IFFR’s For Real offers cinematic experiences outside the screening room

41st International Film Festival Rotterdam
25 January - 5 February 2012

PRESS RELEASE 27 December 2011

IFFR’s For Real offers cinematic experiences outside the screening room

The theme programme For Real, part of International Film Festival Rotterdam’s main section Signals, presents a series of cinematic experiences outside the screening room. Festival visitors participate not only as an extra or actor, but may even become a filmmaker in the HOME MOVIE FACTORY by Michel Gondry. Another spectacular event within For Real is EYE TRAP in which the Metropole Orchestra plays a soundtrack, composed for the occasion, for the view on the river Maas as seen from the Cruise Terminal in Rotterdam.

Nowadays our consciousness is penetrated to such an extent with film and moving images that we perceive reality as film in an increasingly matter-of-course way. Additionally the interaction between the virtual and physical spaces has been intensified with the rise of smart phones and wireless techniques. Also film and reality coincide more often in new cinematic art forms. For Real visualizes these developments by presenting fifteen special projects.

A dedicated venue, titled Reality Check (Schouwburgplein 54, Rotterdam), serves as meeting place and departure point of the For Real projects DESIGNED REALITES, the subtle mob OUR BROKEN VOICE, the mobile film MEET YOUR STRANGER, PERFORMANCE #1 and the works by Pilvi Takala.
Signals: For Real is curated by IFFR director Rutger Wolfson and the IFFR programmers Edwin Carels and Inge de Leeuw.

Up till 20 January pre-sale tickets for EYE TRAP, HOME MOVIE FACTORY, 100 METERS BEHIND THE FUTURE, Soundtrackcity Rotterdam en MEET YOUR STRANGER are available at the IFFR Webshop. From 20 January 8 pm tickets are available at www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com.

This edition, IFFR’s main section Signals is supported by SNS REAAL Fund.

Overview For Real:

Metropole Orchestra, Muziekinstituut MultiMedia & Germaine Kruip - EYE TRAP (Netherlands), world premiere
A soundtrack written especially for one of the most spectacular views from Rotterdam: the panorama from the Cruise Terminal on the river Maas, the Erasmus Bridge and the Rotterdam skyline. The soundtrack, written by composers of the Muziekinstituut MultiMedia will be live performed on Friday February 3 from 4.30 pm by the Metropole Orchestra (Netherlands). EYE TRAP, directed by Germaine Kruip (Netherlands), is supported by the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB).

Michel Gondry - HOME MOVIE FACTORY (France)
The interactive installation HOME MOVIE FACTORY by French filmmaker Michel Gondry gives participants the opportunity and resources to make a short film in three hours.
Participation in the HOME MOVIE FACTORY is free, and requires no special training or knowledge. Ready-to-use film sets and equipment make an infinite number of storylines possible. After three hours, participants are able to see a screening of their film and are given DVD copies of the final product. The HOME MOVIE FACTORY is located January 27 up till March 4, 2012 at Roodkapje ROTTTERDAM and takes place thanks to the support of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

eteam - 100 METERS BEHIND THE FUTURE (USA), world premiere
100 METERS BEHIND THE FUTURE is a live film that is being shot, acted, directed, edited, screened, watched and deleted in real time on the Wilhelminapier in Rotterdam. The screening room is the front row of a van in which the audience is being driven around while following the action in double view through the windshield of the car and the screen of the tablet computer they hold in their hands.

Soundtrackcity Rotterdam (Netherlands), world premiere
Soundtrackcity Rotterdam consists of four sound walks on the Wilhelminapier in Rotterdam. Each participant walks his own film in about 30 to 45 minutes along a specified route while the sound tracks, written for the occasion, stimulate the imagination. The participating sound artists are Francisco López (Spain), Jeroen Stout & Jan-Bas Bollen (Netherlands), Katarina Zdjelar (Servia) & Maziar Afrassiabi (Iran) en Lee Patterson (UK). Soundtrackcity is supported by a contribution from the Mondriaan Foundation and the Centrum voor Beeldende Kunst in Rotterdam.

Soundtrackcity Rotterdam - Seminar THE CITY AS SOUND
The seminar THE CITY AS SOUND focuses on the question "How does reality change into a cinematic experience when we walk through a city influenced by a soundtrack made for the location?”. Participants will be, among others, Justin Bennett, Kees Hin, Raviv Ganchrow, Marcel Cobussen and Jacqueline Oskamp. The seminar takes place at LantarenVenster on 27 January, 2-5 pm, English spoken.

