The 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge 2012 

9th - 19th February 2012, 11 days of contemporary art, film and media

Naherholung Sternchen, right behind the Kino International

more soon, submit now

truffle hunters in the field of new media

A detail of the mural at Naherholung Sternchen, showing members of Team DL, searching for the finest in experimental film for the 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge.

Help them digging the best, submit now!

[DL8]

The Wonders of the World stopped at seven; DL is going one better at eight. [DL8], the 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge Experimental Film Festival, is hitting Berlin in a new vein and venue, this year making the up-and-comer insider tip Naherholung Sternchen its stomping ground.

The reason for the move will be clear to all once they hit the doors, literally a stone’s throw from the iconic Kino International near Alexanderplatz: the location, a one-time thespians’ hangout already steeped in its own history, has clearly been waiting for this moment. This place wants to be, and [DL8] is the ticket make it happen.

There will be people you know and wish you did, performers, filmmakers and films, films, films, make no mistake – what you haven’t seen, what you don’t get to see, films not normed for consumption by the broad masses, but films of this length and that, free of clichés and predictable endings, free of everything you don’t need to see yet again.

How can we make it work? Bucketloads of dedication.
How can you miss it? There’s the question with only one answer. You can’t. Don’t. 1001 nights at the cinema, all in eleven days, films like you forgot or maybe never knew they could be made, films that will change the colour of your eyes and thoughts… on-beat, offbeat and everything between.

Conveniently run parallel to that other media extravaganza down at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz, but free of red carpets and frozen celebs. Photo-ops only if and when you make them.
If you don’t come on your own, we’re going to come and get you.

Everything will be fine in the end!

You submitted your movie and now you are desperately waiting for your login to upload?
Relax. Everyone who submitted through ftp will get a login. Due to the huge amount of submissions this may take some time but no one will get lost. Promised :)

cinegraph from Shining (1980) by iwdrm

For A Better Tomorrow: Submission Deadline extended till 1. Jan 2012

You asked for it and we´ve been listening. To ensure everyone can enjoy the holidays and celebrate the art of laziness we extended the chance to submit your work for The 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge till the 1. of January 2012.

Your humble Team DL

gif by imperial bedrooms

Here´s wishing you all a happy break and a cinelicious 2012, enjoy the time of hanging around.

And if you haven´t done so already, submit your fine films for [DL8]

[DL8] Oh so many in the queue

Still waiting for login infos or response?  Don´t worry, we will get in touch with you asap.

pictured:Thousands gather to protest global warming

via picapixels

Fritz Stolberg´s Of This, Men Shall Know Nothing! awarded Best Experimental Film at the 9th London Short Film Festival.

‘The film combined fantastic surrealistic imagery and intriguing symbolism, which evinced a unique aesthetic vision’. London Short Film Festival 2012

compliments, well deserved.

Of This, Men Shall Know Nothing! will be screened as part of The 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge,

(via London Short Film Festival 2012)

Festivals United | The Official Festiwelt Party | Wed. Feb 15.

The 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge will be an ongoing, eleven days in a row, cinedalic party. But we are going to top it off by celebrating with all the Berlin Film Festivals. Wednesday, 15th, will be the night to party with all the movers and shakers of the Berlin Film universe. Enough Festivals to kill a Rhino. Party starts at 9pm, free admission till 10pm.

Here you´ll find the program of all films, events and everything that will take place during the 11 days of The 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge 2012. (more or less)

Remember, DL is chaos in progress, everything is subject to change.

pic via bebe le strange

MATADOR by Maurizio von Trapp | World Premiere

in attendance

Matador takes an extreme and experimental approach to a subject so dear to cinema – voyeurism – whilst extending it to a wider context.
The film drives a parallel between pornography and bullfighting in a disjointed narrative reminiscent of dreams. As we watch a bullfighter seductively working the stage in a mixture of dance and sport, we are brought to a parallel underground world, where four women watch a couple having sex. An analogy is created between the spectacles of pornography and bullfighting, raising questions on the audience that is captivated by the entertainment being provided.
The sense of ceremony is widespread, as a nod to humanity’s need to assert themselves as intelligent, thinking things. The film, however, searches for something that goes beyond external exuberance to explore that which we all share: our animalistic instincts. Humans are, after all, an integrant part of the animal kingdom.

about Maurizio von Trapp:

Maurizio Von Trapp was born in Brazil in 1987. From Chilean and Italian descent, he now lives in the UK. In 2011, he completed his Film and TV BA (Hons) studies at the University of the Arts London, having worked in a number of different sectors of the UK film industry throughout his years as a student. His first short film, 1 or 2 Things I Don’t Know About Him, was selected for exhibition at the 2008 edition of the Raindance Film Festival in London. He is currently developing a number of projects, varying from music videos to video installations to short films.

