DOKUFEST 2010 KOSOVO has begun!

What are we doing here this week when we could be in Prizren, Kosovo, at the film festival, playing? What I've read about this relatively young but established venue is that it's fun, delicious, rollicking fun.

Major content is being added to the DOKUFEST 2010 website daily. 'Holding Still' directed by Florian Riegel, with photography by Luciano Cervio, and produced by Ute Dilger, is screening on August 5  (there's still time to get there) and is in competition.  

Frankly, I'm rather wild about the idea of Kosovo, so indulge me. This all seems quite the adventure. I mean, Kosovo! I'm posting a screen grab of a bit of the schedule way below. Check here for the complete online listing.

I've linked to fantastic sites and blogs in the sidebar on the right. Please check them out.

I am working with photography. I say this looking at +/- 4,000 new images since I've last posted a photo. We've been busy and distracted on the Gulf Coast, and it's time to be happily productive again. In that spirit, I'm posting provisional, in-progress photos. We're deep into summertime. Kids are in the water, both saline and chlorinated; a friend brings me snapping  juicy plums; gulls dive in for fish or crabs or toes. And it's hot. So hot.

So little of what could happen does happen. — Salvador Dalí

But anything could happen. Someone could make the loveliest, most improbable film and surprise you forever. Things happen. What is least likely to happen, sometimes does. 

So do something you might not ordinarily do. Something even small. Then hold still.

And.....

Go. Go. Go!

I'm late! I'm late! I'm STILL HERE at Silverdocs

Silverdocs, Silver Spring, Md. on Wednesday, June 23 and Thursday, June 24 — midday.

Calendar Shorts Program 2: STILL HERE and GO if you live in NYC or DC! It's hot and humid or rainy or too sunny or you just need a break, and these are some dynamite documentaries. Five of them, including Florian Riegel's 'Holding Still.'  Remember documentaries? You love them. You know you do. Sweet bites of nectar laden fruit. The glow on the moonstone. Haiku, plural. Halos of flickering cinema. Distillations. And you may be surprised if you attend. Isn't that almost too much?

Weezer has a cameo. You don't want to miss her. 

I would tell Roger Ebert if I were bold or brave. I'm not. But, read this Ebert piece and this. You'll love him, too.

'Holding Still' at Silverdocs

"Imagine if the last 20 years of your life were lived entirely in one room, yet you have the ability to see and photograph the world outside. This is the story of Janis, a woman whose artistic voice is remarkably unconstrained by physical obstacles or tragedies in her past. "

Imagine me ecstatic. Florian Riegel's film was chosen to screen at SILVERDOCS in SHORTS PROGRAM 2: STILL HERE on June 23 at 10:00 PM, AFI Silver Theater 2, and June 24 at 12:00 PM, AFI Silver Theater 1.   

I remember when we took this photo. It was a year the cicadas appeared. We had spent that sun dappled afternoon with the new camera making time-delay photos of ourselves at the weathered picnic table behind the house. As an adult, there are few bugs you care to play with. The ones that you might indulge on a wine soaked afternoon are vestiges of childhood — ladybugs, lightning bugs, crickets. Or shells of cicadas, the crackling remains of the insects snagged from trees. We played with them that day. Somewhere there are photos of me with exoskeletons stuck on my cheeks, climbing my arms, tangled in my hair.

Cicadas are noisy, the males outdoing the females by virtue of a body built for amplification of sound. Cicadas like heat, and that summer in Texas we had heat. An excess of heat. We were hotter than we needed to be. We were young. I have the photos to prove it.

Florian Riegel's short film 'Holding Still' has been chosen for competition at Silverdocs in Silver Spring, Maryland, this June. This film is a testament to that summer's heat and the personal fallout from that incendiary season. Thank you again, Florian, for documenting the lightning.

If you're in NYC or Washington DC or anywhere, come see this film. You're invited.

'Childhood living is easy to do...Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away.' 

— Jagger/Richards

Short Notice: Visit Krakow, Poland in June 2010! KFF | Krakow Film Festival

I am partial to 'Holding Still' with its other-worldly hiss-pop music, and I am exceedingly fond of director Florian Riegel. I understand Krakow, Poland is quite the place to be. So....

Established in 1961 as a national short film competition, KFF is the oldest film festival in Poland. Given the planet's history in the last several decades, how did it do that? How did it persist? Must have been passion. The current iteration is an international festival dedicated to documentary, animation and other short film forms. Check it out: this event is a survivor, and the city is ready for a party. They're celebrating their 50th!

Florian Riegel's documentary film 'Holding Still' is in competition on June 3 at Mikro Cinema at 16:30 and on June 5 at Kujów.Centrum Cinema at 10:00.

The logo is cool as all getout. (I'm learning the awards are about creatures and critters and dragons and such — raar.)

If you're in Poland (and who isn't?), make plans to enjoy a week or so in and out of the dark. Do you remember real documentaries and love short films and animation? They still have them. In Krakow. Go now! Step into the flickering light.