Designed Realities: Production designer Carol Spier in conversation with Timo de Rijk
Powered by Premsela, the Netherlands Institute for Design and Fashion
Production designer Carol Spier (Canada) talks to Professor Timo de Rijk about her work as set designer, about design in film and in real life, as well as about the link between perceived ‘reality’ and design. Carol Spier is best known for the inventive set design of the films by director David Cronenberg. She created the production designs for his films including EASTERN PROMISES, HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, EXISTENZ and VIDEODROME. Cronenbergs A DANGEROUS METHOD will be screening in IFFR2012.
Timo de Rijk holds the Premsela Chair Design Cultures at the VU University in Amsterdam. This Chair was established with the aim to stimulate the research and education concerning the position and effects of design within society. Designed Realites takes place January 28 from 4 pm at Reality Check.

circumstance - OUR BROKEN VOICE (UK)
Participants of this ‘subtle mob’ share with many unknown others a cinematic experience full of twists and turns near the festival centre in Rotterdam. Through headphones, a film soundtrack and a story line, only participants are part of the film that plays in everyday reality. OUR BROKEN VOICE departs from Reality Check.

Sander Veenhof - MEET YOUR STRANGER (Netherlands), world premiere
Search your adversary with your smart phone as a prompter and play your part in the mobile film that plays around IFFR’s festival centre. MEET YOUR STRANGER is the result of collaboration between producer/director Andre Freyssen, stage director Madeleen Bloemendaal and augmented reality expert Sander Veenhof. Daily between 4 and 8 pm, departure Reality Check.

Sascha Pohle: REFRAMING THE ARTIST (Netherlands)
Dialogues from more than 50 different movies about artists (Pollock, Surviving Picasso etc.) are reenacted by craftsmen in the Dafen Oil Painting Village, where western art is reproduced on a massive scale. Are they really tormented by the same artistic doubts? The video-installation REFRAMING THE ARTIST is exhibited in Reality Check.

Pilvi Takala – AMONG OTHERS (Finland/Netherlands)
Several monitors appear in semi-public spaces around the festival center. Takala invites us to follow her game of trespassing and challenging social situations. In all of her videos and performances she causes a lot of confusion with her subversive role-play. During the festival period, departure from Reality Check.

Wouter Huis - PERFORMANCE #1 and DISCLAIMER (Netherlands)
Participate in a strange and quiet performance. For a short moment, an empty space will be turned into a theatre. Wouter Huis transforms every passerby into a fictive character with a simple intervention: by placing a confusing sign (DISCLAIMER) or using the magic gateway of a garage door (Performance #1). DISCLAIMER can be seen at the Manhattan Hotel; PERFORMANCE #1 takes place on 27 and 30 January and on 3 February at 4 and 8 pm, departure from Reality Check.

Aram Bartholl - MAP (Germany)
With a small graphic icon Google Maps marks search results in the map interface. The size of the life size red marker in physical space corresponds to the size of a marker in the web interface in maximal zoom factor of the map. Location: Schouwburgplein, Rotterdam.

Vincent Morisset - BLA BLA (Canada), world premiere
BLA BLA, originally an interactive web-based project, has been enlarged into a playful and joyful animated environment in which visitors play the biggest role. The ‘film for a computer’ explores the communication among people and turns the viewer into a filmmaker. Location during the festival: Rotterdamse Schouwburg.

Simon Pummell - THE SPUTNIK EFFECT (Netherlands), world premiere
Total paranoia is the keyword in this media-installation, exhibited during the festival at TENT (Witte de Withstraat 50, Rotterdam). Armed with 3D-glasses the visitor will drown in the schizophrenic mind of Schreber, one of Freud’s most famous patients. He is also the main character in Pummell’s feature film SHOCK HEAD SOUL, screening in IFFR 2012’s Spectrum section.

Piet Zwart Institute – Symposium: Imagined Cinemas
A further exploration of For Real by an adventurous gathering of artists, historians and progammers who share an interest in translating the notion of cinema to other practices, such as soundwalks, scripted spaces and installation art. With special live-radio interventions. The symposium takes place on January 30, 10 am- 5 pm at the Piet Zwart Instituut (Mauritsstraat 36, Rotterdam).


(End of overview For Real)

The IFFR’s festival program consists of three main sections: Bright Future - idiosyncratic and adventurous new work by novice makers, including the Tiger Awards Competitions -, Spectrum - new and recent work by experienced film makers and artists who provide, in the opinion of the IFFR, an essential contribution to international film culture -, and Signals, a series of thematic programs and retrospectives offering insight in topical as well as timeless ideas within cinema. Thursday January 19 the full IFFR 2012 lineup will be published as a supplement to Dutch national newspaper de Volkskrant and online on www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com.

Press information:
IFFR Press Office, Bert-Jan Zoet / Nancy van Oorschot
[email protected], +31 10 8909090

[email protected], +31 10 8909090