76th Locarno International Film Festival - Festival Recap
[August 24, 2023] The 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland has come to a close, but we are still thinking about many of the films we encountered there. For our recap, we invited a cross-section of attendees to share their favorite film discoveries.
Included in this episode are films from nearly every section of the festival - the Concorso Internazionale (International Competition), the Concorso Cineasti del presente section (Filmmakers of the Present), the Pardi di domani (Leopards of Tomorrow, competition for short films), Semaine de la critique (Critics’ Week) and Fuori concorso (Out of Competition section).
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Aylin Gökmen, Docs in Orbit Co-Producer and the director of EVER SINCE, I HAVE BEEN FLYING on THE ISLAND by Julien Pujol, and I LOOK INTO THE MIRROR AND REPEAT TO MYSELF by Giselle Lin
Julien Pujol, director of THE ISLAND on THE INVISIBLE FIGHT by Rainer Sarnet
Giselle Lin, director of I LOOK INTO THE MIRROR AND REPEAT TO MYSELF on DREAMING & DYING by Nelson Yeo (Pardo d’oro Concorso Cineasti del presente for best film & Swatch First Feature Award)
Nelson Yeo, director of DREAMING & DYING on DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD by Radu Jude (Special Jury Prize, Concorso internazaionale)
Arya Cagin from EVER SINCE, I HAVE BEEN FLYING on SCORCHED EARTH by Markela Kontaratou
Markela Kontaratou, director of SCORCHED EARTH on CONANN by Bertrand Mandico
Anna Joos, filmmaker and film student on THE FIRST DAYS by Stéphane Breton
Ruth Baettig from Film Explorer on THE HUMAN SURGE 3 by Eduardo Williams and BEEN THERE by Corina Schwingruber Ilić (Special Mention and Short Film candidate of the Locarno Film Festival for the European Film Awards)
IT IS NIGHT IN AMERICA with Ana Vaz
[September 16, 2022] It is night in America. A young anteater is found dead by the side of a road in Brasilia; a boa constrictor wanders into the suburbs; a maned wolf is found on a farm. The question is: are animals invading our cities, or rather are we occupying their habitat?
It is Night in America (2022) by Ana Vaz is a spellbinding film that premiered at the 75th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in the Concorso Cineasti del presente section (Filmmakers of the Present Competition). It is Ana Vaz’s first feature film, and depicts the tension between urban expansion and the displacement of local fauna in Brasilia. Shot on expired 16mm film stock, It is Night in America wields a strong, energetic power and took home the Pardo d’oro for the best film as a first or second feature film in the festival. To hear Ana speak about her artistic process is as affecting as experiencing her work. Facilitating the exchange is Zaina Bseiso, a filmmaker and film programmer.
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Ana Vaz is an artist and filmmaker working with film as an instrument. Composed as film-poems, her films travel through territories and events haunted by the ever-lasting impacts of internal and external forms of colonialism and their footprints on the earth and different forms of life. Her practice can also take the shape of writing, critical pedagogy, installations, film programs or ephemeral events, which are expansions or developments of her films.
Her works have been presented, screened and discussed at film festivals, seminars and institutions such as Berlinale Forum/Forum Expanded; New York Film Festival; TIFF Wavelengths, Toronto; BFI, London; Cinéma du Réel, Paris; Tate Modern, London; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Jeu de Paume, Paris; Fondazione In Between Art Film, Venice; LUX Moving Images, London; Tabakalera, San Sebastián; Whitechapel Gallery, London; MAM – Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo; Sesc Belenzinho, São Paulo; Matadero, Madrid; Jameel Arts Center, Dubai; Confort Moderne, Poitiers; Savvy Contemporary, Berlin; Sonic Acts, Amsterdam; among others.
Ana Vaz is also a founding member of the COYOTE collective along with Tristan Bera, Nuno da Luz, Elida Hoëg and Clémence Seurat, an interdisciplinary group working between ecology and political science through conceptual and experimental formats.
https://vimeo.com/anava
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Zaina Bseiso is a filmmaker and curator working primarily in documentary and experimental cinema. Her interests revolve around diasporic relations to land, hope, and potentialities. She explores Return as a notion that conflates and contracts sounds, images and ways of existing in the world. Her practice mainly traverses among Palestine, Egypt, Cuba, Mexico, and the US.
