2013

News

Re:Voir offers Super 8 cameras

The Paris DVD and VHS video label Re:Voir is now offering Super 8 cameras plus accessories. They recommend Nizo cameras as most reliable. The cameras are refurbished by technician Christoph Goulard (L’Abominable) and sold with a 90-day warranty. In addition to Kodak Super 8 cassettes, the company also offers remainders of the discontinued Ektachrome emulsion. The Nizo cameras have been engineered to also expose the newer Kodak Vision emulsions properly.

Re:Voir is a spin-off of the experimental cinema distributor Light Cone, which was founded in 1994 by Pip Chodorov. He and Christoph Goulard are members of the collective laboratory for analogue film L’Abominable.

Info: http://www.re-voir.com/boutique/category.php?id_category=18

“Alternative Measures”: TIE festival focuses exclusively on artist-run film labs || 21/10/2013

This year’s TIE festival in Denver (Colorado), taking place from 20 to 24 November, will focus in its programme “Alternative Measures” on investigating and presenting the work of artist-run film labs and workshops. The programme includes screenings, workshops, lectures and discussions. “Alternative Measures” is a public forum for experts, film lovers, film labs, filmmakers, artists and curators. It will centre on film screenings by artist-run film labs from all over the world.

The organizers seek to challenge the idea that film is an outmoded form of artistic expression. TIE instead sees a great opportunity, at a time when the moving picture industry is abandoning celluloid, for filmmakers to appropriate the means of film production for themselves.

The TIE (The International Experimental Cinema Exposition) festival is organized by the Interdisciplinary Experimental Arts Department of Colorado College.

URL: http://www.experimentalcinema.org/
Information on collective film labs: http://www.filmlabs.org

The FilmFestivalLife – new film submission platform sees itself as a film market || 21/10/2013

The Berlin-based platform FilmFestivalLife started out in 2009 as a search engine for film festivals and was then expanded with the help of public start-up funding into a digital submission platform. FFL offers film festivals tools for managing submissions and previewing films online for their programme selection, including the capability to organize group viewings in various geographic locations. FFL seeks to help filmmakers plan their films’ festival careers and to support their networking efforts.

Unlike other submission platforms, FFL offers a feedback function. Filmmakers can evaluate festivals according to various criteria, and other filmmakers can then use this information to orient themselves on the festival scene. Festivals and filmmakers can also post profiles online. The submission function is free of charge for festivals, while filmmakers are asked to pay a fee.

URL: http://www.filmfestivallife.com

Filmstriben – news from the Danish Film Institute’s streaming service || 21/10/2013

The Danish Film Institute (DFI) will launch a new version of Filmstriben (“film strip”) this autumn. The online film service, which is available to private individuals but is mainly designed for the educational sector, is improving its features and functions and adding some new ones.

The website offers teachers and pupils access to films and materials designed to encourage primary and secondary schools to work analytically and creatively with moving images. In addition to improving the search options, the platform has also added a number of new functions that enable it to be used not only on PCs and Macs but also tablets and mobile phones. Filmstriben is also now connected with the national UNI login system. This gives teachers, pupils and students access through a single account to a whole range of online educational offerings.

In the spring of 2014 the DFI will also open a section in which Danish citizens have the opportunity to discover short and documentary films. The aim is to set up a platform that provides an overview of all Danish short and documentary films in an enriching context. The website presents data on film titles to which the DFI holds the rights as well as for others whose rights holders manage distribution for themselves.

The initiators intend with their model to fulfil their cultural policy commitment to provide broad exposure for short and documentary films while also respecting the need for those in the industry to realize earnings on other platforms.

Filmstriben is operated by the DBC (Danish Library Centre) in collaboration with the DFI.

URL: http://www.dfi.dk/FaktaOmFilm/Filmstriben—film-paa-nettet.aspx

MixBit – an online remix platform from the founders of YouTube || 21/10/2013

MixBit is a new video-sharing app and exclusive platform for its user community. With the free app, short video clips up to 16 seconds in length can be uploaded from smartphones and other mobile devices onto the MixBit platform, shared with others and remixed. Up to 256 individual clips by the user or others can be assembled into a longer film.

Unlike similar services, such as Vine and Instagram, MixBit sees itself as an invitation to remix. The author retains the rights to his or her clips, but others can use them without restrictions. The clips remain within the system, i.e., on the mobile devices and the Internet platform MixBit. The elements of a remix remain intact in the authors’ libraries, while the result can be played back seamlessly and shared via social media services. Also in contrast to other services, it is possible to post clips anonymously. Visitors to the platform may use the clips without contributing their own.

