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

New Bistrik7 Omnibus film to open the Sarajevo Film Festival →

It is our honor to share with you that LETTERS FROM THE ENDS OF THE WORLD - a new omnibus by Bistrik Seven - will be one of the two opening films for SARAJEVO FILM FESTIVAL. This is the National Premiere of the film that was completed two weeks ago!

With films by:

Ghazi Alqudcy, Graeme Cole, Gonzalo Escobar Mora, Grant Gulczynski, Marta Hernaiz Pidal, Namsuk Kim, Bianca Lucas, Stefan Malešević, Patrick Marshall, Aleksandra Niemczyk, Pilar Palomero, Emma Rozanski & Gustavo Vega - all from Bistrik7

Our mentor Bela Tarr is the Executive Producer.

Some of our Bistrik7 members will be flying from all over the world to present the film.

Shout out to Ghazi who designer our official poster!

Stay tuned for more news soon…

Emma Rozanski receives Enterprise funding from Screen Australia →

Congratulations to Emma Rozanski for receiving Enterprise funding from Screen Australia for her second feature film in development, Colombian drama El VAQUERO (The Cowboy), to participate in the Torino Film Lab’s NEXT Script Development workshops.

https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2021/03-31-over-2-million-enterprise-funding

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.

Fernando Nogari's music video for Selena Gomez goes viral

Fernando Nogari directed a music video that has gone viral - ‘Baila Conmigo’ - for Selena Gomez & Rauw Alejandro, set in Redonda, Ceara, Brazil - it’s very stylish - as all of Nogari’s works are - he’s a stylish dude!

Watch the official video here: https://youtu.be/h5WN3pkxPF0

Starring: Kibba and Ariane Aparecida Directed by Nogari @fernando.nogari Produced by Iconoclast

Pilar Palomero participated in Berlinale Talents with her new feature screenplay in development →

Pilar Palomero recently participated in Berlinale Talents Script Station with her new feature screenplay in development- La Maternal - Drama, Spain, 100 min

https://www.berlinale-talents.de/bt/talent/pilar-palomero/profile

Gonzalo Escobar Mora's new short film, 'Enthusiasts' premieres at Portland International Film festival →

Shot during the Covid-19 lockdown in Chicago in 2020, with 3 flatmates being the only cast and crew - our Gonzalo Escobar Mora and Emma Rozanski among them - ‘Enthusiasts’ is an interesting examination of ‘making plans’ amidst uncertainty - reflected through the eyes of two artists who are coping with the added uncertainty of making art and sustaining themselves financially into the future, while living in an ultra-consumer-capitalist world. Can you ‘buy’ your way out of the ‘system’?

Film listing: https://cinemaunbound.org/events/enthusiasts/

Synopsis: Uncertainty transpires as a couple navigates their future plans.

Directed by Gonzalo Escobar Mora
United States | 2020
Hybrid, Drama

Screening online Fri, March 5 – Sun, March 14

This short film screens as part of Shorts Block 1

PLEASE VISIT WWW.CINEMAUNBOUND.ORG FOR THE FULL FESTIVAL LINE UP!

Festival Website: https://nwfilm.org/festivals/44th-portland-international-film-festival/

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 )

POLKA-DOT by Aleksandra Niemczyk premieres at RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES MONDE →

Aleksandra Niemczyk’s new short film "Polka-Dot" is premiering now at festival RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES MONDE and streaming online from today until 6th of December. In the section: "Cinema-Therapy". Cinematography and co-production by our Marta Hernaiz Pidal and Graeme Cole

Starring Tina Keserovic and Thomas Steyaert

Watch here.

RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES MONDE

Friday, November 13 to Sunday, December 6

POLKA-DOT, 2020, Aleksandra Niemczyk, 10 min

An impressionistic emotional struggle between a girl with a prefabricated heart and a mysterious puppet-master. Inspired by the chapter "The Girl with the Pre-Fabricated Heart" from the surrealist film "Dreams That Money Can Buy" (1947) by avant-gardist and dada artist Hans Richter.

 

Emma Rozanski and Gonzalo Escobar Mora develop new Colombian feature film project with Torino Film Lab →

Emma Rozanski and Gonzalo Escobar Mora have been selected to participate in the Torino Film Lab NEXT script development workshops in Sep/Oct with Colombian-set Spanish-language feature film EL VAQUERO.

