In mid-February 2013 thousands of film lovers and journalists
descended upon Berlin for the one of the most important dates on
the international film calendar: the Berlinale. Less than a month
later, a selection of films from the glamorous, cutting edge
festival will be shown in a free screening in Wellington.
Each year, the unusual, the unseen, the moving and the
unconventional can be
discovered at the Berlinale (or Berlin International Film
Festival).
This is particularly apparent in the "Berlinale Shorts" category.
Since starting work
for the festival in 2007, short film curator Maike Mia Höhne has
grown the "Berlinale
Shorts" into one of the most esteemed showcases for short films in
the world.
The "Berlinale Shorts go Exterior" programme is the first of a
series of screenings
presenting international short film gems to New Zealanders. The
films are brought to New Zealand by Hamburg-based curator and
filmmaker Stefanie Reis, in cooperation with the
Goethe-Institut New Zealand and the New Zealand Film Commission,
and with the
support of The New Zealand Film Archive and WIFT (NZ) Inc.
The line-up for the evening includes this year's Silver Bear
winner Die Ruhe Bleibt /
Remains Quiet (2013), by Stefan Kriekhaus, a vibrating miniature
on filmmaking.
The short fiction film features a trainee assistant passing time
on large film set
somewhere out in the sticks of rural France.
It screens alongside a range of other brand new films by
international filmmakers,
such as Zhou Yan's Ba Bi Lun Shao Nian / The Rivers of Babylon
(2012), which
tells the story of a young Chinese woman's excursions during a
visit to her small
hometown. Forst (2013), by renowned German media and graffiti
artist Ulu Braun, is a playful exploration and tale of the German
forest, a "place" of larger than life national
myths.
Meet for informal discussion about the films and the Berlinale
festival from 6.30pm.
The screening programme will start at 7pm, and there will be a
brief Q&A session
afterwards.
No bookings so first in, first served!