MixBit was developed by the YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen and their Internet company AVOS Systems (San Mateo, CA). Previously, AVOS launched the video-sharing platform Wanpai  China for Android and iOS mobile phones. At present, the MixBit app is available only for the iOS operating system. An Android version has been announced.

URL: https://mixbit.com/

Euro Connection – European short film co-production forum in Clermont-Ferrand || 21/10/2013

From 4 to 5 February 2014, a European co-production forum for short films will take place as part of the short-film market at the Clermont-Ferrand festival. To be eligible to participate, a filmmaker must already have received a commitment for partial funding and must be seeking a European co-production partner.

Applications should be submitted to the national agencies of the 15 associated EU countries. In Germany, this is AG Kurzfilm. Application deadline is 31 October. The selected candidates will be invited to make their pitch at Clermont Ferrand, with the cost of their stay covered by the forum’s organizers.

The forum is being hosted by Sauve Qui Peut le Court Métrage (Clermont-Ferrand) in cooperation with the MEDIA Desk France and the Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée and is supported by the MEDIA programme and PROCIREP.

Info: http://www.clermont-filmfest.com/index.php?m=174

Nordisk Panorama chooses Malmö as permanent location || 22/07/2013

The Nordisk Panorama film festival, organized by Filmkontakt Nord, has taken place since its advent in 1990 alternately in one of the five Nordic countries. This policy has now been revised, and from 2013 onwards Nordisk Panorama will be held every year in Malmö (Sweden).

Having a permanent home will significantly reduce the logistical overhead associated with a migrating festival. Moreover, the now permanent festival location is in close proximity to the headquarters of Nordisk Panorama. A train ride from Copenhagen to Malmö across the Öresund Bridge takes little more than half an hour.

Another boon is the support Nordisk Panorama receives in Malmö. The City of Malmö is investing 950,000 SEK in the festival in 2013 and the region of Skí¥ne another 750,000 SEK.

Despite its new fixed location, Nordisk Panorama will continue to give equal weight to films from all Nordic countries. This is ensured by the festival regulations, according to which juries in all five participating countries each select nine films to represent their country in the categories Nordic Documentary, Nordic Short Films and New Nordic Voices. New in the regulations is that premieres are no longer necessary; instead, the best films completed in the last 12 months before the deadline are to be taken into consideration.

Nordisk Panorama takes place from 20 to 25 September. The submission deadline for the competitions and supporting programmes was 1 May, but submissions can still be made for the film market until 1 August.

http://www.nordiskpanorama.com/

New Danish Screen promises short paths to funding in the short film competition “Shoot it!” || 22/07/2013

Fledgling filmmakers in Denmark now have the chance to fund a short film between six and twelve minutes long””without a project description and tedious paperwork. The deadline to apply for a budget of 250,000 kroner is 14 August. Instead of submitting manuscripts or treatments, all that’s required are links to previous work and a video of maximum one minute introducing the idea for the film.

The only other conditions are that a team of two or more persons must submit the application and that the project can be realized easily and immediately without elaborate preparations, such as obtaining permits.

New Danish Screen sees “Shoot it!” as a trial and a pilot project for alternative, more visually oriented film funding procedures and hopes to attract somewhat wilder and “hotter” projects than with the conventional approach using screenplays.

http://www.dfi.dk/Branche_og_stoette/Nyheder-til-filmbranchen/2013/Shoot-it

New Creative Commons Festival: launch of the Nordic CC Film Festival || 22/07/2013

The first Nordic CC Film Festival was inaugurated at the beginning of the year in Sweden, based on the model of the Barcelona Creative Commons Film Festival. From 30 August to 8 September, event organizers in the Nordic countries can participate, as long as they observe the CC Film Festival manifesto.

Organizers can put together their own programmes from the films submitted under CC license. An online event manager helps with organizational matters and provides links to the selected films. About thirty international documentaries and fiction films, both short and long, are available.

The Nordic CC Film Festival also has its own series of supporting events organized by the festival’s hosts. The non-commercial festival itself works under a CC license – so it’s okay to copy!

http://www.nordicfilmfestival.cc/

Orphans 9 symposium in Amsterdam looks at obsolescence || 22/07/2013

The ninth instalment of the international Orphans conference on ephemeral films will address “The Future of Obsolescence”. The film symposium will take place from 30 March to 2 April 2014, in cooperation with the University of Amsterdam and the city’s new EYE film museum. The event programmes will examine both the obsolescence of technologies and formats as well as the way in which audiovisual media are used to treat ideas and content that have become obsolete.

