- Kort 002
The Norwegian Film Institute has launched its second DVD. Norsk Kort 002 features 20 recent Norwegian short films by such directors as Pjotr Sapegin, Hans Petter Moland, Lars Daniel Krutzoff Jacobsen, Joachim Trier and Geir Grenis. Born in Chile, Norwegian director Jorge Navarro Fica is the focus of another DVD, the first in a series introducing young filmmakers, which includes his Dementia, Seven, Smoked Butterfly, Wake Up and Inside Journeys. Both projects are supported by Film&Kino (Nordic Film & TV Fund).

- Directors Series
The Work of Spike Jonze
Documentaries and music videos about or for musicians such as Beastie Boys, Fatlip, Fatboy Slim and Björk, with commentaries and information.
The Work of Chris Cunningham
Documentaries about video installations, plus commercials and music videos for Aphex Twin, Portishead and Madonna, including short films.
The Work of Michel Gondry
Short films and commercials, plus music videosfor Kylie Minogue, Björk, Chemical Brothers, and others.
Publisher: Palm Pictures / Labels UK 

Microcinema DVDs
- D-Tonate_00 by D-FUSE
Films and multi-angle films by D-Tonate, with sound by international electronica musicians, including Kid 606, Scanner, Ken Ishii and Funkstorung.
- Synesthetics by Kasumi
Short films by artist and painter Kasumi.
- "Reline" - A Video Artist DVD Compilation
Works by artists made using their own self-developed graphic software and modified hardware (Scott Pagano, Phoenix Perry, Mordka + Twerk, Chris Musgrave, and others).
Publisher: Microcinema

20 years of the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival - Anniversary DVD
21 films from 20 festival years, including short films and videos by Egon Bunne, Riki Kalbe and Barbara Kasper, Bj?rn Melhus, Rotraut Pape, Heinrich Sabl, Jan Schütte, Corinna Schnitt, Harald Schleicher, Hans-Rolf Strobel and Angela Zumpe. Available for a nominal fee of 15 euros. For public showings, high-quality screening DVDs can be borrowed.

Filmform (S): "Sex v?gade livet (The Magnificent Six)"
Six Swedish artist short films by Anna Selander/Malin Skjöld, Leif Elggren/Kent Tankred, Magnus Bärt?s, Lova Hamilton/Maria Olsson, Timo Menke/Anders Boqvist and Lars Arrhenius. (Publisher: Filmform and Folkets Bio AB).

The Edith Russ Site for Media Art in the north German city of Oldenburg is offering three 6-month work stipends for 2004 for international artists working with new media. Each stipend is endowed with 10,225.84 euros and is not tied to any residency requirements. The stipends were made possible by a grant from the Foundation of Lower Saxony. Entry deadline is 31 January 2004.

Contact: info  edith-russ-haus.de

http://www.edith-russ-haus.de/

Together with its former neighbours in the house in the Skindergade, the European Documentary Network and North by Northwest, Filmkontakt Nord has moved to new premises at the Copenhagen Film House, which has now become even more of a focal point for film in Copenhagen.

The telephone numbers and e-mail addresses remain the same, but as of 1 November the new address is:

10 Vognmagergade, 1st floor

DK-1120 Copenhagen K

http://www.filmkontakt.com/

The KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg e.V. has released a DVD with short films by Hamburg filmmaker Franz Winzentsen. Three hours of film are presented on "Der Porzellanladen" (The China Shop), comprising about three quarters of the author's complete animated work. The DVD features Winzentsen's early surrealistic films, films that take a biographical or autobiographical approach, and episodes from his "animation diary". All films can be viewed in German, English or French. The DVD also includes extensive footage on the filmmaker's working methods, examples explaining the various animation techniques used as well as a filmography and biography of Winzentsen. A further track provides a virtual tour through the artist's studio.

The DVD was made possible through the financial support of Filmförderung Hamburg GmbH and Hamburg's office for cultural affairs.

http://www.shortfilm.com/

The European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück (EMAF) has put together a tour programme featuring outstanding and groundbreaking works from the 2003 festival. The tour consists of one film reel (16mm) and one video programme (DV, Beta or VHS). The programmes can be borrowed for 150 euro plus VAT.

