New York, NY (October 28, 2013) – The Romanian Film Initiative and the Film Society of Lincoln Center are pleased to announce the 8th edition of MAKING WAVES: New Romanian Cinema, which has been hailed by The Wall Street Journal as “the annual weeklong survey that has helped define and establish the southeastern European country as a stronghold of socially incisive, independently minded personal cinema.” The 2013 edition of the festival will take place at the Film Society of Lincoln Center from November 29 to December 3, 2013. The festival offers an encounter with the newest contemporary Romanian filmmaking, including features, documentaries and shorts, along with retrospectives of Romanian filmmakers, special programs, panels and book launches.
“From its rich and underexplored past to its still-thriving present, Romanian cinema remains among the most vital in the world,” said Dennis Lim, FSLC Director of Cinematheque Programming. “We are very pleased to welcome back our Romanian showcase Making Waves for one of its strongest editions yet.”
This year the series will expand with a selection of the line up screening at the Jacob Burns Film Center from December 5-10.
For the second consecutive year, MAKING WAVES is now a fully independent festival of Romanian contemporary cinema and culture, made possible solely through the support of private funders and individual donations, including a large number of Romanian artists who believe that audiences at home and abroad deserve unfettered access to the best of Romanian contemporary culture. The series receives no public funding from Romanian state institutions.
Initiated in 2006 and chaired by reputed cultural entrepreneur and cultural policy expert Corina Șuteu, MAKING WAVES has become a fixture in New York City’s cultural scene. In an inventive selection made by artistic director Mihai Chirilov, MAKING WAVES also introduces American audiences to films and filmmakers who laid the ground for the new Romanian cinema long before Cannes or Berlin discovered “The Romanian New Wave.” The festival has grown every year, attracting a larger and dedicated following and building a strong recognition in the U.S. media and among film professionals, both Romanian and American.
Corina Șuteu, President of Making Waves, states, “This year, Making Waves represents for its initiators a landmark, as a Romanian film season striving to make a strong statement about the absolute need for freedom of artistic expression in times when propaganda is more than exclusively the instrument of authoritarian systems. The 2013 edition of Making Waves is also modestly dedicated to the “Save Roșia Montană” movement of peaceful protests all over the world.”
Mihai Chirilov, Artistic Director, adds, “This is our most surprising edition yet. Next to sure bets like Cristi Puiu and Corneliu Porumboiu’s newest films, there’s the top winner at this year’s Berlinale, the world premiere of a Romanian film shot in English with an stellar international cast, a triple dose of genre cinema from the ‘80s, and last but not least, a provocative documentary that dares to investigate a strange experiment from Romania’s recent history.”
This year’s edition includes exciting and critically-acclaimed new works including the World Premiere of the U.S.-Romanian production Closer to the Moon by Nae Caranfil as the opening night film, a true account of high-ranking Jewish members of the nomenklatura, who robbed the Romanian National Bank making it look like a film shoot, the Romanian selection for the Oscar® for best foreign film, Child’s Pose by Călin Peter Netzer, and the NYFF51 favorite When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism by Corneliu Porumboiu which is the closing night film. Equally new are Domestic, Adrian Sitaru's third and most accomplished film yet, box-office hit Love Building, directed by first-timer Iulia Rugină and two feature-length documentaries: the bittersweet Here... I Mean There by Laura Căpățână-Juller (Best Romanian Film at the Transilvania International Film Festival) and the highly provocative The București Experiment by Tom Wilson, most probably the first mockumentary in the Romanian film history.
The 8th edition of MAKING WAVES includes a retrospective of the work of Corneliu Porumboiu. In a recent article flagging “20 Directors to Watch” in The New York Times, A.O. Scott wrote, “Mr. Porumboiu is a master of the long static shot, the weary argument and the deadpan existential joke. He fixes his camera on the struggles of minor potentates and midlevel functionaries — a TV host in “12:08”; a detective and his bosses in “Police, Adjective”; a movie director in “Evening Falls on Bucharest, or Metabolism” — and divines the secrets of his society, and of our vain, pathetic species, in the smallest details of speech and behavior.”
MAKING WAVES continues its special program “Creative Freedom through Cinema” about the relationship between arts and politics, focusing on film as a propaganda tool then and now, inviting the Czech Republic and Slovakia to join in the conversation. Special screenings of landmark films by Dan Pița, Mircea Veroiu, Štefan Uher and Jirí Menzel will be accompanied by a panel conversation with filmmakers, film historians and curators from the guest countries. Presented in partnership with the Romanian National Film Center, Czech Center New York and the Slovak Film Institute, and with leading support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
Included in this program is the Transylvanians Trilogy, a compelling incursion into the “Red Western” (or “Eastern”) genre, produced in Romania in the ‘80s and directed by reputed filmmakers Dan Pița and Mircea Veroiu. This popular trilogy tells the story of two Transylvanians who go to America to persuade their brother to come back home, and will be presented for the first time to U.S. audiences in its entirety, with brand new prints.
