L.A. Beat is a feature film by Christoph Kositzka that takes you to the underworld of Los Angeles. Cops, bad guys, guns and drugs - all the elements for a banging action movie. See the trailer and stills below! 

Synopsis: 
While taping an episode of a popular police reality TV show, "L.A. Beat", a cop and a film crew are taken hostage by a vigilante hell-bent on revenge. Disguised as a police officer, the hijacker cruises the streets and alleys of the Los Angeles underbelly, delivering his own twisted style of justice. The film crew follows and records the action, as the vigilante hunts down drug dealers, vandals, pimps and more. 

Watch the trailer for L.A. Beat here!

L.A. Beat is ready for immediate delivery and all rights are available worldwide (excluding the US). Ask for screener and let us know what you think!

Looking for more action? Below we've listed our other favourite action films so go on and take a look at them too! 

Visit us at EFM, Marriott Ballroom, Stand #117 Feb. 9 - 16, 2017

The Summer Hill Films & TomCat Films Team

Ted Chalmers              &              Emma Ilves
  COO                                              Marketing 

Summer Hill Films
10645 N. Tatum Blvd., #200-130, Phoenix, AZ 85028 USA
Main: +1-480-535-8711
Fax: +1-480-535-8712
Email: info@tomcatfilms.com
www.tomcatfilmsllc.com / www.summerhillfilms.com/

The 31st Teddy Award is presented within the framework of the International Film Festival  (9 Feb. – 19 Feb. 2017)  on February 17th, 2017 at Haus der Berliner Festspiele. For the very first time it is supported by Samsonite RED. 

Since 31 years, the TEDDY AWARD rewards movies and filmmakers, who contribute with engagement and queer topics for more tolerance, equality, acceptance and diversity in society. More than 1500 guests from culture, art, economy, politics and society are expected to attend the ceremony. Films are rewarded in the categories best feature film, best documentary/essay film and best short film. Additionally an audience prize is given away as well as the Special TEDDY AWARD for remarkable accomplishments.

As a TEDDY AWARD Preminum Partner, Samsonite RED will be integrated in the communication regarding the award ceremony and will also attend the event. The TEDDY Interactive Team, which is reporting live from the Berlinale on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, will furthermore be equipped with bags and backpacks. 

”Samsonite RED is a young label with modern collections of bags and backpacks for young professionals with urban lifestyles: mobile, cosmopolitan, spontaneous & creative. These are qualities, that we have in mind while developing our Samsonite RED Collections. This henceforth offers a new perspective and openness for effective partnership in communication. We are happy about the possibility to support this year's Teddy Award” said Dirk Schmidinger, General Manager Samsonite GmbH.

Tickets for the TEDDY AWARD Ceremony in Haus der Berliner Festspiele, 17th February 2017, are available at www.teddyaward.org.

Ticket reservation via e-mail at tickets@papagena.de is possible, likewise via Ticket-Hotline 0(049)30-4799 7474. Tickets without pre sale fee are also available at Prinz Eisenherz bookshop, Motzstraße 23, 10777 Berlin.

The ceremony on 17th February will take place at Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Schaperstraße 24, 10719 Berlin, starting at 9 pm. From 11 pm onwards there will be the hot After Show Lounge and the TEDDY AWARD BACKSTAGE PARTY!

Fourteen Films, including nine full-length fiction and documentary films, have been invited for the Perspektive Deutsches Kino in 2017.

Strong fiction films by millennials characterise this year’s selection. The directors, who are mostly in their early 30s and were coming of age around the turn of the millennium, were shaped and socialised by this period. With them we take a look back into childhood and adolescence. We see kids affected by their parents’ separation, and encounter endless parties and drugs. We accompany the protagonists on their search for personal freedom and stability.

