Faraz Fesharaki reveals himself a poet of the digital era with “What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov?”. The Iranian German filmmaker's first feature released just weeks ago at Berlinale 2024, a home festival for the of the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (Dffb). Now, the film will continue on abroad, with an upcoming international premiere this week at First Look with the Museum of the Moving Image's (MoMI).
What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov? is screening at MoMi, as part of the First Look 2024 program
“What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov?” opens with the wavering scanlines of a Crt screen. The curtains pull back to reveal a recording of an elementary school chorus in Iran. Like any amateur video, the footage is grainy; the view quivers with the shakiness of a handheld camera. A girl recites into the microphone – “Rise, oh children, rise!” – whilst two rows...
What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov? is screening at MoMi, as part of the First Look 2024 program
“What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov?” opens with the wavering scanlines of a Crt screen. The curtains pull back to reveal a recording of an elementary school chorus in Iran. Like any amateur video, the footage is grainy; the view quivers with the shakiness of a handheld camera. A girl recites into the microphone – “Rise, oh children, rise!” – whilst two rows...
- 3/15/2024
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
First Look, Museum of the Moving Image's annual festival for cutting-edge new cinema, returns next week for their 13th edition. This year's five-day event includes 20 features representing 21 countries, and many of them from Asia – including “Achilles”, “Self-Portrait: 47 Km 2020”, “Mimang”, and more. Beyond the traditional cinema, this year's video installation in the Amphitheater Gallery also features an Asian diaspora video artist, Fiona Tan, with her 97-minute video installation, “Footsteps.”
In reflection of this year's selection, we had the opportunity to speak to Edo Choi, MoMI Associate Curator of Film and First Look Senior Programmer. Choi also frequently contributes as a freelance critic and projectionist, with pieces in Reverse Shot and Film Comment. This time around, over Zoom, we talked about what it takes to get on the First Look slate and some personal highlights from the program.
First Look 2024
This interview has been edited and redacted for clarity.
This year...
In reflection of this year's selection, we had the opportunity to speak to Edo Choi, MoMI Associate Curator of Film and First Look Senior Programmer. Choi also frequently contributes as a freelance critic and projectionist, with pieces in Reverse Shot and Film Comment. This time around, over Zoom, we talked about what it takes to get on the First Look slate and some personal highlights from the program.
First Look 2024
This interview has been edited and redacted for clarity.
This year...
- 3/10/2024
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Museum of the Moving Image is pleased to announce the complete lineup for the 13th edition of First Look, the Museum's festival of new and innovative international cinema, which will take place in person March 13–17, 2024. Each year, First Look offers a diverse slate of major New York premieres, work-in-progress screenings and sessions, gallery installations, and fresh perspectives on the art and process of filmmaking. This year's festival introduces New York audiences to more than three dozen works from around the world. The guiding ethos of First Look is openness, curiosity, and discovery, aiming to expose audiences to new art, artists to new audiences, and everyone to different methods, perspectives, interrogations, and encounters. For five consecutive days the festival takes over MoMI's two theaters, as well as other rooms and galleries throughout the Museum—with in-person appearances and dialogue integral to the experience. Each night concludes with one of five...
- 2/14/2024
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
A Different Man.The Berlinale have begun to announce the first few titles selected for the 74th edition of their festival, set to take place from February 15 through 21, 2024. This page will be updated as further sections are announced.COMPETITIONAnother End (Piero Messina)Architecton (Victor Kossakovsky)Black Tea (Abderrahmane Sissako)La Cocina (Alonso Ruiz Palacios) Dahomey (Mati Diop)A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)The Empire (Bruno Dumont)Gloria! (Margherita Vicario)Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas)From Hilde, With Love (Andreas Dresen)My Favourite CakeLangue Etrangère (Claire Berger)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)Who Do I Belong To (Meryam Joobeur)Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias)Shambhala (Min Bahadur Bham)Sterben (Matthias Glasner)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)A Traveler’s Needs (Hong Sang-soo)Sleep With Your Eyes Open. ENCOUNTERSArcadia (Yorgos Zois)Cidade; Campo (Juliana Rojas)Demba (Mamadou Dia)Direct ActionSleep With Your Eyes Open (Nele Wohlatz)The Fable (Raam Reddy...
- 1/23/2024
- MUBI
The Berlinale has announced the full line-ups of its Panorama, Forum and Generation sidebars for the 74th edition running from February 15 to 24. (scroll down for full list)
Panorama will showcase 31 titles including one series and 25 world premieres.
Highlights include Swedish-Georgian director Levan Akin’s Crossing, his first feature since 2019 Cannes breakout And Then We Danced, which opens the selection.
