In Memoriam: Michael Henry Heim

We mourn the loss of a great humanist, translator and distinguished professor of Slavic languages and literatures at UCLA, Michael Henry Heim. One of our best remembered cultural events was the book fair in 2009 with professor Heim in conversation with students from Fairfax High School. He was a friend of SEEFest, and especially enjoyed our documentary programs and film retrospectives. We share with our readers tributes about this modest man from the Center for European and Eurasian Studies, PEN American Center and the Los Angeles Times.

Joanclair Richter: NAVIGATING FREEDOM

Playwright Joanclair Richter

Amsterdam, Thessaloniki, Prague, and Sibiu are just some of the cities previously awarded with the title of "European Capital of Culture." Of course, as the title suggests, only European cities qualify for such an honor. What is it within our culture, then, that has delayed the United States from implementing a parallel program across the Atlantic? Being based in Los Angeles, SEE Fest enjoys the unique opportunity of presenting art and film in an already culturally-rich environment. Of course cities like New York and Chicago also have a rich history of culture and art themselves, but how does one designate a lesser-known city, such as Sedona, Arizona, a "capital of culture"? New young female playwright Joanclair Richter, who has launched her career with her play It's Good 2 Be Crazy, also seeks out the answer. Continue reading Richter's piece NAVIGATING FREEDOM and decide for yourself whether culture, art, and policy should be intrinsically related factors in the United States as are in Europe.


NAVIGATING FREEDOM by Joanclair Richter


As an American, freedom is my default value. I live in a set of ideals where being
free is directly linked to prosperity and success, all achieved by hard work. These
terms are general, which allows them the ability to evolve to the present, more
worldly view that the entire human race is moving towards as mobility becomes
easier. As we move together, we must take into consideration our filters - Where
are your cultural values based? What are your societies ideals?

Natasa Stearns, a Slovenian born film maker and artist, utilizes videos to explore
innovative strategies in visual expression and storytelling. When I walked into
her multi-channel video installation at TARFEST -- a crib turned on it’s side, a
mirror and the adjacent wall-- all doused with projected moving images of toys,
dolls and laid over with sounds of eery laughing and child play -- It felt jarring
and discomfort set in. When I expressed this to Natasa, she said that’s how I
was supposed to feel - “It is about a loss of emotional investment to an object.
When dealing with one toy, a child has to use imagination in order to come up
with new ways to play with it. If she gets a new toy every day, the game always
stays on the level of fascination with novelty.” As objects become so easily
replaceable, one loses a sense, and as she rubbed her fingers together, it was
clear that for her, it was about things being tangible. The intense disconnect that
this artist encompassed in vivid images and sounds made me uncomfortable
enough that she stood out in a room of 38 visual artists.

Maribor, Slovenia: European Capital of Culture 2012

Natasa is from Slovenia. This fall, she is headed back to her hometown, a European Capital of Culture (ECOC), to take part in the yearly Maribor 2012. As a city that is laying new foundations and setting new trends, ECOC will open a dialogue for various individuals and institutions in Maribor to support social growth.

Where are our Capitals of Culture here in America?

That title alone grants a collective sense of culture. New York and Los Angeles are easily culture rich - they get to be. What about Sedona, Arizona? Taos, New Mexico? Marfa, Texas? These are meaty enriched pockets that when given some light, could offer unpredictable and colorful responses - like how I felt in the split second that my filtering mind was jarred by Natasa’s powerful installation.

Does embracing our inherent culture not ground us in the communication
essential to progressing in a way that we can feel in our fingertips? Knowing our
cultural values, becoming accountable for them and having the ability to express
them in tangible, energetic and enlightening terms is not a societal pillar to be
neglected. Instead, these cultural values can be welcomed, emphasized, debated
and implemented into our inherent sense of freedom as we move towards a
cultural sustainability model.

Video installation by Slovenian-born video artist Natasa Prosenc Stearns at Tarfest 

10-year retrospective of Tarfest (Anniversary Art Exhibition, 2003-2012), a group show of 38 artists, curated by LACMA's Holly Harrison, will feature the latest stunning piece by Los Angeles-based artists of Slovenian descent, Natasa Prosenc Stearns.


