55th International Art Exhibition
Biennale Arte 2013 open at Giardini and Arsenale 10 am to 6 pm (closed on Mondays)
Biennale Dance 2013
Shows scheduled on 28th, 29th and 30th June
Biennale Theatre 2013
Shows and meetings scheduled 1st to 11th August
70th Venice International Film Festival
Aug. 28 to Sept. 7, 2013. Line-up to be announced at the end of July
Biennale Music 2013
Shows and meetings scheduled 4th to 13th October
News
Presentation of the 15 projects that participated in the first workshop of the Biennale College - Cinema
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the first workshop ran from January 7th to 17th, 2013
01 | 17 | 2013
the second workshop for 3 projects between late February-early March
La Biennale di Venezia announces the presentation of the 15 projects that participated in the first workshop of the Biennale College-Cinema, held in Venice from January 7th to 17th, 2013.
The presentation took place on Thursday January 17, 2013 in Venice in the headquarters of the Biennale at Ca' Giustinian (Sala delle Colonne), introduced by President Paolo Baratta and the Director of the Cinema section Alberto Barbera.
Also participating will be the 15 teams (composed of one director and one producer) selected through an international call for participation launched at the 69th Venice International Film Festival, and hailing from Brazil, Egypt, the Philippines, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Rwanda, Spain, South Africa, Thailand, USA. In the two sessions of the proceedings, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm and from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm, the 15 teams will present their projects, and briefly illustrate the various aspects involved in the creation of their stories, their careers to this point, their specific influences and their personal vision of cinema. The 15 projects are described with the storylines on the website www.labiennale.org.
“We are making a very courageous move with great conviction – stated the President of the Biennale Paolo Baratta. We have opened what is in many ways the most interesting and significant initiative recently in the matter of training and support for the many professions within the field of cinema, which completes and brings international scope to the national training systems of each Country”.
“The first step in the original process of the Biennale College-Cinema is now coming to a close – stated Director Alberto Barbera – with the selection of the three projects that will move on to the second phase, which consists in a preparatory workshop that will lead to the actual production of the film, made possible by the allocation of 150,000 euro funded by the Biennale and by Gucci. The challenge we have wagered on is finally taking shape (and in the best of ways): to make it possible for three young talents to make their debut feature-length film. The road is still a long one and anything but easy, but the foundations have been laid for a result that will meet our highest expectations”.
Biennale College – Cinema, in partnership with Gucci, is supported by the Ministry for the Cultural Heritage and Activities – General Direction Cinema and by the Regione del Veneto, and is being held in collaboration with IFP New York, the Dubai International Film Festival and TorinoFilmLab.
At the close of this first workshop, the programme of the Biennale College – Cinema will continue as the 3 teams are invited to a second workshop in Venice, lasting 15 days in late February-early March, and will receive funding in the amount of 150,000 euro each, so that they may produce their projects in the coming months and present the 3 feature-length films at the 70th Venice International Film Festival 2013.
A total of 433 projects from 77 countries around the world were submitted in response to the international Call for participation. Following is the list of the titles, directors and producers of the 15 selected projects, with a short description of the films they have proposed:
- Abu Naim (Israel) – Mich’ael Zupraner (director) and Naama Pyritz (producer): the story of the fantastical Abu Naim – a Jew by birth and an Arab by choice – as reenacted by the Palestinians he lives among. A hybrid of documentary and narrative techniques; the cinematic adaptation of a real West Bank myth.
- A Case of the Dismals (Usa) – Kim Spurlock (director) and Mai Spurlock (producer): the delicate tale of a tight-knit circle of Appalachian mothers and their young daughters who discover through heartbreak and a little magic that kinship will always endure. A meditation on the ghosts that haunt us, and the inevitability of time.
- The Death of J.P. Cuenca (Brasil) – João Paolo Cuenca (director) and Marina Meliande (producer): a mysterious man steals the identity of J.P. Cuenca to die in a squat building downtown Rio. While in pre-olympic times the city transforms itself, we follow a puzzle of misguided identities and enigma in the heart of the neighbourhood of Lapa.
- I Dreamt of Empire (Egypt) – Kasem Kharsa (director) and Moustafa Zakaria (producer): 1980, Cairo. Professor Musa devises a way to travel back in time to save his son who died in the ’67 Sinai War. But when he goes back -at the right moment and place- he finds himself in the body of an Israeli soldier, Ben. The two men have switched bodies and lives. Each time the Professor goes back to roam the desert searching for his son, he returns to the present to find Ben taking over more of his life.
- Into the Light (UK) – Rowland Jobson (director) and Alastair Clark (producer): a young man wracked with guilt goes in search of his past on the streets amongst London’s homeless. Rejected by his friends, he meets a young immigrant boy who leads him to the horrific truth behind his fractured visions and nightmares.
- Memphis (Usa) – Tim Sutton (director) and John Baker (producer): establishing its own sense of rhythm and time through an observational eye and an ear for quiet meditation, Memphis follows the transformation of Ezra Jack from beloved soul singer to unraveling ecstatic. Steeped in ethereal folklore, soul music, urban decay, and the abstract rhythms of life and death, Memphis is a story that subtly gazes upon one man reaching into the darkness in the hope for salvation and rebirth.
- Nervous Translation (Philippines) – Shireen Seno (director) and John Torres (producer): a eight-year old girl, nervous to a fault, lives in her own private world. One day she finds out about a pen that can “translate” the thoughts and feelings of nervous people.
