Pilar Palomero's La Maternal screening in Colombia →

Pilar Palomero is in Colombia this month to accompany her latest film LA MATERNAL - Our Bogota Bistrik7 residents, Gonzalo Escobar Mora and Emma Rozanski, are crazy excited to welcome her and have some long overdue catching up!

https://cinematecadebogota.gov.co/pelicula/maternal-0

With support of the Spanish Embassy in Colombia: https://ccecolombia.com/la-maternal/

Sinopsis: A los 14 años, Carla es una adolescente salvaje y rebelde. Vive en un modesto restaurante a las afueras de la ciudad con su joven madre soltera, falta a clase y pasa el tiempo con su amigo Efraín. Cuando una trabajadora social se da cuenta de que Carla está embarazada de cinco meses, la llevan a "La Maternal", un centro para madres adolescentes, para que viva con otras jóvenes como ella. Junto a sus bebés, aprenderán a enfrentarse a esta nueva vida adulta para la que no han tenido tiempo de prepararse.

2022 - España - 122 mins

Patrick Marshall receives development funding for new Documentary project from LEF →

Congratulations are in order to our Patrick Marshall for receiving funding to develop his new documentary. We look forward to seeing it develop and shimmer on our screens some day soon!

Statement by LEF:

LEF Announces $47,500 in Early Development and Pre-Production Funding
The LEF Moving Image Fund invests in films that demonstrate excellence in technique,
strong storytelling ability, and originality of artistic vision and voice. The most recent
round of awards to New England-based documentary filmmakers includes five grants of
$2,500 to projects at the Early Development stage, and seven grants of $5,000 to
projects at the Pre-production stage.

About the film (in development):
Untitled County Fair Movie
Directed and Produced by Patrick Marshall (MA)

"A peasant becomes fond of his pig and is glad to salt
away its pork. What is significant, and is so difficult for
the urban stranger to understand, is that the two
statements in that sentence are connected by an and and
not by a but." -- John Berger
Untitled County Fair Movie is a documentary that will
show the relationship between a pig and the child (8 - 12
years old) that is raising the pig to show it at the county
fair. The movie will start around the birth of the pig and
follow the relationship between the child and the pig for
the 5-7 months until they show the pig at the fair

Las Niñas, the debut film of Pilar Palomero, wins 4 Goya Awards and more! →

Huge congratulations are in order for Las Niñas, the debut film of our Pilar Palomero, which has won 4 Goya Awards - for Best Film, Best Debut Film, Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

In fact, Las Niñas has been the most awarded film this year in Spain, and since Sept 4th, day of public release, the film is still in cinemas!

-Feroz Awards: Best Drama Film, Best director and best screenplay.

-Gaudí Awards: Best non-catalan film, Best Director and best cinematography.

-Forqué Awards: Best Film.

-The film was premiered at Berlinale Kplus 2020 and won the Golden Biznaga in the Malaga Film Festival.

Pilar is preparing her new film "La Maternal" which will start shooting on October 2021.

Kaori Od's film Cenote now playing on MUBI →

Kaori Oda's magical film CENOTE, set in Mexico and also co-produced by our Marta Hernaiz-Pidal (along with Bistrik7 collaborator and friend Jorge Bolado), is now playing on MUBI for a limited time as part of their Rotterdam Film Festival selection. If you have yet to see it now is your chance!

WATCH HERE: https://mubi.com/films/cenote

Marta Hernaiz Pidal selected for Cannes Cinéfondation #LaRésidence 2021 →

Congratulations to Marta Hernaiz Pidal for being selected to attend the Cannes Cinefondation Residence in Paris from March 2021, to work on her new feature screenplay. We look forward to seeing how the film develops during her time there!

https://www.cinefondation.com/en/residence/

For its 42nd session #LaRésidence will welcome from March 1st to July 15th directors:

- Lucía Aleñar Iglesias (Spain )

- Behzad Azadi (Iran )

- Marta Hernaiz Pidal (Mexico / Spain )

- Inbar Horesch (Israel )

- Sameh Morsy (Egypt )

- David Vicente (Portugal )

An interview with Kaori Oda on her new film Cenote via MUBI Notebook →

Fresh from her International Premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Kaori Oda interview with Kaori Oda on her new film Cenote via MUBI Notebook

Read the full interview HERE:

https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/toward-a-common-tenderness-an-interview-with-kaori-oda

15th International Short & Independent Film Festival Dhaka screens a program of Bistrik7 Films

This pas weekend in Dhaka, a film.factory / Bistrik7 sharing session happened as part of 15th International Short & Independent Film Festival Dhaka.

Our Bistrik7 colleague Ghazi Alqudcry arrived in Dhaka, Bangladesh to represent Bistrik7 and screen short films made by several of us as part of the 15th International Short & Independent Film Festival. He also shared his experience in film.factory

The program was curated by Aleksandra Niemczyk and Ghazi Alqudcry of Bistrik7.