September 15th - October 6th, 2012.
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 20, 6:00-10:00p.m.
5900 Wilshire Blvd, Variety Building / East Annex, Los Angeles, CA 90036

Innocence Dissolved is a multi channel video installation resembling a child's room with piles of old toys, broken and abandoned, tumbling over the furniture, as if engaged in an afterlife dance of forgotten emotions. Shot in Slovenia and produced in L.A., Innocence Dissolved was first shown in a storefront of an abandoned furniture store in Pasadena. In August 2012 Wallspace gallery hosted its second, more ambitious and complex incarnation. It's third installment will take place as part of Tafest retrospective at LACMA.

Innocence Dissolved by Maja Manojlovic
The rolling dolls with perky plastic cheeks and the soft, sad-eyed plush pets in this installation invoke a deeply buried nostalgia for the loss of an affective sense of materiality that is -- paradoxically -- generated by the post-industrial hyper-production of  "things." As our environment is cluttered with an unprecedented excess of material objects, our culture witnesses a steadily dissolving ability to infuse these objects with emotion. It is this emotional investment that animates our relationship with objects and with materiality as such. Now that this emotional link is loosening, our world is changing. These old-fashioned toys, once brimming with the energy from a child's power of imagination and warmth of her touch are now discarded, as are the imaginative and emotive habits that go along with them. The installation "Innocence -- Dissolved" thus metaphorically performs the impasse of fast lane consumerism wrapped into the ideology of progress; the discarded toys suffocating in the thickened gooey mass of the past embodied emotional investment, that has nowhere else to go except release into obsession with possession and consumption.

Natasa Prosenc Stearns, Biography
Natasa Prosenc Stearns is a Slovenian artist and filmmaker based in Venice California. She earned her BA at Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where she began making her video pieces, gradually expanding her practice towards installations, films and prints. Exploring innovative strategies in visual expression and storytelling, her projects started to appear in galleries and festivals and to win awards and grants.

In 1997 Natasa traveled to Los Angeles on a Fulbright Grant for her MFA in Film and Video at CalArts. She represented Slovenia at the 48th Venice Biennale and participated in numerous shows and festivals around the world - ARCO Fair, Madrid, Douloun Museum of Art, Shanghai, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Melbourne film festival, Pandemonium, London, SXSW, NY EXPO, and others.

Director Endre Hules' New Film: The Maiden Danced to Death

Endre Hules, a panelist for SEE FEST’s Filmmakers Panel at our last annual business conference, can only be described as an incredibly talented writer and director. His career, which spans several decades and hails innumerous triumphs, now includes his newest film The Maiden Danced to Death – a beautifully woven tapestry of a film that depicts a rival between two brothers over a dance that will save their careers, and a woman they both love.

Born and raised in Hungary, Hules studied music and acting at the Cellar Theatre in Budapest and started writing plays and directing them at 17. He went on to graduate from the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts as a director, dipping his feet television and radio before moving to Paris and then New York, teaching acting, writing, and directing at conservatories, universities and workshops on three continents.  Soon he moved to Los Angeles to make films, and ended up acting in several dozen Hollywood movies and television shows. He has funded his films with the support of companies and grants in ten different countries, won numerous festival awards, as well as audience and jury awards. To add to his repertoire, The Maiden Danced to Death went on to win 24 awards at various film festivals, including Winner at the Los Angeles Movie Awards (2012), and Best Actor at the Hungarian Film Week (2011).

The Maiden Danced to Death features a complex plot riddled with references from communist-era Hungary, that fades between dance and music as the main character Steve attempts to smooth over the ripples of his past. Steve, a dancer-turned-dance-impresario returns to his native Hungary after a 20-year absence. The Communist regime that expelled him is gone, his former apparatchik father has retired in disgrace, but his younger brother, Gyula still works in the same run-down studio with the same cash-strapped dance company they both started out in - and he is married to Steve's former sweetheart, Mari. The two brothers decide to revive their last project together, a dance piece based on the old ballad, The Maiden Danced to Death. If Gyula makes it to Steve's exacting standards, Steve can take it on a world tour, reviving the sagging careers of both.

By all means, if you have a chance to watch The Maiden Danced to Death, please do. The impressive choreography of Zoltán Zsuráfszky with The Honvéd Dance Theater, and the original score alone will leave you captivated, and Hules’ plot surely will leave you with something think about for days.