The fiction film Millennials (dir: Jana Bürgelin, prod: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg) uniquely exemplifies this generation. It is a documentary-style big city tale that follows the two protagonists, Anne Zohra Berrached and Leonel Dietsche, on their “éducation sentimentale” around Berlin. Leo is a photographer and would finally like some recognition for his photos. Anne is a successful film director and wants a child, but since she has no partner, she has, in wise foresight, frozen a few of her eggs. In the fiction film Die Tochter (Dark Blue Girl, prod: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg) director Mascha Schilinski approaches in an unusual way the problems children have after their parents split up. How must they redefine their positions and attitudes towards their separated parents when it comes to closeness and distance? Seven-year-old Luca (Helena Zengel) - in her desire to remain the only woman in her father’s life and, at the same time, the link between her parents - becomes a master manipulator. Director Adrian Goiginger, who also studied at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, took a year off and during this time found production partners for his fiction film Die beste aller Welten (The Best Of All Worlds) in Lailaps Pictures in Munich and RitzlFilm in Austria. In a love story of a different kind, he re-examines his childhood by following seven-year-old Adrian (Jeremy Miliker) into the extremely exciting and adventurous world of his heroine-addicted mother. In the film Zwischen den Jahren (End of the Season, prod: Radical Movies Production, Cologne) by Lars Henning, the world of Becker (Peter Kurth), the film’s protagonist, is very limited. After having served fifteen years in jail, he just wants to lead a quiet life in self-imposed solitude. But then the man whose life he destroyed eighteen years earlier returns to haunt him. It is Lars Henning’s second full-length fiction film and again he has reversed the victim-offender constellation conventional for this genre.

For the first time ever the Perspektive Deutsches Kino will show a film from the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK). The film Final Stage by Nicolaas Schmidt stands out for the filmic balancing act it conducts between documentary observation and subtle staging. Gabi, produced at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, will open the Perspektive 2017 together with Back for Good (see press release from December 21, 2016). According to director Michael Fetter Nathansky, it is a cinematic attempt to find expression for what has so often been said but has still been unable to change anything.

Christian von Brockhausen and Timo Großpietsch’s Könige der Welt (We were kings) about the music band “PICTURES” completes the programme. First known as “Union Youth”, the band came together at the turn of the millennium. With their mix of grunge and alternative they quickly became the German “Nirvana”. The film revisits a drug-filled past and accompanies their new start.

On February 19, 2017 – Berlinale Publikumstag – the Perspektive will screen the winners of the Max Ophüls Prize 2017 for best fiction feature  and the First Steps Award 2016 for best documentary (Raving Iran, dir: Susanne Regina Meures).

Film list:

Die beste aller Welten (The Best Of All Worlds)

By Adrian Goiginger

With Verena Altenberger, Jeremy Miliker, Lukas Miko, Michael Pink

Feature film

World premiere

Final Stage

By Nicolaas Schmidt

With Aaron Hilmer, Fynn Grossmann

Medium long feature film

World premiere

Gabi

By Michael Fetter Nathansky

With Gisa Flake, Florian Kroop, Britta Steffenhagen, Martin Neuhaus

Medium long feature film

World premiere

Könige der Welt (We were kings)

By Christian von Brockhausen, Timo Großpietsch

Documentary film

World premiere

Millennials

By Jana Bürgelin

With Anne Zohra Berrached, Leonel Dietsche, Jan Koslowski, Anna Herrmann

Feature film

World premiere

Die Tochter (Dark Blue Girl)

By Mascha Schilinski

With Helena Zengel, Karsten Antonio Mielke, Artemis Chalkidou

Feature film

World premiere

Zwischen den Jahren(End of the Season)

By Lars Henning

With Peter Kurth, Karl Markovics, Catrin Striebeck, Leonardo Nigro

Feature film

World premiere

Films announced so far:

Back for Good

By Mia Spengler

With Kim Riedle, Juliane Köhler, Leonie Wesselow

Feature film

World premiere

Eisenkopf (Ironhead)

By Tian Dong

Documentary film

World premiere

Kontener (Container)

By Sebastian Lang

With Joanna Drozda, Anka Graczyk

Medium-long feature film

World premiere

Mikel

By Cavo Kernich

With Jonathan Aikins

Medium-long feature film

World premiere

Selbstkritik eines bürgerlichen Hundes (Self-criticism of a Bourgeois Dog)

