Première (petite) salve d'annonces...
http://www.sansebastianfestival.com/2016/news/1/5766/inZabaltegi-Tabakalera, the San Sebastian Festival section open to the most varied and surprising movies of the year, where there are no formal rules or restrictions on subject matter, will this year open its first edition as a competitive section with Bertrand Tavernier’s latest film, Voyage à travers le cinéma français / A Journey Through French Cinema, a documentary looking at filmmaking in his country. His film will compete with the latest works by noteworthy moviemakers on the international scene including Terence Davies, Lav Diaz, Jim Jarmusch, Hayoun Kwon, Jean-François Laguionie, Deborah Stratman, José Luis Torres Leiva, and other titles to be announce in the coming weeks, for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award with its 20,000 euros.
VOYAGE À TRAVERS LE CINÉMA FRANÇAIS / A JOURNEY THROUGH FRENCH CINEMA
BERTRAND TAVERNIER (FRANCE)
OPENING NIGHT FILM
Bertrand Tavernier loves cinema. Along the lines of A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, Tavernier presents us with a sharp and personal approach to French cinema, the films, directors, composers and dialogues he has loved most in his life. From Jean Renoir to Claude Sautet, from Henri Decoin to Jacques Becker, casting an eye over François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle and many other famous moviemakers on the way, Bertrand Tavernier treats us to a fresh look at the gems of cinema.
489 YEARS
HAYOUN KWON (FRANCE)
An animated short film that won an award at the 62nd International Festival at Oberhausen, 489 Years makes use of the testimony provided by Kim, a former soldier from South Korea, to give us access to the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas and plunges us into the heart of the soldier’s personal memories. Kim tells us about his experiences on a research mission and the amazing discovery he made in a filed full of mines (laid by South Korea with no record of where they were placed). He talks about a place where people are forbidden, and where nature has totally regained its hold…
A QUIET PASSION
TERENCE DAVIES (UK - BELGIUM)
Who was Emily Dickinson? Who hid behind the poet who spent most of her life at her parents’ home in Amherst, Massachusetts? The mansion where she lived provides the backdrop to the portrait of an unconventional woman who we know very little about. Born in 1803, she was considered to be a talented child, but an emotional trauma forced her to abandon her studies. From that moment on she withdrew from society and began to write poems. Despite her solitary life, the writer’s work takes the reader on a fascinating journey around the world.
GIMME DANGER
JIM JARMUSCH (USA)
The powerful aggressive rock 'n' roll of The Stooges, who came out of Ann Arbor (Michigan) during the countercultural revolution, was like a bombshell on the music scene of the late 1960s. With their fusion of rock, blues, R&B and free jazz, the band that Iggy Pop started out in laid the foundations for what would later be known as alt-rock. Gimme Danger tells the epic story of The Stooges and presents the context in which one of the most important rock bands of all time evolved musically, culturally, politically, and historically, through their adventures and joys and sorrows, and recalls their sources of inspiration and the reasons for the early commercial challenges they faced.
HELE SA HIWAGANG HAPIS / A LULLABY TO THE SORROWFUL MYSTERY
LAV DIAZ (PHILIPPINES)
Various interconnected narrative threads on the Philippine Revolution of 1896-1897 against the Spanish colonial government make up Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis / A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery: the story of the ballad of Jocelynang Baliwag, which became the hymn of the revolution; Gregoria de Jesús’s desperate search for the body of the father of the Philippine Revolution, Andrés Bonifacio; the journey of the national heroes Simon and Isagani, who are fictional characters; and the role of the mythical hero of the Philippine resistance, Bernardo Carpio, and the half-man, half-horse Tikbalang / Engkanto in the Philippine psyche. This film represents a fusion of history, literature and mythology.
LOUISE EN HIVER / LOUISE BY THE SHORE
JEAN-FRANÇOIS LAGUIONIE (FRANCE - CANADA)
On the last day of summer, Louise, an old woman realizes that the last train has departed without her. She finds herself alone in a small seaside resort town, abandoned by everyone. The weather quickly turns for the worse followed by the seasonal tides. Fragile and coquettish, not nearly as well-prepared as a would-be Robinson Crusoe, Louise isn’t likely to make it through the winter. Yet, Louise takes her abandonment as a challenge. She’s going to survive, confronting the elements as well as her memories, which have found the perfect occasion to join in the adventure…
THE ILLINOIS PARABLES
DEBORAH STRATMAN (USA)
An experimental documentary. Eleven parables recount events from the history of the state of Illinois: regional vignettes about faith, force, technology and exodus. From the violent eviction of the Cherokee to the establishment of a utopian community of French Icarians, the invention of the nuclear reactor, and the murder of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, the film relays histories of settlement, removal, technological breakthrough, violence, messianism, and resistance. Illinois functions here as a convenient structural ruse, allowing its histories to become allegories that explore how societies are shaped by conviction and ideology.
EL VIENTO SABE QUE VUELVO A CASA
JOSÉ LUIS TORRES LEIVA (CHILE)
The Chilean documentary maker Ignacio Agüero is preparing his first fictional feature film based on an old documentary project that he never completed. In the early 1980s, on the island of Meulín, in the Chiloé region, a young couple disappears in the woods in the area totally without trace. A myth developed around this mysterious tragic love story. Ignacio Agüero will travel to the scene of the crime in search of locations and non-professional actors to finally gradually discover how his film is going to develop.