Her work has screened at Curtas Vila do Conde, Guanajuato, RIDM, DokLeipzig and Ajyal Film Festival, among others. She is co-founder of Bahía Colectiva, a community of filmmakers that collaborate in practice and curation.
Zaina is also part of the programming team at the Points North Institute/Camden International Film Festival and a 2022 Sundance Humanities Sustainability fellow.
She received her Master’s degree in Film and Video from the California Institute of the Arts.
75th Locarno Film Festival Program Review with Stefan Ivančić
[August 2, 2022] This year, the Locarno Film Festival is celebrating its 75th anniversary from August 3 - 13th in the beautiful Swiss Canton of Ticino. It’s a festival that is known for supporting independent, arthouse and avant-garde cinema, often showcasing daring films that break and blur the boundaries between cinematic genres.
In this episode, we welcome Stefan Ivančić. Stefan is a programmer of the Locarno Film Festival and together we discuss some of the non-fiction films that will be on display.
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He lived in Barcelona, Spain, from 1991 to 2009, where he finished his studies of Mechanical Engineering. He graduated in Film Directing at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade, in 2013. His short films have been selected in many international festivals such as Cannes, Rotterdam, FIDMarseille, San Sebastián, Visions du Réel and Turin, among others. Stefan is the producer of the feature film The Load (2018) by Ognjen Glavonic, premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, and a co-producer of You Have the Night (2018) by Ivan Salatić, premiered at the International Critic’s Week of the Venice Film Festival. He was a member of the selection committee of Pardi di domani at the Locarno Film Festival from 2017 to 2020 and has been working as a delegate for Eastern Europe for the International Film Festival Rotterdam since 2018. He is a member of the programming team of the Belgrade Auteur Film Festival. Right after finishing his film studies, Stefan started teaching at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, where he currently holds a position of assistant professor. He is a member of the European Film Academy (EFA). He lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia.
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Aylin is a filmmaker whose work combines documentary and experimental approaches, often revolving around themes of memory, imagination and landscape. Her short film SPIRITS AND ROCKS: AN AZOREAN MYTH (2021) has been screened internationally, including Sundance, Locarno, and Telluride.
She holds a B.A. in Arts from Lausanne University and an M.A. in Documentary Filmmaking from the DocNomads program. Aylin is also a member of the Executive Committee of SWAN (Swiss Women’s Audiovisual Network) and participated in other filmmaking programs such as the Aristoteles Workshop, the Salzburg Summer Academy of Fine Arts and the Zurich Film Festival Academy.
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CONCORSO INTERNAZIONALE
Sermon to the Fish by Hilal Baydarov - Azerbaijan, Mexico, Switzerland, Turkey · 2022 · 89'.
Matter Out of Place by Nikolaus Geyrhalter - Austria · 2022 · 100'
Skazka (Fairytale) by Aleksandr Sokurov - Belgium, Russia · 2022 · 78'
CONCORSO CINEASTI DEL PRESENTE
It Is Night in America by Ana Vaz - Italy, France, Brazil · 2022 · 66'
Fragments From Heaven by Adnane Baraka - Morocco, France · 2022 · 84'
Safe Place by Juraj Lerotić - Croatia - 2022 - 102’
ARNOLD IS A MODEL STUDENT by Sorayos Prapapan - Thailand, Singapore, France, Netherlands, Philippines, 2022, 83’
FUORI CONCORSO (Non Competitive Section)
Where Is This Street? or With No Before or After by João Pedro Rodrigues João Rui Guerra da Mata - Portugal, France · 2022 · 87'
Obscure night - Wild leaves by Sylvian George - France, Switzerland · 2022 · 265'
ADDITIONAL FILMS
Heart of a Dog by Laurie Anderson - USA, France, 2015, 77’ (Tribute to Cinema Section)
Hardly Working by Total Refusal - Austria, 2022, 20’ (Pardi di domani: Concorso internazionale)