For the programme click here!
Avant Premieres: Movies shown before their official release in the Netherlands
Hard Candy
Directed by David Slade - USA 2005 - 103 min - genre: thriller - language: English - cast: Patrick Wilson, Ellen Page, Sandra Oh, Odessa Rae
Hard Candy addresses the ongoing social phenomenon of "blind dates" through our century's new media: the internet. It seems to be the a new way of creating (love) relations in an era where everyone is connected and constantly online. However, this movie reveals the dark side of online chats. Hard Candy is a suspenseful thriller that begins with a date of two persons that got to know each other while chatting online: a 14 year old girl and a 32 year old man, who is assumed to be a paedophile. The plot consists of surprising and thrilling elements with some unexpected changes.
Find the official website and trailer here.
Look Both Ways
Directed by Sarah Watt - Australia 2005 - 100 min - genre: drama - language: English - cast: Justine Clarke, William McInnes, Anthony Hayes, Lisa Flanagan
Director Sarah Watt's first feature film Look Both Ways is an original fusion of animation and live action made in Australia. From the beginning of the movie we are caught in an atmosphere of anxiety and problems of the protagonists. The story is constructed in a similar way as Magnolia or Crash, because it connects different plots, intertwining a group of people around one incident. This movie invites us to keep the eyes open to dangers, be happy with small things and avoid a narrow-minded view of the world. An impulse that could especially support young people struggling with problems while growing up.
Find the official website and trailer here.
Other Movies
La Haine - Hate
Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz - France 1995 - 96 min - genre: crime, drama - language: French with English subtitles - cast: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde, Said Taghmaoui, Abdel Ahmed Ghili, Solo, Joseph Momo
La Haine presents the life of immigrant teenagers in the suburbs of Paris. The social segregation, not only geographical, but also cultural is very strong. This film broaches the issue of immigration and integration of the second generation of the North African population and their problems while growing up.
Watch the trailer (only in French) here.
Gummo
Directed by Harmony Korine - USA 1997 - 89 min - genre: drama - language: English - cast: Jacob Reynolds, Nick Sutton, Lara Tosh, Jacob Sewell, Darby Dougherty, Chloe Sevigny, Carisa Glucksman
Gummo shows "the other side" of the USA, totally in contrast to the happy family life that is presented to us by average Hollywood productions. Gummo is set in a city in the middle of nowhere, completely forgotten. It introduces the image of how some parts of USA look like: "deconstructed" families, kids left on their own, without any guidance for their lives. No future, no dreams.
Shadows
Directed by John Cassavetes - USA 1959 - 81 min - genre: drama - language: English - cast: Ben Carruthers, Lelia Goldoni, Hugh Hurd, Anthony Ray, Dennis Sallas
Shadows - the classic of American independent cinema, presents the problems of young Afro-Americans in the late 1950s.This movie shows interracial relationships that were taboo and how families interfered into romances. In the America of today, known as country of freedom and tolerance, the process of cultural integration of Afro-Americans into a conservative society is still an issue.
You can watch the trailer here.
Noi Albinoi
Directed by Dagur Kari - Iceland 2003 - 93 min - genre: drama - language: English - cast: Tomas Lemarquis, Leo Gunnarsson, Elin Hansdottir, Anna Frioriksdottir, Hjalti Roegnvaldsson
Noi Albinoi is set in the beautiful landscape of Iceland. It tells the story of a teenager, who is an outsider and dreams to escape from his isolated environment. This movie illustrates how social constraints can close the doors to a great future for young people with intellectual potential.
Watch the trailer here.
Grave Of The Fireflies
Directed by Isao Takahata - Japan 1988 - 93 min - genre: animation, drama - language: Japanese with English subtitles
This Japanese animation film is a classic of its genre. It presents a family tragedy caused by World War II. The story of two children left on their own, reminds us on the often forgotten civil disasters of war.
Watch the trailer here.
Tesis
Directed by Alejandro Amenabar - Spain 1996 - 125 min - genre: thriller - language: Spanish with English subtitles - cast: Ana Torrent, Fele Martinez, Eduardo Noriega, Xabier Elorriaga
Amenabar's first feature film and his final study project is a brilliant construction of suspense and an inventive presentation of a dark, unsung and horrifying side of media: the ?gore movies? (snuff movies), a social phenomenon unfamiliar to most people. Tesis is set in a university context, where a student in order to find relevant material for her thesis on audiovisual violence asks her teacher to find some movies in the video library of the university. Accidentally she receives a videotape showing people being killed. This disturbing revelation makes her start a personal investigation to reveal this mystery.
With this movie Amenabar proves that a filmmaker doesn?t need high technological equipment and special effects to produce rising suspense until the last minute of the movie.
Surprise Movie
USA 2004 - 91 min - genre: comedy, romance, drama - language: English
This movie represents the new Asian American independent cinema, approaching problems the new generation of Chinese young people living in the USA has to face. It features the topic of cultural integration into the American society, but also the taboos of feminine homosexuality in an extremely conservative Asian community.
Land of Truth Live & Freedom
Zemlja istine ljubavi i slobode
Directed by Milutin Petrovic - Serbia 2000 - 110 min - genre: drama - language: Serbian with English subtitles
Can you escape into the movie when everything around you turns to wreckages and if you do what would the story of that movie be? "Land of Truth Love and Freedom" is Serbian no-budget movie, directed by Serbian artist Milutin Petrovic. A decade of wars, poverty and insanity escalates in the spring of 1999 with NATO attack on Serbia, an exact time when this story takes place. Boris, a young TV editor editing for years regime propaganda programs, survives the bombing of Serbian National Television. In attempt to diagnose him a psychiatrist uses Rorschach ink-blots, which Boris sees as editing cuts for the story he wants to tell.
This movie is a bitter but funny depiction of the society in which ideals became just words and moral values blur as well as the border between sanity and madness. Apart from the few professional actors (Boris Milivojevic, Rade Markovic) the characters are played by amateurs - Serbian most acclaimed play writer Biljana Srbljanovic, model Vanja Govorko, musician Djordje Andjelic and Milutin Petrovic.
Find more information here.
Shorts (Download the programme here!)
Side Programme
Music Video programme
This programme will have 3 main themes. The music-image relationship, music video as high-art and the lo-fi solutions in music videos. We will show videos of acclaimed music video directors like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry, but also videos of unknown independent artists. The music-image relationship will be presented by showing different videos for the same song. We will play videos of e.g. Feist, Bjork, Fatboyslim, PJ Harvey and many others.
Download the detailed programme here. (.doc-file - 90KB)
Music Video clips as radical media
This programme will introduce you to the other, non commercial side of music video clips. Many artists use this media form to raise public awareness. The political and social message they contain make them unsuitable for broadcasting on MTV and other television channels. In that way, this popular culture phenomenon developed into a radical media form whose main channel of distribution is the internet. Find out which videos are banned or censored by MTV? See the controverisal videos from Moby, Public Enemy, Leftfield, Eminem, Soulwax...
