Titel Kino 3/2002 - german films

Kino news
22
”MADE IN GERMANY“
Cooperates with AFI Festival
The Festival of German Cinema in Los Angeles ”MADE IN
GERMANY“ will cooperate for the first time this year with
the internationally renowned AFI Festival in Los Angeles.
Running from 7 - 17 November 2002, the third edition of
”MADE IN GERMANY“ will present a contemporary
cross-section of German films as a special section under the
auspices of the festival.
After the success of the previous Festivals of German
Cinema in Los Angeles with audiences and representatives
of the film industry in Hollywood, the Export-Union of
German Cinema and the AFI’s directorate decided to
concentrate their forces and offer ”MADE IN GER-
MANY“ a platform of particular quality through its integration
into the festival. The special program, jointly compiled by
representatives of AFI and ”MADE IN GERMANY“, will
present feature and documentary films as well as a program of
short films. The lineup is expected to be complete by the
beginning of August.
”This joint event is another important step in giving US distributors
a better understanding of German cinema“, explains
Corina Danckwerts, the representative of the Export-
Union for the USA/West Coast. ”We are expecting
major synergies in the area of press and marketing and are
very excited about this new collaboration. AFI is an ideal
partner for us.“ Nancy Collet, director of programming for
AFI, is also enthusiastic about the partnership:”MADE IN
GERMANY and AFI simply suit each other fantastically.“
Hamburg’s Cinema Summer
Six films funded by the FilmFoerderung Hamburg are
currently being prepared and shot in Hamburg. The shooting
of Rolf Schuebel’s latest film, Blueprint (cf. p. 26),
starring Franka Potente and Sebastian Koch, is planned
to continue through August. The film, based on the novel
of the same name by Charlotte Kerner, is about the
world’s first cloned person. Max Faerberboeck’s new film
September, starring such well-known names as Heiner
Lauterbach, Sky Dumont and Joerg Schuettauf, is
based on five loosely connected stories of how the events of
11 September 2001 changed people’s lives in Germany.
Hamburg was also location for Stephen Manuel’s Der
letzte Lude and Pepe Planitzer’s Ein Schiff wird
kommen, with Hilmar Thate and Juergen Tarrach in
the main roles. And Jens Huckeriede is currently shooting
his documentary Gebrueder Wolf in Hamburg, while
Margarethe von Trotta is planning her upcoming film
Rosenstrasse, starring Maria Schrader and Katja
Riemann, in the city.
Higher Audience Figures and
Avid Distributor Interest at 4th
Festival of German Cinema in
Madrid
Compared to last year, this year’s Festival of German
Cinema in Madrid (4 - 8 June 2002) registered significantly
higher audience figures with an increase of 13% in the number
of tickets sold.
The festival opened to a packed cinema and in the presence of
director Sandra Nettelbeck and lead actress Martina
Gedeck with Mostly Martha (Bella Martha), for
which Spanish distributors have already expressed considerable
interest. Ranking as the cinemagoers’ favorite during the
festival, the film also received the Audience Award.
At the screenings of the documentary Black Box BRD by
Andres Veiel and Do Fish Do It? (Fickende Fische)
by Almut Getto, which was able to attract the interest of
South American distributors, the audience took advantage of
the opportunity for animated discussions with the directors.
The film Love the Hard Way was also presented by
director Peter Sehr and screenwriter Marie Noëlle.
Also on hand to present their films were Bernhard
Bettermann, lead actor of As Far As My Feet Will
Carry Me (So weit die Fuesse Tragen), as well as
Wolf Gaudlitz (director) and Leoluca Orlando for his
appearance in Palermo Whispers (Palermo
fluestert).
Other films in the main program were The State I Am
In (Die Innere Sicherheit) by Christian Petzold,
Sass by Carlo Rola, and the children’s film The Slurb
(Das Sams) by Ben Verbong, which was enthusiastically
received by the young Spanish audience and aroused the
interest of Spanish distributors. Moreover, three of Ziegler
Film/Atlas International Film’s Erotic Tales were
shown in a midnight screening. The presentation of Fritz
Lang’s silent movie Woman in the Moon (Die Frau
im Mond) – with live musical accompaniment – was, as in
past years, one of the festival’s highlights.
The festival program also included this year’s Next
Generation 2002 short films. Following a visit by Dr.
Arthur Hofer (head of the Film Academy Baden-
Wuerttemberg) to the Escuela de Cine de Madrid
(ECAM), which included a discussion with the students, a
cooperation between the two films schools was arranged.
Kino 3/2002
Martina Gedeck, Sandra Nettelbeck