46ste International Film Festival Rotterdam

25 januari – 5 februari 2017

Rotterdam, 30 December 2016

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has announced the first part of its Deep Focus 2017 selection. In Deep Focus – one of the festival’s four programme sections – IFFR focuses in on cinema itself, in all its diversity, through retrospectives, masterclasses, compilations and countless other manifestations. Film art cultivated in all it’s variety.

Alongside the Signatures main programme, the Deep Focus section comprises of the programme elements Regained, the one-off Nuts & Bolts programme and retrospectives dedicated to the work of Jan Němec and Su Hui-yu. A new element this year is Frameworks, a separate selection of films by artists as part of the Signatures programme.

In Signatures, IFFR presents new work by established makers, auteurs and festival veterans. From Lav Diaz’s The Woman Who Left (an award-winner in Venice) to Albert Serra’s La mort de Louis XIV and Ulrich Seidl’s latest film, Safari. Almost ten years after his legendary Historias Extraordinarias, Mariano Llinás’ new epic project is nearing completion. The first part of La Flor, which is made up of two distinct parts, will have its international premiere during the festival. Bill Morrison and Patrick Bokanowski – two exceptional filmmakers, each of whom has developed a highly personal form of filmmaking – have also been confirmed for Signatures. In Dawon City: Frozen Time, Morrison reveals a treasure trove of stories on nitrate film, buried for decades in Canadian soil. With Un rêve solaire, the visual alchemist Bokanowski has created perhaps the most hallucinogenic film in his oeuvre.

Clockwise: La mort de Louis XIV, La flor, The Woman Who Left, Safari, Dawson City: Frozen Time and Un rêve solaire.

Under the label Frameworks, IFFR shows films made by visual artists. These films work just as well in a cinema setting as in a museum or gallery space, bringing with them a contemporary art frame of reference. Highlights include Fiona Tan’s poetic photo montage Ascent; the conceptual detective film Where is Rocky II? by Pierre Bismuth and Jungle Book remake Die reine Notwendigkeit by media artist David Claerbout, which has its world première at the festival.

Ascent; Where is Rocky II?; Die reine Notwendigkeit

In the Regained section, new light is cast on existing film material by means of restored classics, films about film, experimental works and installations. John Torres’ People Power Bombshell: Diary of Vietnam Rose will have its international première during IFFR. This reconstruction of an uncompleted film is experienced as a feverish trip that acts as a metaphor for the Philippine nation and its traumas. With Conner’s Crossroads and The Exploding Digital Inevitable, American film archivist Ross Lipman will present a live performance based around Bruce Conner’s notorious film Crossroads, which combines nuclear explosions with minimal music. To create the project Homeless Movies, which has its international première on the Schouwburgplein in special individual film cabins, six luminaries of the Belgian arts scene pored over amateur films.

People Power Bombshell: Diary of Vietnam Rose (left), Conner's Crossroads and The Exploding Digital Inevitable (right)

IFFR will present the most extensive retrospective of the work of Jan Němec ever assembled. Alongside familiar classics, the programme will also present seldom-seen works from the fifteen-year period of Němec’s exile. Comprising of fiction films, documentaries, shorts and television films, this programme reflects the huge diversity of the Czech filmmaker’s oeuvre. Heart Beat 3D (2010), an experimental work that has hardly ever been shown, will have its international première in Rotterdam, as will his last film The Wolf of Royal Vineyard Street (2016).

Heart Beat 3D (left), The Wolf of Royal Vineyard Street (right)

While his latest film Super Taboo has been selected for the Tiger Competition for Short Films, IFFR is also presenting a short programme of previous works by this Taiwanese artist. Su Hui-yu: The Midnight Hours gives an overview of his recent hypnotic video works, dealing with what people get up to in the hours after the clock has chimed midnight. Made up principally of festival premieres, the programme shows Su Hui-yu’s investigations of late-night TV and how the media, technology and social conventions shape human behaviour.

An overview of the titles already confirmed for the Deep Focus section is given below.The one-off programme section Nuts & Bolts, along with the rest of the Deep Focus selection, will be announced in early January. 

DEEP FOCUS: Signatures

Premieres

La Flor (Parte 1), Mariano Llinás, Argentina, international premiere

Confirmed titles

Beduino, Júlio Bressane, Brazil

Belle dormante, Adolfo Arrieta, France/Spain

Big Big World, Reha Erdem, Turkey

Dawson City: Frozen Time, Bill Morrison, USA

La mort de Louis XIV, Albert Serra, France/Spain

Un rêve solaire, Patrick Bokanowski, France

Safari, Ulrich Seidl, Austria

Der traumhafte Weg, Angela Schanelec, Germany

The Woman Who Left, Lav Diaz, Philippines

Yourself and Yours, Hong Sangsoo, South Korea 

DEEP FOCUS: Frameworks

Premieres

I’m coming up, Ting Ming-wei, Singapore, international premiere

Die reine Notwendigkeit, David Claerbout, Belgium, world premiere

Sanctuary, Ashley Sabin & David Redmon, Canada/USA/UK/Ireland, world premiere

The Silent Eye, Amiel Courtin-Wilson, Australia, international premiere

Tonsler Park, Kevin Jerome Everson, USA, world premiere

Confirmed titles

Ascent, Fiona Tan, Netherlands/Japan

Tony Conrad, Invented Acoustical Instruments, Cameron Jamie, Germany 

Where is Rocky II?, Pierre Bismuth, USA/France

DEEP FOCUS: Regained - theatrical

Premieres

Accelerando (part of 1917 – Europe’s Optical Illusion), Georg Wasner, Austria, short film, international premiere

