In August 2009 I had the privilege of being the principal videographer/photographer on the recently finished film ‘Rwanda: Take Two’. The film, funded by the Rotterdam Film Festival as part of it’s ‘Where is Africa?’ series, is premiering this Tuesday in Rotterdam. Throughout the week I’ll post some thoughts on the inner workings of a large international film festival, some embarrassing attempts at film reviews as well as some personal anecdotes about my first film festival.
After about an hour of walking around without a clue as to the whereabouts of my hostel, I finally found my way to an ever so slim yet surprisingly comfortable bed in Rotterdam. Sunday was pretty much a wash considering the time change, but I’m out in force today with four films scheduled through out the day.
First up are the NYC & Field Recordings of Jim Jennings. A series of short films shot on 16mm film, the Rotterdam description of his work (and the rest of the quoted sections) reads:
A stream of light and dark areas, shifting and mirrored surfaces and peep holes, filled with details and rhythm, and often edited in the camera. That the films have no soundamplifies the feeling of rootlessness. Yet, the energy of the city is tangible and occasionally audible, like an imaginary soundtrack.
About 45 minutes and couple miles away is the screening of Ruhr by James Benning.
Benning allows his camera to roam the Ruhr valley in Germany, where his parents came from. There are six meticulously framed takes at places where apparently little happens: a tunnel with a single car, a forest where planes race overhead, a factory with glowing rods of steel, a mosque with a hundred bowing heads, a wall where someone takes up arms against graffiti and an enormous chimney from which smoke is occasionally belched out.
Third on the list is the Dutch film Win/Win by Jaap van Heusden.
This contemporary telefilm makes the madness of the army of suits in office blocks tangible. The fast moving but empty life revolving around exchange rates, ID passes, the incomprehensible stock market language and the social intercourse of succesful guys who love for the kicks…
And lastly is Eyes Wide Open by Haim Tabakman.
Aaron, an orthodox Jewish father and husband from Jerusalem, first does everything he can to suppress his feelings for his attractive young employee Ezri…Yet Aaron becomes hopelessly infatuated by the boy and realizes how soulless his life was before.
