Clockwise: Armando Iannucci, Charlotte Rampling, Lucrecia Martel,Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Paul Schrader, Sean Baker
By Charlotte Rampling, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Armando Iannucci, Sean Baker, Paul Schrader, Lucrecia Martel and many more
“A meeting of minds between filmmakers and audiences”, is how Festival Director Bero Beyer describes International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). And this process continues after the credits have rolled. In the extensive Talks programme, IFFR 2018 presents insightful and urgent talks and masterclasses by prominent names from the world of international cinema. Many of the events are held in IFFR’s Talks location of old: the Hilton. Out of a need for more space, IFFR has added the place where it all once started back to its list of festival locations.
In Masterclasses, three cinematic heavyweights share their wisdom concerning the art of film. Artistic polymath Alfredo Jaar, whose work is often inspired by the poetry of the oppressed, reflects on the role of the artist in a world that knows poverty, exploitation and genocide. Famed Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, whose new film Zama also screens at IFFR 2018, will speak about her techniques for bending time and space. And Paul Schrader (The Canyons, Dark), who also wrote scripts for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, will talk about his rich career as well as his new film First Reformed, which screens at IFFR 2018.
IFFR also presents a series of Big Talks by filmmakers (and one actress) whose films are screening at the 2018 edition of the festival. Charlotte Rampling discusses her role in the thriller Hannah by Andrea Pallaoro, Sean Baker explains the thoughts behind his colourful indie sensation The Florida Project and Robert Schwentke talks about his impressive war drama Der Hauptmann. The two filmmakers who have their own retrospectives at IFFR 2018, Artur Żmijewski and José Celestino Campusano, will also give separate Big Talks. Israeli artist Yael Bartana will speak on her recent piece What if Women Ruled the World?, Armando Iannucci(The Death of Stalin) will dissect the art of satire and Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima (whose milestone films Sankofa and Harvest 3000 Years are showing in IFFR 2018’s PACT programme) will investigate the ways in which film can engage social change. Further Big Talks will feature Italian artists Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi (Journey to Russia), Czech stop-motion animator extraordinaire Jan Švankmajer (Insect) and Thai filmmaker and IFFR veteran Apichatpong Weerasethakul (SLEEPCINEMAHOTEL).
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Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Alfredo Jaar are both part of Frameworks, IFFR’s new platform asking renowned visual artists to present ‘Acolytes’: emerging talents deserving of a larger audience. In two separate Frameworks presentations, Jaar will introduce Portuguese artist Grada Kilomba and Weerasethakul will introduce Thai filmmaker Mont Tesprateep.
In several other sessions, IFFR presents diverse panels of experts who will speak about a range of topics within the festival’s theme programmes. One of these sessions is the six-hour long talk show Bridging the Gap, part of the theme programme PACT, which brings together a vibrant collection of cinema, debate, music and art.
For a complete overview of IFFR Talks, click here.
Charlotte Rampling will tell us about her evolution as an artist and as a woman, and the challenges of her latest role in Andrea Pallaoro's Hannah (2017).
IFFR veterans Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi will explain and demonstrate their method of manipulating found footage relating to early 20th-century warfare and colonialism. Moderated by Andrea Lissoni.
Alfredo Jaar will discuss the themes of art and its practice within a world often defined by poverty, exploitation and genocide.
Sean Baker (The Florida Project) presents a universe of complex protagonists whose lives seem distinctly remote, at least initially.
Alfredo Jaar will introduce controversial, polemical Portuguese artist Grada Kilomba within IFFR’s Frameworks programme. Together, Jaar and Kilomba will explore the interface between dialectics and artistic expression.
Tamil Nadu cinema is unlike anything in the rest of India. Two auteurs, Ram and Balaji Mohan, will explain with guest programmer Olaf Möller and German researcher in Indian film Stefan Borsos, the particular conditions for filmmaking in India’s southernmost state.
An inquiring programme about the dynamics of archives and archival collections, introduced by Dr. Rhea L. Combs and Jon Goff from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. In collaboration with Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision - Beeld en Geluid.
Critically acclaimed and influential director Haile Gerima will share his vision on the importance of independent cinematic expression as opposed to formulated conventions and stereotypes.
IFFR and Dutch cultural institution De Balie have organised a thought-provoking panel talk with German filmmaker Valeska Grisebach following the screening of her new feature film Western. With director Grisebach, film critic and 'Western' specialist Gawie Keyser and sociologist/philosopher Jan Willem Duyvendak.
In this interview, moderated by Volksbühne Artistic Director Chris Dercon, Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul will talk to us about his unique, uninhibited approach.
Four filmmakers from the History of Shadows programme – Pablo Sigg (Lamaland), Fabrizio Ferraro (Les Unwanted de Europa), Giovanni Donfrancesco (Il risoluto) and Dominik Graf (Der rote Schatten) – will embark upon a wide-ranging discussion asking questions like: how do we de-victimize those vanquished by history, and how do we make time matter again?
