19th jihlava idff programme specials 4

MASTERCLASSES

The films of Armenian director Artavazd Ashoti Peleshyan (1938) straddle the line between fiction, avant-garde, and documentary film. While still studying, he gained attention with The Beginning (1967), in which he uses archival documentary footage to explore the possibilities of film editing as a source of a new illusive movement. These elemental movements symbolize the revolutionary changes in society begun by the October Revolution. He developed Eisenstein and Vertov’s methods into the revolutionary “distance editing” technique, which aims to reveal random forms of movement while at the same time speaking in the language of art, philosophy, and the sciences. Peleshyan turns the viewer into a distance observer who perceives things more in context than individually. Like individual characters, in his films original archival footage blends with newly shot scenes.

The group of artists Flatform was founded in 2006 and is active in Milan and Berlin. The collective creates inventive experimental films and multi-channel video installations investigating illusory depiction or narration. Their works have been presented at prestigious festivals including the Venice and Rotterdam Film Festivals, and have been exhibited at important galleries. Their last film Quantum. (2015) will be screened as part of this year’s Fascination section. The masterclass will focus on their specific notion of poetical and technical world besides analysis of their work.

Film director and cinematographer Fred Kelemen originally studied painting, music and philosophy and worked as a theater director’s assistant. He has been shooting fiction and documentary films and videos since graduating from the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin in 1994. As a cinematographer, he has collaborated with, for example, Béla Tarr. In his masterclass he will focus on the "cinegraphic moment": the heart of the living organism that film is; the nucleus of the art of film. To detect the "cinegraphic moments "- in reality, in prose or drama literature or elsewhere - and to make them gleam on the screen is the task of a filmmaker. This masterclass invites you to enter the time-crystal of darkness and light.

Croatian director Lordan Zafranović, a representative of the Yugoslavian Black Wave, graduated from FAMU, where he studied under Elmar Klos. He was living in Prague when he made his documentary The Decline of the Century: Testament L. Z. (1994). His latest work is the documentary cycle Tito – Last Witnesses of the Testament (2012). In 2013, he was a jury member for the Between the Seas section. Zafranović believes that the soul of film exists in each

Thomas A Østbye is a distinctive voice among Norwegian directors. He is known for combining artistic reflections on the documentary genre with contemporary political dilemmas. He made his mark with formally challenging documentaries such as Imagining Emanuel, HUMAN, and In Your Dreams, which have received numerous art and film awards. He also makes art installations and runs the PlymSerafin production company. Østbye will show excerpts from his films and will share his working method, with a focus on developing cinematic style and form in relation to the ethics and aesthetics found in his latest films.

After 16 years the Russian documentarian Victor Kossakovsky, who is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding contemporary filmmakers, will be returning to Jihlava as the leader of the Ex Oriente FilmWorkshop and as a jury member for the festival’s competitive Opus Bonum section. This director gained international renown thanks to his film The Belovs (1993), which has since achieved cult status. He has the justifiable reputation as a filmmaker who not only is able to capture mundane situations with subtle transcendental poetic visual and audio elements but also has an innate talent for composition, internal rhythm, and drama within individual scenes. In his open Masterclass, Kossakovsky will give the participants insight into the principles of his work and sources of inspiration, which, in addition to the magic of everyday life, he also finds in the visual arts, poetry and classical literature. The lecture will be preceded by a screening of his film ¡Vivan las Antipodas! (2011).