Included in the tour are films and videos by: Sonia Bridge, Pip Chodorov, Janet Merewether, David Leister, LIA, Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay, Jeroen Offerman, Björn Melhus, Tina Gonsalves, and many others.

EMAF is also releasing Pat O'Neill's new film, "The Decay of Fiction" (USA 2002, 35mm).

Contact: Ralf Sausmikat

e-mail: info  emaf.de

http://www.emaf.de/

Amaze Films has released four new compilations in its Short Series: "Dramatique", "Cultish", "Animated" & "Comedic". Included, among many others, are "Mocking the Cosmos" with Tim Roth and Oscar-winner "Helicopter".

Filmmakers interested in having their films included in future releases in this series can contact Amaze Films via their website.

http://www.amazefilms.com/

This year's Short Film Festival distribution programme features 68 new titles, including award-winners and outstanding works from the festival's 49th year. These include the winners of the 2003 International and German Competitions, "Portret" by Sergej Loznitsa, "Auto Center Drive" by Bj?rn Melhus and "Manual", the new joint project by Christoph Girardet and Matthias Müller. Works by two of the most well-known video artists, Marina Grzinic and Aina Smid, are available, while Klaus Lemke's short films from the 60s have definite cult potential. The distribution programme also includes the fifth consecutive MuVi reel comprising all clips from the 2003 MuVi Award competition.

The distribution catalogue can be ordered from the Short Film Festival or called up online.

Contact: Melanie Piguel info  kurzfilmtage.de

http://www.kurzfilmtage.de/ikf/pages/sfe/index.php?id=105&lang_id=1

Berlin's interfilm festival is sending four new cinema programmes off on tour. The "Shorts Attack!" programme consists of 13 international entries in the 2002 interfilm festival. "Tricks for Kids" offers animated films especially for children aged 6 and over. "Konfrontationen - Bewegliche Ziele: gegen Gewalt und Intoleranz 2" ("Confrontations – Moving Targets: Against Violence and Intolerance 2") is a continuation of interfilm's series dealing with political themes. Finally, "German Deluxe 2" showcases new German productions.

interfilm

Tempelhofer Ufer 1a

D-10961 Berlin

Tel: +49 (0)30 6932959

Fax: +49 (0)30 25291322

e-mail: interfilm  interfilm.de

http://www.interfilm.de/

The Festival de Cinema Independent de Barcelona, "Alternativa", is now offering three short film packages for screening outside of Spain. The collection "L'Alternativa va de viatge (L'Alternativa takes a trip)" includes three short film trips: Trip 1 contains Spanish short and animated films, the second programme is called "Made in (s)pain" and Trip 3 consists of international short films.

Contact: Festival de Cinema Independent de Barcelona - L'Alternativa

e-mail: alternativa  cccb.org

http://alternativa.cccb.org/

A photo novel with an aesthetic recalling Chris Marker's "La jetée" and the conceptual love stories of the Nouvelle Vague has now been published by Vice Versa. The book version of Katja Pratschke's film "Fremdkörper", winner of a 2002 German Short Film Award in Gold, is entitled "Fremdkörper/Transposed Bodies". Created by director Katja Pratschke in collaboration with photographer Gusztáv Hámos, the photo novel – like the film – tells the story of a physical exchange of heads, which forms the basis for a discourse on human identity.