Bridging the Gap is this year’s follow-up to last year’s Minding the Gap and brings together a collection of cinema, debates, music and arts in a vibrant six-hour long non-stop talk show. Part of IFFR’s theme programme Pan-Africanism in Cinema Today. In collaboration with The Nest Collective from Nairobi.
Czech animator and filmmaker Jan Švankmajer is a legend in his own right. His cutting-edge, surrealist and yet ever politically-conscious work spans five decades and serves as an important inspiration for many generations of filmmakers. IFFR 2018 screens Insect, which he said will be the last feature-length film of his career.
Hailing from Argentina, filmmaker Lucrecia Martel tackles both sexual and socio-political tensions in a style that is increasingly ambitious yet unmistakably her own. Using clips for illustration, Martel will discuss her body of work and take questions from the audience.
What is the moral and psychological prize to be won by keeping the internet “clean”? After this special screening of The Cleaners – part of the Critic’s Choice ‘Sustainable Criticism’ series – IFFR will host a debate with co-director Hans Block and media experts who deal with questions like this on a daily basis. Moderated by Kevin B. Lee.
A collaboration with Dutch cultural institution De Balie, IFFR will host South Korean filmmaker Kim Kyungmook as he delivers De Balie's 21st Freedom Lecture.The Freedom Lecture is an initiative of De Balie and is made possible by the Stichting Democratie en Media and vfonds.
Moderated by May Adadol IngawanijApichatpong Weerasethakul will introduce young Thai filmmaker Mont Tesprateep, who continues bravely down the trail blazed by his acclaimed and prolific compatriot, albeit with his own detours.
This symposium by The Piet Zwart Institute is part of IFFR’s thematic Curtain Call. A day filled with talks and presentations on both historical and contemporary approaches to visualizing space. Talks by Johann Lurf, Alejandro Bachmann, Natalija Majsova, Kurt Vanhoutte, Cath Le Couteur and Lawrence Rek. And one Big Talk by Angelo Vermeulen. Programme by The Piet Zwart Institute (The Lens-Based Media study path). With additional support from the Swiss Embassy.
Artist, biologist, space researcher and Senior TED fellow Angelo Vermeulen will take us on an interstellar journey – but not the one most of us have been conditioned to imagine. He will share with us his idea of what is truly future-oriented.
Louis Henderson is an artist and filmmaker whose work investigates the connections between colonialism, technology, capitalism and history. His most recent work Sunstone was made in collaboration with Filipa César and will have its festival premiere at IFFR 2018.
Laure Prouvost is known for her lush, immersive films and mixed-media installations. Prouvost’s most recent work DIT LEARN will have its world premiere at IFFR 2018.
Stark and uncompromising, tender and reflective, Paul Schrader has found his heroes at the margins of society. In hist Masterclass he speaks on his latest film First Reformed and his fascinating career as a whole.
Curator and writer Galit Eilat will engage in discussion with Artur Żmijewski on his recent installation Realism (2017), his oeuvre and his attitude towards the persona of the artist, considering both the content and the controversy surrounding some of his work.
For his new film Der Hauptmann, Schwentke returns to his fatherland for a film looking at a piece of history so far more or less ignored by cinema: the final-phase crimes committed by the Nazi German armed forces against civilians, as well as its own members. How do you tell a story nobody has so far dared to touch?
Curator and writer Galit Eilat talks to artist Yael Bartana about her recent piece What if Women Ruled the World? (2017). Together they will examine different options and modes for female agency in today's disorienting geopolitical theatre.
José Campusano may well be the 'anarchist' of contemporary Argentine cinema. Campusano seems to possess the antidote of rawness that our increasingly plastic world needs, and will share some of this with us during his talk, moderated by Argentinian film curator and critic Roger Koza.
The Buddy Film Project is a platform and springboard for refugee filmmakers and creatives in the Netherlands. Founder Dewi Evita Reijs will give a peak behind the scenes and explain how to set up a DIY buddy project.
This year, the Critic’s Choice programme provides a platform and playground for researching the concept of ‘Sustainable Criticism’. Curators Jan Pieter Ekker and Dana Linssen will talk to a wide range of experts and practitioners about the rethinking of film criticism in the post-truth and #metoo era.
Across numerous countries, a fierce battle for independence is being fought, fueled by economic and political motives. Moderator Farid Tabarki will explore this topic with, amongst others, filmmaker Ineke Smits who will take us to Abkhazia with clips from her work-in-progress titled How Sosruko Stole Fire From the Giant. International lawyer Marieke de Hoon will elaborate on the legal issues of such conflicts.
IFFR’s new head sponsor, vfonds, presents a special Peace Lecture (in Dutch, speaker tbc) before a screening of the film Der Hauptmann by Robert Schwentke.
British producer/writer/director Iannucci has delivered a heady brew of satire, sarcasm and absurdity and a host of brilliantly observed characters, replete with human faults, contradictions and foibles. At IFFR, Iannucci will discuss the art of producing satire.
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