By Julian Radlmaier

With Julian Radlmaier, Deragh Campbell, Beniamin Forti, Kyung-Taek Lie

Feature film

German premiere

Tara

By Felicitas Sonvilla

With Sasha Davydova, Leo van Kann, Lena Lauzemis

Medium-long feature film

World premiere

Ein Weg (Paths)

By Chris Miera

With Mike Hoffmann, Mathis Reinhardt

Feature film

World premiere

At the 14^th edition of the Berlinale Co-Production Market (February 12 to 15, 2017) a selection of 36 promising feature-film projects from 29 countries will come together with a wide range of potential co-production and funding partners from around the world. In addition, the market will be presenting several respected production companies in the scope of their exclusive “Company Matching Programme”.

To aid the producers of the selected projects and companies, the Berlinale Co-Production Market team is organising a total of approximately 1,200 one-on-one meetings with interested potential partners from a participant pool made up of 550 producers, world sales agents, broadcasters, distributors, film funds and financiers from all across the world.

For the official project selection, 20 promising feature-film projects with budgets ranging from 750,000 euros to eleven million euros were chosen from a total of 323 submissions. They will be presented by internationally experienced producers and have all either already secured production funding from their native countries or have at least been able to cover 30% of their projected financing needs to date.

In the scope of the “Rotterdam Berlinale Express”, three additional film projects will take part both in the CineMart Rotterdam and the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Ten newcomers to the world of international film production will also be presenting their projects at the “Talent Project Market”, which is organised in co-operation with Berlinale Talents. These attendees were chosen from an additional 178 submitted projects.

Among the directors of the selected projects are familiar names such as Hans Petter Moland (In Order of Disappearance, A Somewhat Gentle Man, The Beautiful Country), whose films have already been featured three times in the official Berlinale programme, Agnieszka Holland, whose most recent film Spoor is celebrating its premiere at this year’s Berlinale, as well as further directors of Competition films from the past years, including for instance Lou Ye (Blind Massage), Celina Murga (The Third Side of the River), Anne Zohra Berrached (24 Weeks) and Laura Bispuri (Sworn Virgin).

In the category “Berlinale Directors”, three projects from directors whose previous films were shown at the Berlinale will be presented; though these productions are still in a very early stage of development from a financing perspective, they are considered so promising that they can already benefit from finding co-operation partners in order to ease their way to the big screen.

In addition to the meetings with potential partners, which are arranged individually to satisfy the concrete needs of each project, there are also three awards available: the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, worth 20,000 euros, the VFF Talent Highlight Award, worth 10,000 euros, and the ARTE International Prize, worth 6,000 euros, will all be given away at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

The four already confirmed companies featured in the “Company Matching Programme” come from Germany, France, Israel and Norway. The 550 other participants can also request one-on-one meetings with them in order to exchange information on a structural level or on the basis of project slates and move towards exploring the possibility of long-term co-operation.

There are at least two films screening in the festival programme of the upcoming Berlinale which were presented at the Berlinale Co-Production Market as projects in previous years and met partners: Una mujer fantástica (A fantastic woman) by Sebastián Lelio, which is part of the Competition, and Mulher do pai (Nalu on the Border) by Cristiane Oliveira, which is being shown in Generation 14plus.

The primary partners of the Berlinale Co-Production Market are the MDM – Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and Creative Europe MEDIA, a programme of the European Union.

The Berlinale Co-Production Market is a part of the European Film Market.

The Berlin House of Representatives, which is located right across from the European Film Market in the Martin-Gropius-Bau, will once again serve as a co-operation partner and main venue for the event.