More information about the workshops and a list of the selected projects can be found here: http://www.torinofilmlab.it/training/tfl-extended-2/tfl-next/tfl-next/35-tfl-next-film-development

Torino Film Lab: http://www.torinofilmlab.it/

Las niñas de Pilar Palomero, mejor película española en el Festival de Málaga!

Congratulations Pilar and Team on their festival prize for Las Niñas!

Las niñas

Pilar Palomero | 2020 | España

PRODUCCIÓNInicia Films, Bteam Pictures, Las Niñas Majicas A.I.E
DURACIÓN100 minutos
GUIONPilar Palomero
FOTOGRAFÍADaniela Cajías
MÚSICACarlos Naya

MONTAJE

Sofi Escudé

REPARTO

Andrea Fandos, Natalia de Molina, Zoe Arnao, Julia Sierra, Francesca Piñón

DISTRIBUCIÓN

Bteam Pictures

VENTAS INTERNACIONALES

Film Factory

CONTACTO

info@iniciafilms.com

SINOPSIS

Celia, una niña de once años, estudia en un colegio de monjas en Zaragoza y vive con su madre. Brisa, una nueva compañera, recién llegada de Barcelona, la empuja hacia una nueva etapa en su vida: la adolescencia. En este viaje, en la España de la Expo y de las Olimpiadas del año 92, Celia descubre que la vida está hecha de muchas verdades y algunas mentiras.

圧倒的な映像美、音、言葉で、神秘の泉と古代マヤ族の記憶を手繰り寄せる体感型ドキュメンタリー『セノーテ』小田香監督インタビュー

ハンガリーの巨匠、タル・ベーラ監督が設立したボスニアの映画学校で学び、卒業制作の前作『鉱 ARAGANE』(15)で高い評価を得た小田香監督の最新ドキュメンタリー映画『セノーテ』が、9月19日（土）より新宿 K’s cinema、10月31日（土）よりシネ・ヌーヴォ、今秋出町座、元町映画館他全国順次公開される。　メキシコ、ユカタン半島北部に点在する、セノーテと呼ばれる洞窟内の泉の中、古代マヤ族の文化を継承している村の姿をそれぞれ全く違う質感で見せ、小田監督らしい音へのこだわりも随所に垣間見える。物語を紡ぐのではなく、記憶の断片を集めたような、観る人によって違う印象を覚えるであろう映像詩。泉の水面でしぶきが弾ける様子や、光が届かないような泉の深い場所で大型魚が悠々と泳いでいく姿など、小田監督だからこそ撮れるような感動を呼ぶ映像の数々を浴びるような音とともにぜひ体感してほしい。　見事第一回大島渚賞（ぴあフィルムフェスティバル主催）に輝いた本作の小田香監督にお話を伺った。

https://cinemagical.themedia.jp/posts/9836970/?fbclid=IwAR1cEQvoe3eDHXwNhPcRgTkuPGQW14HYZc-p7xVrVT-sGnGKEZXUhFm7Zto

New trailer for Pilar Palomero's Las niñas

Watch the new trailer for Pilar Palomero's debut feature film, Las niñas, here.

RTVE.es estrena el tráiler de Las niñas, la ópera prima de la cineasta Pilar Palomero: una historia de muchas de las mujeres de hoy, dibujada a través de la educación que recibieron a principios de los 90 en España. Protagonizada por Andrea Fandos y Natalia de Molina.

Las niñas premiered in the 2020 Berlinale.

Ágora de la Ciudad screening a series of Bistrik7 Films throughout 2020

Ágora de la Ciudad, an initiative in collaboration with Ex Convento Betlehemita Centro Cultural in Vera Cruz, Mexico, has been creating an exciting and diverse online screening series, complete with filmmaker interviews, throughout this summer. Many Bistrik7 Films have screened thus far (curated by Gustavo Vega) and there are many more to come throughout the rest of 2020! Other esteemed BIstrik7 colleagues from Film.Factory Sarajevo have also screened.

Keep up to date with the programme here: https://www.facebook.com/AgoraXalapa/

and via @AgoraXalapa

Next up is Gonzalo Escobar Mora’s 2019 Colombian short film, ‘Economia Social’, screening on Friday 14th August, 2020 (details here)

Kaori Oda's ‘Cenote’ in JAPAN CUTS 2020!

‘Cenote’ in JAPAN CUTS 2020!