The drama revolves around a retired teacher whose search for her long-lost niece Tekla takes her to Istanbul where she becomes acquainted with a trans rights lawyer.
Other buzzy titles set for a world premiere include André Téchiné’s My New Friends, starring Isabelle Huppert as a solitary police officer, and and Myriam El Hajj’s documentary Diaries From Lebanon, following three people as they navigate their country on the brink of revolution.
A number of Sundance titles will also be making a Panorama splash including Nathan Silver’s Between The Temples,...
Panorama will showcase 31 titles including one series and 25 world premieres.
Highlights include Swedish-Georgian director Levan Akin’s Crossing, his first feature since 2019 Cannes breakout And Then We Danced, which opens the selection.
The drama revolves around a retired teacher whose search for her long-lost niece Tekla takes her to Istanbul where she becomes acquainted with a trans rights lawyer.
Other buzzy titles set for a world premiere include André Téchiné’s My New Friends, starring Isabelle Huppert as a solitary police officer, and and Myriam El Hajj’s documentary Diaries From Lebanon, following three people as they navigate their country on the brink of revolution.
A number of Sundance titles will also be making a Panorama splash including Nathan Silver’s Between The Temples,...
- 1/17/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Sara Summa’s European road movie “Arthur & Diana,” which will make its world premiere in the Discovery section of Toronto Film Festival, has been picked up for world sales by Vienna-based Square Eyes. The film is debuting its trailer with Variety.
The film centers on siblings Arthur and Diana. Together with Diana’s two-year-old son, they leave Berlin for Paris for a short, relaxed trip for the required annual safety inspection of their rusty old Renault. But the journey will turn out not so relaxed, the direction not Paris, and whether the car will get to its destination is all too questionable.
Summa said: “‘Arthur & Diana’ is a very significant film for me personally, because it is an autofictional experiment in which my two-year-old son, my brother, and I play the protagonists of this purely fictional road movie. With this second feature I wanted to convey some joie de vivre...
The film centers on siblings Arthur and Diana. Together with Diana’s two-year-old son, they leave Berlin for Paris for a short, relaxed trip for the required annual safety inspection of their rusty old Renault. But the journey will turn out not so relaxed, the direction not Paris, and whether the car will get to its destination is all too questionable.
Summa said: “‘Arthur & Diana’ is a very significant film for me personally, because it is an autofictional experiment in which my two-year-old son, my brother, and I play the protagonists of this purely fictional road movie. With this second feature I wanted to convey some joie de vivre...
- 8/22/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The mashup of different cinematic techniques inside the same narrative, including music video aesthetics, narration, and the breaking of the fourth wall has been one of the most recent trends of the independent/art house scene, with Wes Anderson probably being the master of the “technique”. Alexandre Koberidze attempts something similar, although more intently art-house/low budget (European if you prefer) in a movie that is artful, quite intelligent, and at the same time, self-indulgent.
“What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?” is screening at Black Movie International Festival of Independent Movies
The film begins with a chance encounter that potentially could lead to a real romance, as medical student and pharmacy clerk Lisa bumps into footballer Giorgi on the street, in a scene that could be described as cheesy, as we watch him pick up the book she dropped before the two agree on date. However,...
“What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?” is screening at Black Movie International Festival of Independent Movies
The film begins with a chance encounter that potentially could lead to a real romance, as medical student and pharmacy clerk Lisa bumps into footballer Giorgi on the street, in a scene that could be described as cheesy, as we watch him pick up the book she dropped before the two agree on date. However,...
- 1/30/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Southern Spain’s annual showcase of standout recent European auteur cinema, the Seville European Film Festival, wrapped its 18th edition Saturday, Nov. 13 with a slew of prizes scattered among its various contenders, with the top prize, the Giraldillo de Oro, going to Sebastian Meise’s “Great Freedom” and its lead, Franz Rogowski, nabbing the best actor award. The Andalusian screenwriters association, Asecan, also chose the drama as the best film in the festival’s official selection.
Set in post-war Germany, “Great Freedom” has been racking up rave reviews and prizes across the festival circuit, starting with its Cannes Un Certain Regard jury prize and most recently in Athens and Sarajevo where it topped their awards. In it, Hans, played by Rogowski, is imprisoned repeatedly for being gay. The only constant in his life is his cellmate, Viktor, a convicted murderer, with whom his initial repulsion turns to something akin to love.