We have a WINNER!

CONGRATULATIONS, FLORIAN!

First Prize of the NRW Competition

1,000 euros, sponsored by the NRW.Bank

Holding Still

Florian Riegel

Germany 2010, 26 min 30 sec, HDCAM, colour

Statement:

A film that develops its narrative slowly. Edited to reveal nothing predictable, it takes its audience right into the tensions of a moving story that gradually unfolds to achieve its full power. The fact that the author takes up this story and the way he does it, even though he came across it by chance, is testimony to his ability to recognise an impressive subject and treat it with respect. A thoughtful cinematography steers us through its own images and the protagonist’s, which are her means of access to her world via her laptop. At the end, the perspective expands once more to include the outside world and gives us a moment of respite.

   

                        

                              Rolling along......! 

.

While the sun shines

...and our beaches are unsullied, prayer flags fly.

Cross your fingers as well.

Short Film Festival | Oberhausen Germany TONIGHT

If you will be in Oberhausen, don't miss the Festival. (How could you?) And please don't miss 'Holding Still.' Florian Riegel has made a lovely film.

From Different Perspectives:

"Those who hold still do not necessarily see less - they see things differently. The slowdown allows us to peek beneath the surface of the visible world."

Go!

'Holding Still' a film by Florian Riegel — tomorrow night

Florian Riegel's short film, 'Holding Still,' is screening again at the ShortFilm / Kurtzfilm Festival in Oberhausen, Germany on Thursday, April 22. Tomorrow. So, if you happen to be in Germany and have a little free time, try to see this short film. Really try! Roman Polanski, Wim Wenders and Gerhard Schröder praise this venue.

BONUS: I love this part. Kurtzfilm / Oberhausen has one of the most fantastic bizarro posters ever. You can download a high resolution image right here!

See?

Get it quick. They're going fast.

Thank you again, Florian.

Astronauts

A computer terminal is not some clunky old television with
a typewriter in front of it. It is an interface where the
mind and body can connect with the universe and move bits
of it about.

— Douglas Adams

Hula Hoop in the Headlights

She navigates a Magic Carpet.

Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.
  — Japenese saying

It's a holiday town on St. Patty's Day, so we ate corned beef and cabbage with the wind at our back, of course.

"Holding Still" | a film by Florian Riegel

There is something daunting about writing here, about writing what has happened and what has been said in private. What was disclosed so quietly has been made so public.

You have personal stories you might never tell. Who would you tell? Who would listen? How close to the bone dare you go? 

If you trust someone, if you believe they will not pervert your truth, if you believe they are not unlike you in your better and worse moments, if you believe they possess exceptional tools and insights, you might tell things you'd never told in this way before.

And this was the case when I spoke my stories and treasures and secrets into the microphone, forgetting the microphone, because I trusted my audience-of-one who hadn't come looking for this story at all. But a film which premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam was born of it.

Just so you know — My trust was not misplaced. I wish I had fed you heartily. I wish we drank all the coffee in the world. I wish you had smoked like crazy in my room. I wish I were in Rotterdam right now.

Thank you, Florian Riegel.

[The IFFR trailer is posted at the bottom of this page. Yes, scroll!]

In appreciation of a New Year's Eve blue moon...

...and anticipation of a stellar 2010...

...we'll enjoy traditional Hoppin' Johns + Bloody Marys + collards + corn bread (with bacon) (and Irish butter) with a houseful of friends.

Once in a blue moon it all goes away. The clouds clear.... [You can make up the rest for yourself and just hum; it's a good song]

—Randy Prentice

From the Miami Herald, my old hometown newspaper...

Posted on Thursday, 12.31.09

NEW YEAR'S EVE

Rare blue moon will illuminate skies on New Year's Eve

BY SUSANNAH BRYAN

Sun Sentinel

When the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve, remember to do one thing: Look up. A full moon will be shining down from its highest point, illuminating the landscape.
``It will be so clear it will take your breath away,'' said Jack Horkheimer, host of the PBS show Star Gazer. ``It will be super bright and super high for us.''
It will be the second full moon of the month -- a phenomenon known as a ``blue moon.'' A full moon on New Year's Eve last occurred on Dec. 31, 1990; it won't happen again until 2028.
Horkheimer, 71, held a ``Howl at the Full Moon'' party 19 years ago for families with kids in his Miami neighborhood.
``They came in their bath robes and pajamas,'' he said.
``It was the most fun New Year's Eve I ever had in my life. Those children are now adults, and they still remember it.''
Horkheimer encourages families to ring in 2010 in similar fashion.

Those who do can send photos or videos toStarGazerHowlIn@gmail.com. Twelve winners will receive a new telescope. 

 I remember Jack Horkheimer from Miami Space Transit Planetarium. Whoa.

Best wishes for a Brand New Year, y'all!