Official project selection for Berlinale Co-Production Market 2017

(in alphabetical order by production company):

- Where the Summer Went (D: Beatriz Sanchis), Animal de Luz Films, Mexico

- Psychobitch (D: Martin Lund), Ape&Bjørn, Norway

- 7500 (D: Patrick Vollrath), Augenschein Filmproduktion, Germany

- Irene (D: Celina Murga), Cepa Audiovisual & Tresmilmundos Cine, Argentina

- The Ski Jumper Who Didn't Want to Land (D: Hans Petter Moland), Chezville & Storyline Studios, Norway

- Overgod (D: Gabriel Mascaro), Desvia Produções, Brazil

- Clear Blue (D: Lindsay MacKay), Devonshire Productions, Canada

- Man's Fate (D: Lou Ye), Dream Factory, China & Chinese Shadows, Hong Kong, China

- The Deer (D: Bogdan George Apetri), Fantascope, Romania

- The Monster Within (D: Rodrigo Susarte), Forastero, Chile

- Lost Country (D: Vladimir Perisic), KinoElektron, France, Trilema, Serbia & MPM Film, France

- Benigno Cruz (D: Jorge Hernandez Aldana), La Pandilla Producciones, Venezuela & Lucía Films & Paloma Negra Films, Mexico

- Eloe (D: Piotr Złotorowicz), Lava Films, Poland

- Charlatan (D: Agnieszka Holland), Marlene Film Production,  

  Czech Republic

- A Film by Verner Holm (D: Jannik Johansen), Profile Pictures, Denmark

- Blanquita (D: Fernando Guzzoni), QuijoteRampante, Chile

- Paloma's Wedding (D: Marcelo Gomes), Rec Produtores, Brazil

- Waiting for an Angel (D: Akin Omotoso), Rififi Pictures, South Africa & Triptych Media, Canada

- Dead Noon (D: Jeff Desom), Samsa Film, Luxembourg

- Daughter of Mine (D: Laura Bispuri), Vivo Film, Italy

“Berlinale Directors” projects:

- Ten Thousand Happiness (D: Johnny Ma), Image X Productions, China

- Colour of the Skull (D: Sibs Shongwe-La Mer), Mille et Une Productions, France

- Zorro (D: Ronny Trocker), Zischlermann Filmproduktion, Germany

“Rotterdam Berlinale Express”:

- Girls of the Sun (D: Eva Husson), Maneki Films, France

- Jumpman (D: Ivan I. Tverdovsky), New People Film Company, Russia

- The Wife of the Pilot   (D: Anne Zohra Berrached), Razor Film Produktion, Germany

“Talent Project Market” – projects and selected production talents (in alphabetical order by production company):

- The Deposit (P: Eva Sigurdardottir), Askja Films, Iceland

- MNK Boy (P: Aydin Dehzad), Kaliber Film, Netherlands / Turkey

- Shock Labor (P: Maria Carla del Rio), Marinca Filmes, Cuba

- The Bus to Amerika (P: Nefes Polat), Mars Production, Turkey

- The Space Between (P: Angela Lee), Nifty Pictures, USA

- Memoryland (P/D: Quy Bui), Pixelholic Media, Vietnam

- Tomorrow is a Long Time (P: Jeremy Chua), Potocol, Singapore

- Never the Bright Lights (P: Tonee Acejo), Quiapost Productions, Philippines

- You Will Die at Twenty (P: Hossam Elouan), Transit Films,

  Egypt / Sudan

- Breaking Surface (P: Julia Gebauer), Way Creative Films, Sweden

Company Matching (in alphabetical order by company):

Black Sheep Film Productions, Israel

Haut et Court, France

Mer Film, Norway

Weydemann Bros., Germany

Forty years ago, the Berlinale launched the festival programme for the young cineastes. From the beginning the concept was embraced and celebrated by its target audiences and consequently expanded through the establishment of a further competition programme catering to adolescents. Since 2007, the Generation section has united the Kplus and 14plus competitions together under one roof and provided an opportunity not only for young people to participate in the greater conversation on cinema and culture that the festival represents.

In 2017, a grand total of 62 short and feature-length films hailing from 41 countries of production will take part in the Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions. Both programmes feature a wide range of thematic concerns and aesthetic approaches. Animated productions rich in contrast, quiet observations, iconoclastic collages and sensitive dramas signalise the programme. Drawn from life, the films demonstrate the experiential horizons of young people – their desires and dreams, those things they wish to leave behind, those things that bind them and of their sense of longing to explore other realms.