MATADOR will be shown in World Premiere as part of the The Opening Mix II, Thurs 9 10:30pm, in attendance of Maurizio von Trapp

Maurizio Von Trapp GB Miss Mia Meows 11 min 50s 2011

Miss Mia meows, purrs, entangles her body amongst your legs; she also scratches and bites, and when bored or satisfied, Miss Mia leaves on the lookout for new adventures. She is adored by the bohemian masses that fill the gutters of the city when the sun goes down, all the bats and cats and rats that can’t expose themselves to daylight. Their HQ can be found at Madame Big Mo, a bar that houses a mixture of aristocrats, artists, tramps, whores and transexuals. Miss Mia’s journey is one of discovery, a path she has chosen for life: one that is neverending.

In this short film, we see her desperation through colourful lenses, in a world of technicolor that brings melancholy to a higher, comedic ground. Her surroundings build a world of timelessness, of erotic and mystic undertones.

Will Miss Mia continue on her path of uncertainty, or will she choose to settle down?

about Maurizio von Trapp:

Maurizio Von Trapp was born in Brazil in 1987. From Chilean and Italian descent, he now lives in the UK. In 2011, he completed his Film and TV BA (Hons) studies at the University of the Arts London, having worked in a number of different sectors of the UK film industry throughout his years as a student. His first short film, 1 or 2 Things I Don’t Know About Him, was selected for exhibition at the 2008 edition of the Raindance Film Festival in London. He is currently developing a number of projects, varying from music videos to video installations to short films.

If you want to know how a tango can be bitter or what happens when you follow your skin, make your way to [DL8] tonight, and find out… the Berlin International Directors Lounge Film Festival (in its eighth year) brings you such enigmatic subjects from a global crew of filmmakers. All in short films (from two to fifteen minutes), among them seven German, two European and six World Premieres… when were you last able to say you’d attended fifteen premieres in one night? “Irma” (Charles Fairbanks, US/MX) will provide an intriguing look at the former women’s pro wrestling world champion in what IndieLisboa’s Carlos Ramos describes as “a portrait built like a Russian matryoshka: surprise after surprise, revelation after revelation.” Maurizio von Trapp (GB) will be in attendance, world-premiering “Miss Mia Meows”, as native talent Claudia Guilino will be doing with thoughtful Buddhas in “Stony Sleep”. “Media In Motion” gets us going at 18:00, then two blocks of DL selection shorts get underway at 20:00, bringing Israel within reach of Italy and India next to Ireland, with much more thrown in… not a night you’ll want to miss. Screenings within spitting distance of the bar. Of course, at Naherholung Sternchen, behind Kino International.

                                                                KT/Team DL

DAY 3, Feb. 11th

IN THE SWIM OF THINGS, AND MORE, DL-STYLE

Tonight’s brand [DL8] round-up includes special guest Simon Ellis (GB), a young filmmaker who has garnered a lot of attention since walking off with the Sundance International Jury Prize and the British Independent Film Award and 35 others for his unsettling and thought-provoking short “Soft”, which will be in the program along with a cross-section of his widely varying celluloid offerings. It’s all rounded up under the title “Swimming in Pictures and Sound”, and expect to do just that… and chat with Mr. Ellis himself. The rest of the evening is no slouch, either: DL Selection III has H.D. Motyl (US) in attendance, presenting “Nudes Descending a Staircase, #2” in Europe for the first time, as well as Alexandra Staples (GB) with “Static Cardiac Rhythms”, two of sixteen (!) premieres tonight. Lorenzo Karasz (AT) will be there in person with his and Florian Kogler’s “Fassadendialog” and George Groshkov (BG) with “Breakfast: Always on time”, too. The evening begins with a surprise program at 18:00 (6:00 p.m.) and Ost West Achse (pt II) providing Balkan Bond Blues” as live diversion starting at midnight. At Naherholung Sternchen, behind Kino International. If that doesn’t sound like something….!

                                                                              KT/Team DL

Sun 12 | 6pm

MY SWEET CANARY - ROY SHER

A journey through the life and music of Roza Eskenazi

She was the most famous singer of the ‘30s in Greece and Turkey, the Diva of Rebetiko. With her posters displayed in every gramophone store, her Bohemian looks would drive even the toughest men crazy. (From the short story Roza, by Dinos Christianopoulos)

Roza Eskenazi sang the way she lived, with passion, fire and love.
This is the story of three young musicians from Greece, Turkey, and Israel,
who embark on an exciting musical journey, to tell the story of Greece’s
best-known and best-loved rebetiko singer for the first time on film.
It’s a journey that will take them from Istanbul to Thessaloniki and to
Athens, following the musical trail she left behind. Most of all, it’s a
journey into a world that has largely vanished, but whose sounds continue
to echo throughout the Mediterranean Basin.

pictured:The three musicians at the sirkeci train station, Istanbul

The ensemble, that is featuring the musicians from the film, will play live in Rudolstadt folk roots Festival on the 7th of July, as well as in Düsseldorf on the 23rd of September 2012.

More information:

www.mysweetcanary.com

Roy Sher IL My Sweet Canary  89 min  2011