The Durres International Film Festival: An Impressive Program

Imagine you are traveling through Albania this month, exploring the luscious country side and enjoying the captivating Adriatic Sea and you are able to attend the 5th Durres International Film Summerfest. Wouldn’t that be the most glorious vacation imaginable? Happening August 26^th the 30th, the Durres International Film Summerfest offers an impressive lineup of films that aims to establish cultural connections between Albania and other Balkan countries. Showing films at an Ancient Roman Amphitheatre and by the beach, festival goers will have the opportunity to have a cinematic experience exposed to the elements. 

Durrës, the second largest city in Albania located on the central Albanian coast, lies about 33 km (21 mi) west of the capital Tirana. It is one of the most ancient and economically important cities of Albania, situated on the Adriatic Sea opposite of the Italian ports of Bari and Brindisi.

This year the festival will offer a section called International Documentary Programme and the Short Film. The official competition will consist of 8 films selected among the most significant recent productions and 6 films in the Balkan World Section, recent productions from the region. This year the festival will also feature two new sections for best Albanian Short Film Students focusing on films produced in Albanian film schools, and  Close Encounters focusing on French film. Whether you can make it to Albania for the International Film Summerfest or not, if you follow the lineup you are sure to gain a cinematic experience worth exploring.

Kazakhstan: Montage of Cinemas: Why You Must Attend The Last Night

 I’m going to be blunt: if you haven’t already you must go to the closing day of the Kazakhstan: Montage of Cinemas - Film & Cultural Festival.  I know you think your schedule is packed full of important work related, droning activities. I know you have kids, dogs, and assistants that need constant attention, and you don’t know how on earth you could drop all of these things for a little Eastern European film. Luckily for you, I’m here to tell you that you too can learn the art of procrastination, the joy of ditching work, school, your parent’s birthday party, for this extremely important cultural event.  

Kazakhstan, a large and ethnically diverse country centrally located in Eurasia, formerly colonized by Russia, has grown exponentially its film industry since Sacha Baron Cohen’s controversial mocumentary Borat hit theaters in 2006, profiling the comical experiences of Kazakh journalist’s first trip to America. Despite the controversial and problematic aspects of Borat, Kazakhofficials have since thanked Sacha Baron Cohen for the influx of tourists that Borat has attracted to the nation. With a little help from Borat’s success, but more importantly because of the dedication of Kazakh independent filmmakers striving to make it on the international film scene, Kazakhstan has a small but lively film industry. The films coming out of Kazakhstan exude cultural and historical potency.  They tell stories that speak of Kazakhstan’s rich past and vivid present. 

From Slambek Tauekel's The Promise Land

Being shown to non-VIP attendees at 7:30 pm tonight, The Promised Land, directed by Slambek Tauekel, depicts the tale of more than a million innocent people were forcibly deported to Kazakhstan in the 1930s, contributing to the rich cultural and ethnic diversity of the land and truly making Kazakhstan the country it is today.  

If you miss out on tonight’s last evening of Kazakh film, I can guarantee you that tomorrow morning you will have wished that you had just taken the night off and watched The Promised Land. Yes, you’ve already missed out on the opening night reception that was co-hosted by world-renowned Hollywood actor, Armand Assante, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still be a part of a festival that truly boasts the complexity and beauty of Kazakhstan. 

 Tonight’s screenings are being shown at 7:30pm at:

Directors Guild of America
7920 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90046

Screenings are free, and parking is complimentary

10th Annual Summer Academy Film Showing at the Goethe-Institut LA

From Thomas Stuber's graduation film "Of dogs and horses" 

If you’re in the Los Angeles area and enjoy good film and company, on August 22^nd at 7 pm students from Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg of Germany will conclude the 10^th Annual Summer Academy at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles and show friends and patrons their work over the past year.

The Filmakademie, founded in 1990 and located in a media center in Ludwigsburg near Stuttgart, produces talented filmmakers through their hands-on filmmaking and close working relationships to the industry. About 250 films of all genres and formats with top rankings on international festivals are being produced every year by teams of students enrolled in scriptwriting, directing (documentary film, fiction film, advertising film, tv journalism), cinematograhpy, editing, animation, series formats, interactive media, production, filmmusic / sound design, motion design, and production design.

Most notable, Thomas Stuber's graduation film "Of dogs and horses" won second place in the 2012 International Student Academy Awards .