“Our world is not in great shape. Often this means children and adolescents are left on their own and have to search for solutions and ways out of their predicaments. Generation shows young people on the move, crossing boundaries and tearing down walls, erecting barricades and overcoming them. Everything is in motion,” comments section head Maryanne Redpath in regard to this year’s programme.

Documentary Forms

The programme is enriched by a great variety of approaches to documentary filmmaking. Diverse methods of presentation are utilised by film-makers in the observation of their subjects. Ever vigilant but never intrusive, they reflect upon the wider themes of our times by capturing intimate portraits.  They provide privileged insight into closed-off spaces and direct our attention to the all too easily overlooked. They are always on the move, in search of images of the world and opportunities to render the invisible visible for all to see.

Short Films at Generation

In the short film competitions, Generation is presenting productions from a total of 28 countries. The three Kplus short film programmes are colourful, sensitive and serious; the young protagonists face the challenges life has set before them with great bravery, staking out new spaces for themselves with growing self-confidence. With strong contrasts and brisk pacing, explosive and soothing moments and no lack of twists and turns, the two 14plus short film programmes also pay tribute to the contradictory nature of our world.

Kplus Opening Film

The Generation Kplus competition will open at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt with a screening of Red Dog: True Blue by Kriv Stenders. Generation looks forward to starting the section’s 40^th anniversary edition with a bang in the presence of the Australian director and his cast.

Generation14plus

In addition to the previously announced selections, including the opening film for 14plus, Michael Winterbottom’s On the Road, the following productions have also been invited to screen at Generation14plus.

Ben Niao (The Foolish Bird)

The People’s Republic of China

By Huang Ji, Ryuji Otsuka

World premiere

For the sake of her mother, who lives far away, withdrawn Lynn searches for a way to be accepted into the local police academy. At the same time, the 16-year-old gets caught up in a criminal mess involving stolen cell phones. Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka (The Warmth of Orange Peel, Generation 2010) employ precise imagery to tell a story of isolation and lack of perspective in a small Chinese city marked by corruption, sexual violence and the all-permeating presence of new media.

Freak Show

USA

By Trudie Styler

World premiere

Somewhere between David Bowie, Lady Gaga, Freddy Mercury and Oscar Wilde, Billy has carved out his own spot in the sparkling firmament of pop culture. Though the denizens of his conservative surroundings find all this markedly less fabulous, Billy has no intention of deviating from his plan to campaign for the role of Homecoming Queen at his school. What at first seems a high school caper transforms into a bombastic yet nuanced drama, one which earns the attribution that Billy himself has also claimed as his own: trans-visionary. Aside from Alex Lawther’s brilliant performance, Bette Midler, Laverne Cox, Larry Pine and Ian Nelson also shine in this one-of-a-kind film.

Loving Lorna

Sweden

By Annika Karlsson, Jessica Karlsson

International premiere

In Ballymun, a poor suburb of Dublin, horses have been an integral part of everyday life for generations. 17-year-old Lorna’s family is no exception. Lorna would like to become a farrier after she finishes school, if only she weren’t plagued by a bad back. In this poetic study, the two Swedish directors paint a portrait of a young woman in search of happiness, fulfilled dreams and her own proper place in the world.

Não devore meu coração! (Don't Swallow My Heart, Alligator Girl!)

Brazil / Netherlands / France

By Felipe Bragança

European premiere

The Rio Apa, the river marking the border between Paraguay and Brazil, serves as the central setting for this visually stunning, modern and powerful Romeo and Juliet story of the relationship between 13-year-old Joca and the mysterious Guaraní girl, Basano. Bragança tells his tale of an adolescent “amour fou” against the backdrop of contemporary conflicts concerning land theft and cultural identity. His fiction feature debut makes a strong impression on the big screen also through the successful use of both young Brazilian stars and local non actors.