The festival will also present its annual series of short films that will run for free throughout the festival. These include a crop of the best recent Romanian short films highlighting directors to watch, along with a selection of the shorts by Corneliu Porumboiu.
Other special screenings include Cristi Puiu’s Three Exercises of Interpretation, which emerged from an acting workshop led by the director of The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu, and the unusual visual campaign of the 2013 Transilvania International Film Festival which includes 20 clips directed by Puiu starring Luminița Gheorghiu.
Special Guests
Luminița Gheorghiu, winner of the 2006 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu, is this year’s special guest. She delivers a pitch perfect performance in Child’s Pose, and will take questions from the audience after the screening. Director Nae Caranfil (The Rest is Silence) will join the festival opening for the World Premiere of his latest film, Closer to the Moon. Corneliu Porumboiu, subject of a festival retrospective, will return to New York for the closing night screening of When Evening Falls on Bucharest, or Metabolism. Other guests include Tom Wilson, writer and director of The București Experiment, Eugen Lumezianu and Oana Răsuceanu, actor and screenwriter, respectively, of Love Building. Štěpán Hulík, screenwriter of Agnieska Holland’s Burning Bush and author of Cinema of Forgetting on Czechoslovak cinema, and film curator Irena Kovarova will join the conversation about film and propaganda.
Dominique Nasta, Professor of Film Studies at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, will join the festival for the launch of her recently published book – Contemporary Romanian Cinema. The History of an Unexpected Miracle, the first in-depth analysis of many essential films ranging from the silent period to the present day.
MAKING WAVES 2013 is made possible with the leading support of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Alexandre Almăjeanu and Gentica Foundation, Adrian Porumboiu, HBO Romania, Adrian Giurgea, Colgate University & Christian A. Johnson Foundation, Blue Heron Foundation, Mica Ertegun, Marie France Ionesco, Lucian Pintilie, Daiana Voiculescu and Renzo Cianfranelli, and other generous sponsors and donors, including visual artists Șerban Savu, Dan Perjovschi, Adrian Ghenie, Mircea Cantor. For the second year, over 250 festival audiences, artists and Romanian film fans supported Making Waves as part of a Kickstarter campaign, and many others have joined the first festival fundraising gala event and auction, and placed their bids on objects from landmark films of the Romanian New Wave. Special support from ICON Production, LARK Play Development Center, Șapte Seri, Dilema veche, Radio Guerilla, filmmaker Mona Nicoară, and Răzvan Popovici (SoNoRo).
Last but not least, the campaign for the independent continuation and expansion of the festival has been backed by leading filmmakers including directors Corneliu Porumboiu, Nae Caranfil, Tudor Giurgiu, Radu Muntean, Alexandru Solomon, Cristi Puiu, Cătălin Mitulescu, Cristian Mungiu, actors Luminița Gheorghiu, Vlad Ivanov, Andi Vasluianu, or producer Ada Solomon.
The Festival Board includes Corina Șuteu, President; Mihai Chirilov, Artistic Director; Oana Radu, Romanian Film Initiative; Dennis Lim, Director of Cinematheque Programming, Film Society of Lincoln Center; and Brian Ackerman, Programming Director, Jacob Burns Film Center.
The continuation and expansion of Making Waves has also been supported by an Honorary Board which brings together Scott Foundas, Senior Film Critic, Variety; visual artist Adrian Ghenie; documentary filmmaker and human rights activist Mona Nicoară, and visual artist Dan Perjovschi.
Screening Venues:
The Film Society of Lincoln Center
WRT: Walter Reade Theater, 165 W 65th Street, north side between Broadway & Amsterdam, upper level
HGT: Howard Gilman Theatre, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, 144 W 65th Street, south side between Broadway & Amsterdam
FBT: Francesca Beale Theater, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, 144 W 65th Street, south side between Broadway & Amsterdam
AMP: Amphitheater, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, 144 W 65th Street, south side between Broadway & Amsterdam
Tickets go on sale on today, October 28.
Single screening tickets are $13; $9 for students and seniors (62+); and $8 for Film Society members. A three-film package is $30; $24 for students and seniors (62+); and $21 for Film Society members. The package discount prices apply with the purchase of tickets to three films or more. With an All Access Pass for $99, see all fifteen films in Making Waves, including the Opening Night, Centerpiece and Closing Night screenings. The All Access Pass is available for purchase exclusively online.
Visit www.FilmLinc.com for complete information.
PRESS SCREENINGS
TUE. NOV 12, 10:00 am (HGT) THE PROPHET, THE GOLD, AND THE TRANSYLVANIANS
WED. NOV 13, 10:00 am (HGT) THREE EXERCISES OF INTERPRETATION
THURS NOV. 14, 1:00 pm (WRT) CHILD’S POSE
THURS NOV. 14, 3:15 pm (WRT) HERE... I MEAN THERE Followed by SHADOW OF A CLOUD