In cooperation with Escapi Media BV, the Berlin festival Interfilm has brought out its first short-film compilation on DVD. With a running time of over 120 minutes, "Short Cuts" features both older and more recent films that have been screened at Interfilm. The DVD includes the following titles: "God@Heaven" by Joe Neulight, "Los Taxios" by Lars Damoiseaux and "Covered with Chocolate" by Ansgar Ahlers.

http://www.escapi.com/shortcuts

Starting in April, the film department of the MoMA (in Gramercy) will present an installation by experimental filmmaker Jem Cohen. "Chain Times Three" consists of a triptych of projections showing footage that Cohen shot on his travels during the past six years. The idea behind "Chain" is Cohen's observation that all over the world unique local and regional features both in the landscape and in urban environments are disappearing at an alarming rate, making way for a more homogenised appearance everywhere. In order to illustrate this, Cohen projects images of different locations on each of the three screens, which fuse into one cohesive panorama. While "Chain" has been stored on DVD for the purposes of the installation, Cohen is planning to create a full-evening 35mm film out of the same material, with the addition of narrative elements.

http://www.eyebeam.org/divisions/mimage_cohen.html

In spring 2003 an exclusive selection of international and national short films deemed particularly outstanding by the Swiss Short Film Agency will be shown successively in six cities in German-speaking Switzerland (western Switzerland and Tessin will follow in autumn). Food and drink will be available from a bistro/bar well into the early morning hours, offering the opportunity for guests to engage in stimulating discussions... Included in the selection is a programme of Swiss short films from the past two years. The programme will also be offered internationally.

http://www.shortfilm.ch/

With the Dresden Film Festival as their launching pad, two programmes of British animated films will be starting on tour this spring. One programme is dedicated to a retrospective of the work of filmmaker Joanna Quinn. Included are award-winning animated films from the past ten years as well as a selection of her promotional films.

The second programme, entitled "Tennis Skirts and Football Quirks", takes up the theme of sports. In these films the protagonists «do battle with the harsh realities of their athletic existence», in the words of the programme's curator, Kevin Franklin from the Film and TV Department of the British Council. As a long-distance runner himself, Franklin is speaking here from personal experience!

http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts/film/bc.htm

Beginning in March, the Short Film Agency Hamburg will be distributing the music film "Bagdad Blues" (D 2003, 5 min) by Arne Feldhusen, in which Peter Lohmeyer sings a country-western song satirising the conflict between the USA and the "rogue states", accompanied by the band "Fink". Proceeds from the film's distribution (normal flat rate is 50 euros per week) will go to the medical aid association "medico international e.V."

http://www.bagdad-blues.de/

Starting in March, Austrian experimental film and video art distributor Sixpack will have three new programmes on offer. The first of these - Audiovisionen 3: The Gift of Sound and Vision – consists of audio-visual works that came about through the close collaboration of video artists and musicians on the electronics scene. The second programme - Mapping the Territory – examines places that have been redefined as social and allegorical spaces, using a primarily documentary style. The third programme - The Closer Look – deals with the point of origin of all seeing. The film trio constitutes a kind of simulation game that plays with the elementary facts of nature and of the cinema.

The first two programmes are available on Beta SP videotape and the third as a film reel (16mm + 35mm).

Contact: Ute Katschthaler ute  sixpackfilm.com

http://www.sixpackfilm.com/

"Der Vorführ-Effekt" (The Projection Effect) is the title of a new film by Carsten Knoop, which the Short Film Agency Hamburg is now distributing together with an accompanying short film programme. The 55-minute-long documentary about projectionists sheds some light into the dark projection booth, showing the working conditions there and explaining the mechanics of projection, but, above all, letting the projectionists themselves have their say. They reveal the mishaps and breakdowns that happen behind the scenes in the projection booth on a daily basis, of which viewers are as a rule utterly unaware. But the film is by no means a classic straightforward documentary about a unique occupation; instead, it exploits the cinematic medium to the full, using frame shifts, blurred images, fuzz on the lens and interruptions to make clear to viewers that this film is itself also subject to the vagaries of projection. The projectionists featured include Jörg Buttgereit (filmmaker, Berlin), Michael Erfurt (Short Film Agency Hamburg), Silke Fischer (filmmaker, Hamburg), Jochen Pollitt (Open-Air-Fest, Kommunales Kino Weiterstadt) and Reinhard Westendorf (filmmaker, Lagerhalle Osnabrück).

http://www.shortfilm.com/vorfuehreffekt/index.html

Founded by filmmaker and producer Kyriakos Hatzimichailidis, t-short produces, distributes and promotes Greek short films. In addition to organising seminars and film programmes, t-short also sells some of the short films in its collection on VHS.