Poi E: The Story of OurSong

New Zealand

By Tearepa Kahi

European premiere

The incredible story of a Maori pop song that took New Zealand’s charts by storm quite unexpectedly in 1984. Back in those days it was a near miracle for a piece of traditionally inspired music to become so popular. That is, until singer Dalvanius Prime, an imposing Maori with a powerfully smooth voice, and the singers of the Patea Maori Club came along. Prime had long been into soul – but now he combined the Maori-language song with modern beats and rap on stage. The media would have preferred to pretend he didn’t exist. Happily, both the song and video managed to become cult hits and helped many Maoris – especially young folks – to gain a new sense of self along the way.

The Inland Road

New Zealand

By Jackie van Beek

World premiere

On a road running through the New Zealand countryside, a fatal accident brings 16-year-old Tia together with expectant dad Will. Along with Will’s pregnant wife Donna and four-year-old Lily, a finely spun and electrifying drama about wounds both visible and invisible unfolds. This beautifully shot, atmospherically dense work is New Zealand native Jackie van Beek’s feature film debut as a director. Berlinale audiences have been able to enjoy her comedic and acting talents previously (What We Do in the Shadows, Generation 2014) as well as her work as a short film director (Go the Dogs, Generation 2011).

Shkola nomer 3 (School Number 3)

Ukraine / Germany

By Yelizaveta Smith, Georg Genoux

World premiere

Thirteen adolescents from a rebuilt school in South Ukrainian Donbass relate their hopes and fears. In rigorously composed shots, the documentary film shows the protagonists in their everyday environment, while they tell of experiences that move them, of nascent new loves and personal loss alike. The war is often only immediately perceptible on the periphery, yet it makes its presence felt as an unavoidable frame of reference. The puristic way in which it is shot renders the overall impression made by Yelizaveta Smith and Georg Genoux’s film all the more haunting.

Soldado (Soldier)

Argentina

By Manuel Abramovich

World premiere

Following orders, rehearsing snappy marches and running through more drills than you can shake a drum stick at. A 19-year-old Argentinian man goes off into the army, where he becomes a drummer in a military band. A measured but poignant study of the collision between young individuality and military uniformity, which expands on the contradictions and uncertainties of entering into adulthood within the constraints of a rigid hierarchy. A coming-of-age story set in a “total institution”.

Already announced in the previous press release:

Almost Heaven, United Kingdom, Carol Salter - WP

Butterfly Kisses, United Kingdom, Rafael Kapelinski - WP

Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n'ont fait que se creuser un tombeau (Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves), Canada, Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie - EP

Emo the Musical, Australia, Neil Triffett - IP

Mulher do pai (Nalu on the Border), Brazil / Uruguay, Cristiane Oliveira - IP

My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea, USA, Dash Shaw - EP

On The Road, United Kingdom, Michael Winterbottom, screening out of competition – IP – opening film for 14plus

Krolewicz Olch (The Erlprince), Poland, Kuba Czekaj - EP

Weirdos, Canada, Bruce McDonald – EP

Generation Kplus

Amelie rennt (Mountain Miracle – An Unexpected Friendship)

Germany / Italy

By Tobias Wiemann

World premiere

Headstrong Amelie is the queen of cursing – at her parents, her patronising doctors and her damn asthma above all else. During a forced stay in a special clinic in South Tirol she suddenly decides to run away. During the arduous trek up the mountain she not only gains an unsolicited travelling companion, she is also confronted by risky trials of courage and the overwhelming tingle of first love. An emotional roller-coaster ride.

Becoming Who I Was

Republic of Korea

By Moon Chang-Yong, Jeon Jin

International premiere

Angdu is not your average boy, he is Rinpoche. In a past life he was actually a venerable Buddhist master. Together with his carer, he sets out one day on foot from India to distant Tibet, the centre of his faith. Questions about friendship and life in general accompany the duo on their trek through the awe-inspiring landscape of the remote alpine region. With its narrative approach steeped in a serene sense of concentration, this film, composed over a period of eight years, is a fundamental experience in its own right.