We will be showing "and" in the experimental spotlight department of Japan Cuts 2020 Online Film Festival this year. We will also participate in panel discussions to talk to all the directors who are participating in the documentary department.

https://japancuts.japansociety.org/film/new-approaches-to-documentary-from-japan/

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

Berlinale 2020 - Las Niñas debut feature of Pilar Palomero →

    

via CineEuropa:

BERLINALE 2020 Generation

Review: Las Niñas

BERLINALE 2020: With sensitivity, Pilar Palomero’s first work recreates the repressive atmosphere which far too many Spanish girls grew up within towards the end of the 20th century

For those more familiar with showy and ultra-fast commercial cinema, Schoolgirls might prove a disappointing watch: the action is minimal, depicting the characters’ day-to-day activities, such as doing homework, painting their lips for the first time or playing during breaktime. But there’s a subtext behind the description of this routine; a background and an intent which reveal a contradictory country which has continued to teach its future women to accept acquired machismo, sexual repression and all-important conformism.

Celia, the film’s protagonist (the magnificent acting revelation Andrea Fandos), is the daughter of a single mother (played by Natalia de Molina). She’s growing up and at the very moment her body begins to change, doubts of every kind start to alter her thinking. She’s no longer comfortable with the lies and silences her mother metes out every time she asks questions, about her origins, for example. The times are changing too, even if her environment – especially the convent school where she’s studying – seems to be doing everything possible to stave off the inevitable. But a new friend will breathe fresh air into her personal prison.

Schoolgirls opens with a magnificent scene, and its closing shot contrasts perfectly with the first. Between the two, we accompany this young woman in her insomnia, doubts and anxieties, with the camera ever glued to Celia’s gaze. And it won’t be hard for those who grew up in the eighties and nineties to recognise themselves or their friends, sisters or neighbours in Schoolgirls’ various scenes.

As we watch the film, titles such as Carlos Saura’s legendary film Cría cuervos or the recent Ojos Negros [+], by the duo Marta Lallana and Ivet Castelo, spring to mind; works which display the same freshness, talent and authenticity as Palomero’s offering. But above all, this director’s first full-length film underscores the crucial point that, much like the course taken by her central character, it has only been through individual rebellion that a generation of women have been able to fully fulfil themselves, and that they are now in a position to question that time which is thankfully in the past.

Schoolgirls is an Inicia Films, BTeam Prods and Las Niñas Majicas A.I.E. production. International sales are entrusted to Film Factory Entertainment.

Graeme Cole's Murmurs available to stream

Available on Vimeo-on-Demand, 14th February 2020. https://vimeo.com/ondemand/murmurs Hana is an ASMR artist, creating intimate videos for millions of online followers – and she hasn’t left her house for 18 months. Ed is a remote security image analyst, and Hana’s first online hook-up. When Ed arrives at Hana’s home, they begin to nurture an awkward togetherness. But for these lonely weirdos, building trust might take more than endless days of cooking and fucking. The VoD version includes the full 72-minute split screen feature film and a bonus shorter, single-screen version for re-watching on smaller devices. Graeme Cole's debut feature film was made under the mentorship of Béla Tarr at the legendary filmmaker's shortlived radical film school, film.factory, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Mr Cole's regular collaborators Elma Selman (Epizoda ?, Panic & Disgust in the 2015th Year) and Stewart Lockwood (It's Nick's Birthday, UNIVERSAL EAR, and John Cameron Mitchell’s “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”) meet on screen for the first time - quite literally, as the moment the characters meet is the also the first time the actors had ever laid eyes on each other.

The feature-length film.factory project Murmurs is now available to rent or buy via Vimeo On Demand.

The film was created by a small band of film.factory students in Sarajevo in January 2015. It is described as a paranoid rom-com with tingles - referring to the ASMR backdrop to the story. Murmurs was edited and submitted to festivals thanks to a successful Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. The split-screen chamberplay showed across two screens as part of Mr Cole’s solo exhibition at Slow Film Festival in Mayfield in 2018, but otherwise was cruelly overlooked by festival programmers.

Murmurs
Written & Directed by Graeme Cole

Video | 72'42" | BiH/UK | 2020

Cast

Elma Selman, Stewart Lockwood

Synopsis

Hana is an ASMR artist, creating intimate videos for millions of online followers – and she hasn’t left her house for 18 months. Ed is a remote security image analyst, and Hana’s first online hook-up. When Ed arrives at Hana’s home, they begin to nurture an awkward togetherness. But for these lonely weirdos, building trust might take more than endless days of cooking and fucking.