Set in post-war Germany, “Great Freedom” has been racking up rave reviews and prizes across the festival circuit, starting with its Cannes Un Certain Regard jury prize and most recently in Athens and Sarajevo where it topped their awards. In it, Hans, played by Rogowski, is imprisoned repeatedly for being gay. The only constant in his life is his cellmate, Viktor, a convicted murderer, with whom his initial repulsion turns to something akin to love.
- 11/14/2021
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
One of the year’s most magical cinematic experiences hails from Georgia. Alexandre Koberidze’s What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?, which premiered at Berlinale earlier this year and opens in theaters this week via Mubi, is a delightful city symphony capturing summer in Kutaisi. Following a pharmacist named Lisa and a soccer player named Giorgi––along with many others who call the city home––we witness quite a unique take on a relationship story as life unfolds around them.
I spoke with Koberidze about inviting the audience into this fairy tale of a film, his time at German Film and Television Academy Berlin (Dffb), the joy of Buster Keaton films, his favorite city symphonies, capturing soccer in cinema, canines, and more.
The Film Stage: At the New York Film Festival premiere you mentioned that every second of this film felt precious to you and you...
I spoke with Koberidze about inviting the audience into this fairy tale of a film, his time at German Film and Television Academy Berlin (Dffb), the joy of Buster Keaton films, his favorite city symphonies, capturing soccer in cinema, canines, and more.
The Film Stage: At the New York Film Festival premiere you mentioned that every second of this film felt precious to you and you...
- 11/11/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Movies can truly be anything, and the beauty of Alexandre Koberidze’s “What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?” is how it reminds us of that — time and again — during almost every one of its meandering 150 minutes.
Nevertheless, a crucial scene towards the beginning stands out for the way it epitomizes that magic. A soccer player named Giorgi (Giorgi Ambroladze) and a knowledgeable young pharmacist named Lisa (Ani Karseladze) have just enjoyed an extremely Lanthimos-esque meet-cute along the banks of the Rioni River in the ancient Georgian city of Kutaisi; we’ve only seen them interact from the knees down or through nighttime long shots lensed from so far away that these characters have been reduced to specks of light in the darkness, but the film’s affectless narrator (voiced by Koberidze himself) assures us of their shared affections. Alas, they are both about to be cursed as well,...
Nevertheless, a crucial scene towards the beginning stands out for the way it epitomizes that magic. A soccer player named Giorgi (Giorgi Ambroladze) and a knowledgeable young pharmacist named Lisa (Ani Karseladze) have just enjoyed an extremely Lanthimos-esque meet-cute along the banks of the Rioni River in the ancient Georgian city of Kutaisi; we’ve only seen them interact from the knees down or through nighttime long shots lensed from so far away that these characters have been reduced to specks of light in the darkness, but the film’s affectless narrator (voiced by Koberidze himself) assures us of their shared affections. Alas, they are both about to be cursed as well,...
- 9/29/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
After the success of his first feature Let the Summer Never Come, Georgian filmmaker Alexandre Koberidze found his second feature What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? placed prominently within the main competition of the Berlinale’s recent online edition, where it was met with considerable acclaim and the receipt of the Fipresci prize. Koberidze’s two features share some similarities, but this second one—made as the filmmaker’s graduation project for the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (Dffb) programme that filmmakers such as Christian Petzold and Angela Schanelec studied on—seems like a scaling up. Instead of himself filming (as he did with a Sony Ericsson W595 for his first film) Koberidze works here with a crew and a cinematographer. He continues some ideas from his first feature and introduces many others that are new. Taken together, these two films display an emerging filmmaker...
- 3/31/2021
- MUBI
“Attention!” bawls an onscreen title, or rather its subtitle, given that the original is written in Georgia’s lovely curly alphabet. “Dear Audience, please close your eyes at the first signal.” Alexandre Koberidze, writer-director-narrator of the marvellous, mischievous “What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?” probably doesn’t expect anyone to obey as he effects his story’s central switcheroo, like a kid not great at magic asking mom to look away from the handkerchiefs he’s stuffing up his sleeve. But that’s not the point.
Instead, the command, along with other self-conscious flourishes like the direct-address voiceover, the creaky, obviously manual zooms and the sudden, interruptive digressions about global catastrophe and far-off forest fires, reminds us of ourselves in relation to the film, that we are active participants in the creation of this (or any) work of cinema. And given how much this movie loves the movies,...
Instead, the command, along with other self-conscious flourishes like the direct-address voiceover, the creaky, obviously manual zooms and the sudden, interruptive digressions about global catastrophe and far-off forest fires, reminds us of ourselves in relation to the film, that we are active participants in the creation of this (or any) work of cinema. And given how much this movie loves the movies,...
- 3/3/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
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