A call for presentations is currently under way to request contributions to the symposium. The event is organized by the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University (Tisch School of the Arts).

There’s still time to register to attend Orphans 8 (Midwest), taking place from 26 to 28 September at Indiana University Bloomington on the theme of “Materiality and the Moving Image”.

Info: http://www.nyu.edu/orphanfilm/

Argentine heritage project digitizes short films || 22/07/2013

The Argentine Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA) is supporting the countries in the MERCOSUR (Southern Common Market) by drafting a regional plan for the preservation of their audiovisual heritage. In the first phase, contracts will be concluded on licenses and the inclusion of films and videos in a collection.

The first films to be considered under the measure are all documentary shorts: “Cruz del Sur” by Arturo S. Mom (1949); “Zeppelin”, an anonymous amateur film from the 1920s; “Contracampo” by Rodolfo Kuhn (1958); and “Buenos Aires” by David Kohon (1958).

The scheme also includes transferring the films to theatres, so that, in addition to being preserved, these works can also be shown in public.

The project is part of the programme of the Reunión Especializada de Autoridades Cinematográficas y Audiovisuales del MERCOSUR (RECAM)

Source: http://www.recam.org/?do=news&id=b09d7fa187221d02023b41ccb9f3a723

Academy Film Archive restores Brakhage films || 22/07/2013

The works of Stan Brakhage (1933-2003) were transferred to the Academy Film Archive in 2004. Since then, several poorly preserved films by the important experimental filmmaker have been restored. The first of these, the so-called “Pittsburgh Documents”, will be presented to the public on 20 July at a gala premiere at the Billy Wilder Theatre.
The 160-minute programme includes the films “Eyes” (1971), “Deus Ex” (1971) and “The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes” (1971).

Source: http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2013-07-20/stan-brakhage-pittsburgh-documents-0

France: short films as supporting films on DVDs || 22/07/2013

The French short film magazine Bref has for a long time included the section “Du court au long” (From short to long), which tracks the careers of short-film makers: when a feature film debuts, the shorts previously shot by its director are discussed and put in context.
In the latest issue, Bref reports – not without pride – that this concept has also been adopted for several new feature films released by various labels on DVD. The DVD of this year’s César-nominated film “Augustine” by Alice Winocour, for example, includes two short films the director made while studying at the Fémis film school (label: Dharamsala).
The DVD of the feature film “Trois sÅ“urs” by Milagros Mumenthaler, released in France by Blaq Out, will include no fewer than four short films by the young Argentine director. And Pyramide is bringing out “Au galop” by actor and director Louis-Do de Lencquesaing on DVD accompanied by three short films, two of which are even related in content to the feature-length film.

Source: http://www.brefmagazine.com/pages/actus.php?id_actu=600

IndieCork – a new independent film festival founded in Ireland || 11/6/2013

Cork has a new festival for short films as well as independent documentaries and feature films. IndieCork was founded by two laid-off employees of the Cork Film Festival: the former festival director Mick Hannigan and program assistant íšna Feely. It will debut from 16 to 20 October 2013, three weeks before the Cork Film Festival.

The festival’s management is advised by an Advisory Panel whose members include Irish filmmakers as well as the filmmakers John Smith and Bill Morrisson, and Laurent Crouzeix of the Clermont Ferrand Festival. Ken Loach has stepped up as honorary patron of the festival.

IndieCork’s employees will be working as volunteers until solid financing can be found. New is the financial participation of the public: following the model of the local football club, Cork City FC, supporters can purchase shares in the festival.

The Cork Film Festival has in the meantime appointed James Mullighan as new festival director. Among Mullighan’s previous posts were that of festival director in Edinburgh and creative director of the film network Shooting People.

URL: http://indiecork.com/

Short of the Week publishes research on festivals that accept the online films || 11/6/2013

More and more short film festivals prefer to receive submissions that have not been shown before at other festivals. Some festivals even require premieres. They usually mean premieres in a certain territory, not necessarily firsts in their own country or premieres outside of the festival scene, such as team premieres where the film was produced. But what about films that have already debuted on the Internet? Are such films excluded from festivals?

The short film platform Short of the Week, which itself invites filmmakers to upload new short fiction films, looked into this issue and has now published the interesting results of the research in a searchable list. Currently, over 80 festivals are listed there that show short films in competitions.
 