Among t-short's partners is the short film website <http://www.shortfilm.gr> (unfortunately not available in English!).

Contact: info  t-short.gr

http://www.t-short.gr/

This month, the Brazilian feature film "Cidade de Déus" (City of God) is causing a sensation at cinemas all over the world. Short film aficionados will immediately recognise similarities between this film about youth gangs and drug dealing in a Rio de Janeiro favela and the critically acclaimed short film "Palace 2" (Golden Gate), created just one year ago by the same co-directors, Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, and shown at film festivals including Cannes, Berlin and Oberhausen. It turns out that the directors viewed their short film as something of a practice exercise and trial run for their feature-length film. It's rare that filmmakers are able to invest this degree of technology and equipment in a short film, let alone a test film. This was only made possible by the fact that a TV station had asked Meirelles to shoot a short episode for their Christmas programme, a job he then combined with his own feature film project. "Golden Gate" can thus in fact be regarded as a ‘spin-off’.

Both filmsare based on the novel "Cidade de Deus" by Paulo Lins, an author who grew up in the slums he depicts and – unlike the film's directors -- experienced the way of life there firsthand. Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund come from the background of advertising film and music video, as is readily apparent in the style of both their short and feature films, but both also have experience shooting documentary films.

Since its launch just one-and-a-half years ago, films have already been downloaded from the website of the Spanish Notodofilmfest online festival more than 3 million times. The "Festival de Cine Comprimido por Internet" has thus accounted for over 10,000 gigabytes - or 10 million MB – of Internet traffic! Since the downloaded films are then commonly shared with others and copied, the site organisers estimate the total number of viewers to be closer to 15 million. For the mere two festivals that have taken place to date, a total of 1,000 short films by competition participants and 10 films submitted by the jury have been put online. The favourite films hit list is led by "Collar de moscas" by Bigas Lunas (over 41,000 downloads), followed by "Psicotaxi" by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (38,560) and "Gol" by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo. According to the festival organisers, the example of Notodofilmfest shows that the Internet, as opposed to the cinema, presents short films with real distribution opportunities, as well as demonstrating that the Internet has gone from being a marginal curiosity to the most important venue for short films produced in Spain.

http://www.notodofilmfest.com/

American artist Dane Picard calls his works Super Shorts: photograph-based films no longer than 10 seconds in length. His motifs and subjects come from everyday life and his own immediate surroundings. He uses pixillation technology to further enliven his photo series. Around 20 of these minimalist Super Shorts can now be viewed online!

http://www.danepicard.com/

The French label Lowave has published a DVD of international short films called "Visions Urbaines / Urban Visions". The 11 films from London, Paris, New York, Helsinki, Milan and elsewhere reflect different visions of urban life as art, fiction and social commentary. BREF described "Urban Visions" as a mixture between «film l'auteur, contemporary art and alternative culture».

The DVD is available in 5 languages (fr/eng/span/it/ger), includes lots of extras and costs 26 euros.

Lowave is an independent film label that is interested in opening new sales channels for independent "cutting-edge" productions. Lowave has chosen to focus on the DVD format for its publications.

http://www.lowave.com/

Currently, visitors to the website of the Short Film Festival Oberhausen can view over 250 short film clips, with a combined length of well over two hours, as streamed moving images. Festival award-winners, films available for distribution, music videos and student films from German film schools: whoever is interested in learning more about short film can choose from a total of 258 short film clips on the Short Film Festival's website – under the sections Festival and Short Film Exchange. Heading the list with 131 clips is the distribution programme, to be found under Short Film Exchange.

A special service offered by the Short Film Exchange, which, with a film distribution service and archive forms a kind of international marketplace for short film, is Film Schools Online. German film schools present themselves here, with short profiles and clips from student films. Seven film schools are already online, and more are slated for the future. This website feature is designed as an orientation aid for newcomers as well as a platform promoting German student work abroad.

Source: Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen gGmbH