Address: Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, 5750 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90036

Date: August 22^nd, 7 pm

For more information please call:  +1 323 5253388

3 Films To Watch This Summer: A SEE Fest Blast From the Past

During the long heat wave that's sure to occupy the remainder of summer, what else is there to do than hull up inside a fortress of air conditioning and watch movies? From SEE Fest's past festival programs here are three films that should give you something of quality to watch and bring you down memory lane. So kick back, relax, and absorb the cultural richness that these films have to offer.

BEHIND THE GLASS- 2009 -  Directed by Zrinko Ogresta

Beautifully composed psychological drama about a love triangle between three Croatians reveals layers of moral dilemmas as protagonists confront fate, destiny, coincidence and individual responsibility as one marriage is falling apart. Much like Kieslowski, director Ogresta probes the social undercurrents beneath the bubble of an upscale urban living with great skill and sharp insight.Shown during the 2009 SEE Fest Program 

THE WAY I SPENT THE END OF THE WORLD - 2006 - Directed by Catalin Mitulescu

Winner of Best Actress award for Dorotheea Petre's performance at Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard category in 2006, “The Way I Spent the End of the World” is a heart-warming coming-of-age story of two siblings making the most of it in the last months of Ceausescu’s regime in Romania. Brilliantly acted by the pitch-perfect Dorotheea Petre (“Ryna”), and young boy Timotei Duma, the film follows them through the pains of first love and challenged loyalties.Shown during the 2007 SEE Fest Program 


MOONLESS NIGHT - 2004 - Directed and Written by: Artan Minarolli

Director Artan Minarolli

Rudina, a 16-year old girl, and her grandfather travel on a train through Albania hoping to emigrate abroad. On the train, Rudina falls in love with 25-year old Gjergi. Their flirtation leads them to become separated from Rudina’s grandfather and they suffer many hardships trying to reunite with him. Once they do, they discover a devastating secret that connects them to an earlier instance of migration, involving a young man who falls in love with a village girl while attempting to escape from Albania under Hoxha’s dictatorship. In both stories, migration is a seemingly unattainable goal, with the love between young people constituting the primary source of hope for social renewal.Shown during the 2008 SEE Fest Program

Mirza Hasanefendić's Photography Captures the Sarajevo Film Festival

Fresh from Sarajevo, we’d like to introduce photographer and graphic designer Mirza Hasanefendić. His photography beautifully captures the essence of 18^th Sarajevo Film Festival , transporting the viewer to a world of movement and color that revolves around the hustle and bustle of the festival itself.  Hasanefendić has been so gracious to compile a small collection of his photos in a way that tells a story of how the inhabitants of Sarajevo and film enthusiasts alike congregated to enjoy this year's festival.   You can view his full collection on our Flickr page. 

A shop window advertising the festival as well as Angelina Jolie’s appearance for her film about the Bosnian war : In the Land of Blood and Honey

Tourists and film enthusiasts flocked to the city to enjoy the 13 programs featured by the festival every year.  

 The festival attracts 100,000 people from Sarajevo and abroad.

 The festival offers 200 + films, and filmmakers and actors like gather in Sarajevo to present their works. 

 Local businesses thrived en route to the festival. 

 An after party that allowed festival goers to mingle. 

Mirza Hasanefendić: From Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina. Graduated at the Fine Arts Academy, department for graphic design, where he also attended a 6 semester photography class. He's been working as a graphic designer and photographer in Sarajevo for the past 14 years in many local and international advertising agencies (McCann Erickson, Publicis, Via Media...), as well as the NATO HQ in Sarajevo within SFOR mission's PsyOps division as graphic artist and photographer. Client list includes Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Qatar Embassy, Canon, Volksbank, Bosnian Telecom, ERONET - Croatian Telecom, Vapiano, UNDP, UN Women, Mercator Shopping Mall, Sarajevo Tobacco Factory, Bosnian Railways, Lek Ljubljana, Berlin Chemie and many more. Enjoys capturing small everyday moments in front of his lens. Currently working as a freelance designer and advertising photographer.

Karlovy Vary Film Festival Awards Serbian Filmmaker with the Independent Camera Award

The 47^th annual Karlovy Vary Film Festival came to a close on July 7^th, after 350 film directors and actors presented their films in the world famous spa city in the Czech Republic. Over the past next nine days 10,000 audience members watched 180 films, including 60 debuts.

