IFFR honours filmmakers Ossang, Dorsky and Villaronga

40th International Film Festival Rotterdam
January 26 – February 6, 2011

PRESS RELEASE October 21, 2010

IFFR honours filmmakers Ossang, Dorsky and Villaronga The 40th International Film Festival Rotterdam (26 January to 6 February 2011) will be paying tribute in the form of oeuvre screenings to the filmmakers FJ Ossang (France), Agustí Villaronga (Spain) and Nathaniel Dorsky (USA). The festival will be screening their latest films alongside earlier works. The filmmakers will also be in Rotterdam to introduce their films and take part in Q&As with audiences.

FJ Ossang
FJ Ossang’s film oeuvre (four feature-length and five short films) is expressive, dark and plays with the conventions of the thriller and science fiction genres. It is also characterised by musical references to post-punk and industrial bands such as Killing Joke, Tuxedomoon and Throbbing Gristle.

Writer, singer and filmmaker Ossang (1956) started his artistic activities in the mid-1970s, publishing poetic texts, founding the literary magazine Cée and, from 1979, performing with his band MKB Fraction Provisoire. He made his debut as a filmmaker in 1982 with the short film LA DERNIÈRE ÉNIGME, which was also his graduation project at the film academy in Paris. In 1985, IFFR screened Ossang’s feature debut L’AFFAIRE DES DIVISIONS MORITURI, as well as his short fiction film ZONA INQUINATA. His hallucinating road movie DOCTEUR CHANCE (1997), with The Clash’s front man Joe Strummer, was selected for the competition at the Locarno film festival, and his short film SILENCIO (2006) was awarded the prestigious Prix Jean Vigo in France. In DHARMA GUNS (2010), that premièred at the Venice film festival, Ossang teams up again with British actor and rock singer Guy McKnight and French actors Elvire and Lionel Tua.

Agustí Villaronga
Filmmaker Agustí Villaronga (1953) films in a considered style, with a marvellous eye for detailed stories shot through with inner struggle, religion, eroticism, death and – sometimes – outbursts of horror and violence. He has been active as a director, screenwriter and actor since 1976. His oeuvre consists of four short films, five fiction films, two television films, two documentaries and two episodes for Spanish television series. Villaronga’s impressive full-length film debut TRAS EL CRISTAL (1987) is still seen as a controversial work. He has also made strong films with a surreal edge, such as EL NIÑO DE LA LUNA (with a soundtrack by Dead Can Dance and a lead role for the band’s singer Lisa Gerrard, 1989), EL MAR (2000) and ARO TOLBUKHIN. EN LA MENTE DEL ASESINO (2002), all of which are bringing increasing international recognition for Villaronga's work. His new film PA NEGRA (BLACK BREAD, 2010) had its premiere in competition at the San Sebastian film festival, and won a Silver Shell for actress Nora Navas.

Nathaniel Dorsky
In a way, Nathaniel Dorsky (1943) could be seen as one of the ‘classic’ American avant-garde filmmakers, although he is a relatively late developer within this group. Dorsky works with great care, filming on 16mm and projecting at 18 frames per second: ‘sacred speed’, as he calls it. He has not used sound since his very first films. The films are screened in silence, to focus all attention on the images: stunningly beautifully shot, silent and striking. The images do not refer to a subject the viewer is expected to recognize but stand completely alone.

Dorsky’s oeuvre consists of twenty short films, each of approx. 10 to 30 minutes. The Toronto film festival recently showed his new, lyrical films AUBADE, COMPLINE and PASTOURELLE (2010) in its Wavelengths programme. In his book, ‘Devotional Cinema’, published in 2004, Dorsky explains his vision of the transformative power of watching films, his influences and philosophy, related to Buddhism.

IFFR 2011: Signals
Signals is one of the three main sections at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, alongside Bright Future (films by beginning filmmakers and the Tiger Awards Competitions) and Spectrum (films by established directors). In Signals, IFFR presents current or historical themed programmes and oeuvres. During IFFR 2011, Signals will consist – alongside the retrospective programmes of Ossang, Dorsky and Villaronga – of Red Westerns (a series of communist westerns), Out of Fashion (a program about the interaction between the fashion industry and independent filmmaking) and Raiding Africa, a themed programme on Chinese-African relations, including new work by African filmmakers made in China. More Signals programmes will be announced later.

The whole festival programme will be published on Thursday, 20 January 2011, as an IFFR special insert in Dutch daily de Volkskrant and online at www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com. Online ticket sales for Tiger Friends only start on Thursday 20 January at 20.00 hours; the regular online box office opens on Friday 21 January at 20.00 hours. The festival box office is open from Tuesday 25 January 2011. The festival will take place from 26 January to 6 February 2011.

(End of press release)

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Press information: IFFR Press Office, Bert-Jan Zoet, [email protected], +31 (0)10-8909090