L’amatore, Maria Mauti, Italy, international premiere

Conner’s Crossroads and The Exploding Digital Inevitable, Ross Lipman, USA, world premiere

People Power Bombshell: Diary of Vietnam Rose, John Torres, Philippines, international premiere

Escapes, Michael Almereyda, USA, world premiere

Mansfield 66/67, David Ebersole & Todd Hughes, UK/USA, international premiere

Por la Libertad, Laurence Garret, Mexico/France, world premiere

Raoul Ruiz, contre l'ignorance fiction, Alejandra Rojo, France, international premiere

Confirmed titles

1917 – Europe’s Optical Illusion, Georg Wasner, Austria

Break Up, Marco Ferreri, Italy

David Lynch: the art of life, Jon Nguyen, USA

Epistolar, Alejandra Rojo, France, short film

Exprmntl, Brecht Debackere, Belgium

Family of Man, combined programme:

• Answer Print, Mónica Savirón, USA, short film
• As crianças fantasmas, João Vieira Torres, Brazi/France, short film, European premiere
• Conseil d'Etat, Fanny Zaman, Belgium, short film
• Sergei/Sir Gay, Mark Rappaport, France/USA, short film, international premiere
• What Happened to Her, Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, USA, short film

Le film à venir, Alejandra Rojo, France, short film

How I Fell in Love with Eva Ras, André Gil Mata, Portugal/Bosnia and Herzegovina

Tony Conrad: Completely In The Present, Tyler Hubby, USA

where were we, combined programme:

• Burning Mountains That Spew Flame, Samuel M. Delgado & Helena Girón, Spain, short film, European premiere

• Colossal Cave, Graeme Arnfield, UK, short film

• A Place I've Never Been, Adrian Flury, Switzerland, short film

• Remote, Eva Giolo, Belgium, short film, international premiere

• The Stability of the System, Sasha Litvintseva & Isabel Mallet, UK, short film, international premiere

• Tempo of Tomorrow Revisited, Josh Gibson & Annie Gibson, USA/Cuba, short film, European premiere

DEEP FOCUS: Regained - non-theatrical

EXPRMNTL PAPERS, Xavier Garcia Bardon, Belgium @ Printroom

Homeless Movies, combined programme, Belgium @ Schouwburgplein

Jointed Film, Imai Norio, exposition @ Gallery Joey Ramone

Jan zonder vrees, Jef Cassiers, live score by Alain Pierre, Belgium @ WORM

Lost Landscapes of L.A., Rick Prelinger, USA @ Schouwburg Mediawall 

DEEP FOCUS: Jan Němec Retrospective

Premieres

Heart Beat 3D, Jan Němec, Czech Republic, international premiere

The Wolf of Royal Vineyard Street, Jan Němec, Czech Republic/Slovakia/France, international premiere

Confirmed titles

The Party and the Guests, Jan Němec, Czechoslovakia

Between Minute 4 and 5, Jan Němec, Czechoslovakia, short film

Code Name: Ruby, Jan Němec, Czech Republic

The Czech Connection, Jan Němec, West Germany, short film

Diamonds of the Night, Jan Němec, Czechoslovakia

The Ferrari Dino Girl, Jan Němec, Czech Republic

Flames of Royal Love, Jan Němec, Czechoslovakia

GEN: Arnošt Lustig Through the Eyes of Jan Němec, Jan Němec, Czech Republic, short film

GEN: Ester Krumbachová Through the Eyes of Jan Němec, Jan Němec, Czech Republic, short film

GEN: The Life of Singer Marta Kubišová Through the Eyes of Jan Němec, Jan Němec, Czech Republic, short film

Golden Sixties: Jan Němec, Jan Němec, Czech Republic

Heart Above the Castle, Jan Němec, Czech Republic

In the Light of the King's Love, Jan Němec, Czech Republic

Landscape of My Heart, Jan Němec, Czech Republic 

Late Night Talks with Mother, Jan Němec, Czech Republic 

A Loaf of Bread, Jan Němec, Czechoslovakia, short film

Martyrs of Love, Jan Němec, Czechoslovakia

A Memory for the Present, Jan Němec, Czech Republic, short film

Mother and Son, Jan Němec, West Germany/Netherlands, short film

Oratorio for Prague, Jan Němec, Czechoslovakia, short film

Pearls of the Deep, Jan Němec, Czechoslovakia

Toyen, Jan Němec, Czech Republic

DEEP FOCUS: Su Hui-yu: The Midnight Hours

Premieres

A Man After Midnight, Su Hui-yu, Taiwan, world premiere

Man Carrying Shame, Su Hui-yu, Taiwan, world premiere

Ne Quan, Su Hui-yu, Taiwan, world premiere

Stillnox Home Video: The Midnight Hours, Su Hui-yu, Taiwan, world premiere

Thou Shalt Not Self-pollute (Dr. Kinsey), Su Hui-yu, Taiwan, world premiere

Tevens bevestigd

The Upcoming Show, Su Hui-yu, Taiwan