Of the festivals surveyed, only 26% officially decline films that have already been released on the Internet. Amongst the festivals that have nothing against an online debut are the AFI festival, Clermont-Ferrand, the Los Angeles Film Festival, Oberhausen, Tampere and Sundance.
In a summary of their research, the authors however point out that an Internet release may still play a role in the decision of the selection committee, even when it is not explicitly and officially cited as a criterion for exclusion. By the way, the reader comments on this issue are also quite interesting!

URL: http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2013/05/31/list-of-festivals-and-online-eligibility/

Copenhagen Short Film festival – new short film festival in Denmark || 11/6/2013

Copenhagen has a whole host of film festivals and a vibrant short-film scene, but up to now no festival dedicated to short film. This gap was closed this year with the Copenhagen Short Film Festival, which debuted from 21 to 24 February 2013 at the tradition-steeped culture centre Huset KBH.

On view were Danish short-film programmes, productions from local film schools and a selection from the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. The festival is an initiative of Betina Husen, Claudia Marchegiani and Jack Stevenson. Betina Husen previously organized a monthly film slam at the Huset KBH and Jack Stevenson, an American, is head of the in-house cinema there and is known, among other things, as a collector and curator of underground films. Claudia Marchegiani works in the culture department of the Goethe Institute in Copenhagen, one of the festival’s supporters.

URL: http://csff.dk/

Danish film magazine Ekko launches short-film shortlist || 11/6/2013

Since April, the Danish film magazine Ekko has been keeping an online hit list of Danish short films. Every week, the magazine’s editorial board selects two new films from uploaded submissions, which are then shown on the Ekko shortlist for public voting. The films vie three weeks long for a slot on the Top 10 line-up, chosen by visitors to the website, after which they remain on the All Time Shortlist.

Any Danish short film 45 minutes or shorter is eligible for the Ekko Shortlist. There are currently 25 films on the All Time Shortlist, all of them short fiction. At the end of the year the Top 10 films take part in a competition for the Shortlist Prize of 25,000 kroner, judged by an independent jury of film professionals.

Ekko is supported by the Danish Film Institute and published by the merger of Ekko and Mifune. Originally a subscription-only journal for media education, Ekko is now published quarterly as a popular magazine for film buffs.
The Ekko Shortlist receives funding from Det Danske Filminstitut and Det obelske Familiefond. The short-film shortlist is sponsored by the cable television company YouSee A/S and is hosted on its Web TV platform YouBio.

URL: http://www.ekkofilm.dk/shortlist/

5th Cairo Video Festival || 11/6/2013

The Egyptian artists’ initiative Medrar for Contemporary Art will hold the fifth Cairo Video Festival in September on its own premises. The organizers invite video makers, video groups, curators and organizations to take part.

Medrar is a non-profit artists’ collective founded in 2005. Its activities include the Open Lab Egypt – a media lab for digital media art open to local artists and technicians, as well as the web-based TV channel Medrar TV featuring news and documentaries from Egypt’s independent art scene.

The Medrar Video Festival sees itself as a platform for the dialogue between video artists, curators and the public. The festival’s profile includes in particular an engagement with experimental low-budget productions with high artistic standards. Documentaries and feature films are excluded from participation. Entry deadline is 30 June 2013.

URL: http://medrar.org/call-5thcairovf/

Short film popular in Egypt || 10/02/2013

Over the last few months, a host of short film events have been held by foreign organizations in Egypt, particularly in Cairo and Alexandria, often attracting bigger audiences and enjoying more success than screenings of feature-length films. The Goethe Institute Cairo led the way with its online series Arab Shorts (2009 to 2011 – new activities are in planning). Other cultural institutions then followed suit. In October 2012 the Greek Cultural Institute presented a two-day programme of Greek short films in Cairo and Alexandria. Also on the scene to date are the “48 Hour Film Festival” (USA) and the Shnit Film Festival (CH). Most recently, Future Shorts (UK) held an event in Cairo in December 2012, where the works on view included the short film CAFí‰ REGULAR, produced in Cairo by Indian director Ritesh Batra.

Source: http://www.dailynewsegypt.com
See also (Arab Shorts / Archive): http://www.shortfilm.de/en/short-film-magazine/archive/reports/arabshortsnet.html

Kodak discontinues colour reversal film and raises prices – including for Super 8 || 10/02/2013

In December 2012 Kodak announced that it would be discontinuing production of its colour reversal films. Particularly affected are Super 8 filmmakers who have relied up to now on Ektachrome 100D. New in the product range, but not a substitute, is the Vision 3 colour negative film emulsion that is now also sold in the 50 ASA version as Super 8 film. There are already 200T and 500T emulsions available in S8 cartridges.