- The Prefect (UK) – Dan K. Smyth (director) and Marcie MacLellan (producer): 16-year old Darren’s beliefs start to crumble as his father, a well respected doctor, is put on trial for mass murder. Darren’s memories start to haunt him as he struggles to free himself from the sins of his father. A subtle psychological drama.
- Room 0 (South Africa) – Jenna Cato Bass (director) and David Horler (producer): in this social cinema game, the audience become guests at the enigmatic Hotel Niemand. Together with Max, the charming hotel porter, we investigate the murder of a woman from his past and the deeper mystery of how our memories influence both life and love.
- Slim Land (Rwanda) – Yves Montand Niyongabo (director) and Lee Isaac Chung (producer): when a mysterious epidemic strikes a small Ugandan village, a young man named Kiiza is caught in the middle of a conflict between white missionaries and his fellow villagers.
- Sorrow Demons, Joy Blizzards (Israel) – Tomer Bahat (director) and Rotem Faran (producer): the real life story of Oren Barzilay, an Israeli musician, coming to grips with the pain of the twists of fate in his life: his meteoric rise, rejection by the audience, addiction, sudden paralysis and rehabilitation, leaving his wife and child. All his fears and hopes expressed through his art and music.
- The Substance (Spain) – Lluis Galter Sanchez (director) and Sergi Moreno Castillo (producer): people need to know where they come from. If not, they should find out, and if they can’t, they must make it up. Mr Cheng and Mr Yang, professional replica builders from an international Chinese corporation, will be forced to find their substance through a fantastic time and space travel that takes place in one of the most antique villages in Europe, Cadaqués.
- Tramontane (Lebanon) – Vatche Boulghourjian (director) and Caroline Oliveira (producer): Walid, a blind man, travels across rural Lebanon in search of a record of his own birth. He meets people on the far fringes of society who tell their own stories, open further questions and give Walid minor clues about his true identity, culminating in a devastating realization. Descending into a void at the heart of his existence, Walid encounters a nation incapable of telling his or its own narrative.
- The Year of June (Thailand) – Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (director) and Aditya Assarat (producer): a ”digital adaptation” of an anonymous school girl’s year-long Twitter stream. She deconstructs herself into hundreds of fragments and the filmmakers reconstruct them back into an imagined narrative. The result is a fast, funny, and fantastical adventure of a school girl in the city of Bangkok.
- Yuri Esposito (Italy) – Alessio Fava (director) and Max Chicco (producer): a man lives in a condition of perpetual slowness for unknown reasons. A crew of filmmakers decide to make a documentary about him. Everything gets complicated when his wife becomes pregnant.
The 15 teams formed of directors and producers selected by Alberto Barbera, together with the Biennale College – Cinema team, have been invited to attend a first ten-days workshop, going on in Venice from 7th to 17t January, curated by Alberto Barbera and by the Biennale College Team (Savina Neirotti Head of Programme, Jane Williams and Michel Reilhac Head of Studies) The teams are working with an Academic Team formed of international and Italian professionals and experts. The purpose is to discuss all aspects of the projects and share experiences about low budget filmmaking, giving and receiving feedback directly from tutors and other teams.
Depending on their role, tutors and consultants (you can find their bios in the Team section) have specific tasks, and they work in different ways with directors, producers or teams:
- 4 Group Leaders: Michel Reilhac, Gino Ventriglia, Amy Dotson and Scott Macaulay
They are working with 5 projects each, mainly with the directors, but often with the teams. Each group is discussing in detail all aspects of their project, giving and receiving feedback from the other teams, and pulling together all different inputs they are receiving during the other sessions.
They are working with 5 projects each, mainly with the directors, but often with the teams. Each group is discussing in detail all aspects of their project, giving and receiving feedback from the other teams, and pulling together all different inputs they are receiving during the other sessions.
- 2 Producers Consultants: Mike Ryan and Tristan Goligher
Each is working with a group of 7/8 producers, and sometimes together with all 15 producers. They are discussing the production aspects of each project with the teams, making use of all the knowledge that is in the group to share experiences and best practices in the field of micro-budget cinema.
- 5 Script Consultants: Franz Rodenkirchen, Nicola Lusuardi, Anita Voorham, Marietta von Hauswolff von Baumgarten and Antoine Le Bos
Each is working on 3 projects. Every team has 3 one-to-one sessions of 1,5 hours with the script consultant to discuss the script.
- 2 Experts: Pierre Cattan and Jon Reiss
In the groups, the teams are discussing audience engagement, cross-media potential, community management and other topics related to building an audience for their project.
- 1 pitching trainer: Stefano Tealdi
In groups and one-to one sessions, the teams are receiving help in presenting their project in public by learning to describe the core of the project.
- 2 Guests: Nekisa Cooper and Tomas Leyers
Nekisa and Tomas are sharing their experience in micro-budget filmmaking and on distribution in late afternoon plenary sessions.
In particular the workshop schedule is formed of several different moments, and the teams work in group or in plenary:
- Group work: in different group combinations;
- One-to-one sessions: mainly with script consultants and the pitching trainer (teams/directors only);
- Case studies and lectures: in plenary;
- One-to-one meetings with another team: each team is matched with another project, and they give special feedback to each other.
- Writing time: time for individual work or to discuss within each project team.