Only 100 km from Prague and renowned for its healing thermal mineral waters, artists, royalty and composers began frequenting Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) in the 14^th century. Not much has changed since then, as Karlovy Vary has hosted one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world since 1946, offering audiences highly regarded films at a crossroads of both Western and Eastern Europe.  

South Eastern European film fared well at the event, with Serbian filmmaker Miroslav Momčilović’s film Death of a Man in Balkans starring Emir Hadžihafizbegović, Radoslav Milenković, Bojan Žirović, Nataša Ninković, Anita Mančić taking the Independent Camera Award. 

Miroslav Momčilović accepts the Independent Camera Award

Filmed in one continuous shot, Death of a Man in Balkans follows the reactions of neighbors after a lonely composer commits suicide in his apartment. After the authorities are stuck in traffic and late to arrive on the scene, the neighbors slowly make their separate ways up to the apartment. Filmed on a tripod that the composer left stranded in the middle of the room, the neighbors, “weave a subtle mosaic of the ‘Balkan mentality’ and of human nature in general.”

Awards for Turkish, Bulgarian, Slovak, Croatian, Montenegrin, Slovenian, Hungarian and Serbian films

The 7th annual South East European Film Festival, SEE Fest 2012 concluded Monday night at UCLA's Bridges Theater in Los Angeles with the screening of the Turkish epic FUTURE LASTS FOREVER, an exploration of the parallel pasts and Anatolian elegies  directed by Ozcan Alper, which also won Bridging the Borders award for best feature film of the festival. Honorable Mention went to another Turkish film, DO NOT FORGET ME ISTANBUL, a collection of seven stories by seven directors under artistic direction of Turkey's auteur Huseyin Karabey. Both awards are traditionally presented by Cinema Without Borders, festival's media sponsor.

                                    
Seventeen industry people served as jury members, awarding diverse films and unique voices for which SEEFest is well known. Young Bulgarian-American filmmaker Kristina Nikolova won Best Debut Feature award for FAITH, LOVE AND WHISKEY, following an expat's journey between two homes; Slovak elegiac journal of music recordings of Roma singers CIGARETTES AND SONGS by Marek Sulik and Jana Kovalcikova won Best Documentary, with Honorable Mention going to Croatian GABRIEL by Vlatka Vorkapic; two shorts, THE VISIT from Slovenia's Miha Mazzini, and COLD SHOWER from Hungary's Orsy Nagypal shared Best Short (fiction) award, while German production MURDER REVISITED by Serbian filmmaker Milan Miletic won award for  Best Documentary Short. 

Cinematography jury's feature award went to DO NOT FORGET ME ISTANBUL, for overall excellence in visual storytelling, and in particular, the segment 'The Jewish Girl' and cinematographer, Baris Ozbicer. Best cinematography in documentary category was awarded to Momir Matovic from Montenegro whose images beautifully captured the spirit of the passing and irretrievable moment in his memorable documentary PERSEVERANCE...SPIRIT...BREATH.

Winner of this year's Audience Award was Romanian HELLO! HOW ARE YOU?, directed by Alexandru Maftei, romantic comedy which showed another face of Romania and South Eastern Europe not often seen on the big screen.

Juries and awards of the 7th South East European Film Festival included:

Bridging the Borders Award, with jurors Bijan Tehrani, editor-in-chief, Cinema Without Borders; Kevin Cassidy, international news editor, The Hollywood Reporter; and Fareed C. Majari, director of the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles.

Best Documentary Award, with jurors Margit Kleinman, director, Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades; Arnold Schwartzman, Oscar-winning filmmaker and designer; Valentina Ganeva, film editor;

Best Debut Feature Award,  with jurors Ana Maria Bahiana, author and film critic; Matthew Mishory, filmmaker; and Zeljko Marasovich, film composer;

Best Short Film, Best Short Documentary Awards,  with jurors Prince Gomolvilas, playwright; Jelena Mrdja, actress; Marsha Goodman, EMMY-winning casting director; and Jelena Erceg, visual effects artist.

Best Cinematography Award, feature and documentary film, with jurors Boris Schaarschmidt, cinematographer; Michael Pessah, cinematographer; Nicholas Fahey, cinematographer; and Hans Diernberger, visual artist.