Kodak also announced price increases for all films. The prices for Super 8 colour negative films are scheduled to go up by 15% in 2013. Filmmakers who are used to shooting, editing and projecting using colour reversal film, just as when Super 8 was introduced nearly fifty years ago, will now be facing considerable extra effort, as the negative films have to be copied onto other material or digitized.

Kodak’s decision is surely based not only on weak demand. Since last year, the company has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Chapter 11 in US bankruptcy law allows a company to be rehabilitated under supervision and under certain stipulations. The current rehabilitation and restructuring plan includes the reorganization of the product range and pricing policy.

Kodak’s former Japanese rival on the raw film market, Fuji, already stopped making its 8 mm film (Single 8) years ago and even discontinued production of cinema films in all formats in September 2012.

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The British Council’s 1940s film collection now online || 150/02/2013

During the 1940s the British Council commissioned more than 120 short documentaries in order to show the world how the British live, work and play. As cultural propaganda against the attacks of Nazi Germany, the films were meant to convey a positive image of Britain and Britishness. They constitute a historical snapshot of Great Britain, its industry, its landscapes and its people. The short documentaries cover a surprisingly broad range of themes, showing everything from how a bicycle is built to how the British spend their weekends.

After falling into neglect in the 1960s, this historic treasure trove was reactivated in 2010 as part of a project on behalf of unemployed artists and is now preserved in the BFI Archive. Over the past two years the collection has been catalogued, digitized and finally published online. In addition to details on the filmmakers and contemporary synopses of each film, new background information is constantly being added.

A special feature of the project is that the films are exempt from copyright thanks to a Creative Commons license. This means they can not only be shared and downloaded, but also edited and used for remixes. The initiators expressly invite the public to use the films for creative exchange and to reinterpret their content.

Further information: http://film.britishcouncil.org/british-council-film-collection

Cortosfera – a new short film magazine from Spain || 10/02/2013

In November 2012 the new online short film magazine Cortosfera was launched during the festival in Alcalá de Henares (ES). Founded by documentary filmmakers Jorge Rivero and í“scar de Julián, the magazine has its origins in a WordPress blog the two initiators began writing some time ago. Cortosfera is made up of eight sections containing news, commentaries and reports from all areas of the production and distribution of short film. Included are festival news, interviews, company portraits and film-policy commentary.

Special features of the magazine are short-film reviews and a video library in which the films discussed can be watched online. Every month, new short films will be presented in the section “Corto del mes”. In January 2013, these included “Curfew” (Shawn Christensen, USA), “Oh Willy…” (Emma de Swaef & Marc James Roels, B) and “A Story for the Modlins” (Sergio Oksman, ES).

The focus of the magazine is on Spanish short film. There are thus guest commentaries on the current situation of the short form in Spain. The Entrevista section presents interviews with the cultural coordinator of the Spanish Film Academy and the head of the Galician short film agency Agencia Freak. The other sections, in particular “Festivales” and “Crí­tica”, are internationally oriented.

Most of the articles come from the pen of í’scar de Julián, who until 2011 was director of the Almerí­a en Corto short film festival. Cortosfera is published in Spanish and is free of charge.

URL: http://www.cortosfera.es/
Former Blog: http://cortosfera.wordpress.com

Oscar nominations for 2013 || 10/02/2013

The nominations for the 2013 Academy Awards were announced in early January. On the list in the Short Film (Animated) category are: “Adam and Dog” by Minyu Lee, “Fresh Guacamole” by PES, “Head over Heels” by Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly (UK), “Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare” by David Silverman and “Paperman” by John Kahrs.

Nominated in the category Short Film (Live Action) are: “Asad” by Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura (ZA/USA), “Buzkashi Boys” by Sam French and Ariel Nasr (Afghanistan/USA), “Curfew” by Shawn Christensen, “Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)” by Tom Van Avermaet and Elle De Waile (F/B), and “Henry” by Yan England (CAN).

Up for an award in the category Documentary Short are: “Inocente” by Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine, “Kings Point” by Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider, “Mondays at Racine” by Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan, “Open Heart” by Kief Davidson and Cori Shepard Stern and “Redemption” by Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill.

The members of the Academy have until 19 February to electronically vote on the winners, which will be announced on 24 February at the Academy Awards presentation.

Source: http://oscar.go.com/nominees

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