 #15thISIFF #dhaka #bistrik7

This festival was organized by Bangladesh Short Film Forum. In Rasheed Chowdry’s opening speech yesterday, he talks about connecting what is disconnected within this globalized world in form of Free Cinema and Free Expression.

#15thISIFF #dhaka #bangladesh #bistrik7

Ghazi Alqudcy's debut feature 'Temporary Visa' in Borneo and Barcelona - winning best film in the Discovery section →

TEMPORARY VISA, the debut feature film of Ghazi Alqudcy screened recently in the Asian Film Festival Barcelona (Casa Asia), where it won the Best Film in the Discovery Section of the festival.

Here is what the judges had to say about the film:

“Best film for Discovery section awarded to Temporary Visa (Singapore) by Ghazi Alqudcy for approaching us in a very alive, uninhibited and truthful way - with a camera language in hand, direct and innovative - to a tough latent reality among all those young people who survive to find their site in a system that does not count or is designed for them, and we find it very suitable to reward the film in a section that tries to discover new directors and the employment of risky cinematic languages.” – Asian Film Festival Barcelona (Casa Asia)”

The film will also soon screen in SARAWAK - Rumah Filem and Borneo Art Collective (Ghazi will be attending the Q&A on 14th Nov 2019 - 8pm, doors open at 7.30pm)

Kaori Oda's feature doc CENOTE to screen at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020 →

Kaori’s Oda’s intriguing documentary set in Mexico has been selected to screen in the Bright Future Main Programme.

Synopsis:

In Northern Yucatan, Mexico, natural sinkholes called 'cenotes' constituted the sole water source for Mayans not living near a river or lake. Some cenotes were used for ritual sacrifices, and the Mayans believed that these holy springs connected this world to the afterlife.

The past and present of those living around the cenotes coalesce in this mysterious place. Long-lost memories echo in hallucinatory turquoise underwater footage, an entrancing game of light and dark. Swimming in these sinkholes, director Oda Kaori encounters intriguing shapes and beams of light, the water heaves, drops fall like razor blades.

Oda, who studied under Béla Tarr in Sarajevo, previously made Aragane, which was shot in a Bosnian coal mine. For Cenote, she used Super-8 film and a bubbling water soundscape. A captivating form for her impressions of a place where, as a ghostly voiceover explains, nothing is forgotten.

Link to Film Listing in Rotterdam: https://iffr.com/en/2020/films/cenote

Patrick Marshall receives FSC-Harvard Fellowship 2019-20 →

Huge congratulations to our Patrick Marshall, who is a FSC-Harvard Fellow for 2019-20. During his fellowship he will be working on a psychogeographic essay film centering on the city of Austin, TX.

https://filmstudycenter.org/fellows-works/patrick-marshall/

Stay tuned for project developments!

Bistrik7 mentor Béla Tarr to show new work in Vienna →

Bistrik7 are so very excited and our hearts are so very warmed by the announcement that our beloved mentor, Bela Tarr from our film.factory family, is presenting a new work:

Béla Tarr: Missing People

DATES

Thu, 13. June, 6.00pm , 9.00pm 
Fri, 14. June, 6.00pm , 9.00pm 
Sat, 15. June, 6.00pm , 9.00pm 
Sun, 16. June, 6.00pm , 9.00pm

LOCATION

Halle E im MuseumsQuartier 
Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Wien

On 15 June both screenings of Missing People by Béla Tarr offer free admission to everyone who can present a current issue of the Viennese street newspaper Augustin.
Subject to availability, tickets can be obtained on 15 June from the evening box office in the foyer of Halle E+G at MuseumsQuartier.

FESTWOCHEN EXTRAS

Masterclass with Béla Tarr
Talk with Béla Tarr and Jacques Rancière

INTERVIEW

About the piece:

Vienna is the city with the highest quality of living in the world – this was confirmed yet again in 2018. But the city’s immaculate façade made of Habsburg splendour, Sacher torte and snow-white Lipizzaner horses is only half the story. Many inhabitants do not fit into this picture and are hidden from sight owing to poverty and social hierarchies. Béla Tarr’s Missing People makes them visible again. Tarr’s magnum opus, Sátántangó, is widely regarded as one of the most important works in film history. And according to his director colleague Gus Van Sant, the Hungarian comes closer to the actual rhythm of life than virtually any other filmmaker. This is also true for his new project, which is his first time directing after a long creative break. Using just a few shots, Tarr shows these invisible people in the kind of place to which they would normally have no access. This work, created in the intersection of film, installation and performance, will be presented exclusively during the Wiener Festwochen – at the filming location itself. While the visitors remain amongst themselves, only traces of the protagonists are left behind. A powerful plea for humanity.

(courtesy of https://www.festwochen.at/en/programme/programme/detail/missing-people/ )