood spirit, DIY creativity and distinctive viewing practices of VHS tradition.
“From celebrating the contributions of underappreciated filmmakers to revisiting historic and cultural legacies with present resonance, the pageant continues to create an area to collectively benefit from the energy of cinema.”