Estiu 1993 (Summer 1993)

Spain

By Carla Simón

World premiere

Summer in Catalonia, 1993. For six-year-old Frida, the death of her mother means the beginning of a whole new life. In the loving care of her uncle and his family far away from her home in Barcelona, she first has to get used to her new life in the countryside. Moments of childish mischievousness turn into thoughtful detachment. Despite the summery atmosphere, serious undertones underlie this precocious coming-of-age drama. The inevitable consequences of AIDS, in those days still incalculable, have induced in gentle images Carla Simón’s (Berlinale Talents alumna) stunning debut feature film.

Oskars Amerika (Oskar’s America)

Norway / Sweden

By Torfinn Iversen

World premiere

Torfinn Iversen’s feature debut is based on motifs and characters first explored in his short film Levi’s Horse (Generation, 2012). Now this moving portrait of an unusual friendship can be enjoyed at length on the big screen. Oskar’s deepest wish is to be able to ride on the prairie with his mother over summer break. But alas, everything turns out differently than expected and the 10-year-old is forced to spend his vacation on his grumpy grandfather’s farm. Oskar’s only friend is the outsider Levi, who talks with his pony. Together they hatch a plan to get away from their grim reality: they’ll row across the Atlantic to America in Grandfather’s boat!

Piata loď (Little Harbour)

Slovak Republic / Czech Republic / Hungary

By Iveta Grófová

World premiere

Crushed by her mother’s lack of affection for her, ten-year-old Jarka stumbles upon two abandoned infants. Together with her neighbour 8-year-old Kristian, she lovingly cares for the tiny twins in what becomes a welcome escape from her own dysfunctional family situation. The Slovakian director’s film is an adaptation of a novel by Monika Kompaníková, in which children assume the roles of adults. The story, sensitively told from the children’s perspective, employs dynamic imagery to trace the universal desire for family and a sense of emotional security and belonging.

Uilenbal (Owls & Mice)

The Netherlands

By Simone van Dusseldorp

International premiere

Meral is new in town and the first friend she makes is her little grey housemate: the mouse Peepeep. On a school trip both are confronted by the wonder and challenges of life. Meral is forced to watch as her beloved new buddy is swept up by an owl. In spite of this frightening development, through rocking musical numbers, owl pellets and the wonders of life in the woods Meral learns to understand the meaning of true friendship. Dutch director Simone von Dusseldorp will excite the audiences with this Generation highlight.

Upp i det blå (Up in the Sky)

Sweden

By Petter Lennstrand

International premiere

Pottan’s stressed-out parents actually wanted to drop her off at summer camp, but somehow the 8-year-old ends up at a scrapyard inhabited by extremely odd residents instead. Together the gang is hard at work building a homemade spaceship so that they can blast off for the stars. In his feature film debut, complete with a healthy dose of humour and a great appetite for adventure, television producer and puppeteer Petter Lennstrand tells a tale of unexpected friendships and what they can enable us to accomplish.

Wallay

France / Burkina Faso / Qatar

By Berni Goldblat

World premiere

When his father sends him off to Burkina Faso to visit relatives, 15-year-old Ady is excited at the prospect of being able to enjoy a laid-back vacation in his native land. Alas, on arrival the young man is met with a chilly reception and it soon becomes clear to him that his trip is not going to be the pleasant break from life back home that he expected. Swiss director Berni Goldblat approaches his feature film debut with the sharp eye of a documentary filmmaker in this depiction of everyday life in his adopted West African home of Burkina Faso.

Already announced in the previous press release:

As duas Irenes (Two Irenes), Brazil, Fabio Meira - WP

Die Häschenschule - Jagd nach dem Goldenen Ei (Rabbit School - Guardians of the Golden Egg), Germany, Ute von Münchow-Pohl - WP

Primero enero (January), Argentina, Darío Mascambroni - EP

Red Dog: True Blue, Australia, Kriv Stenders - EP

Richard the Stork, Germany / Belgium / Luxembourg / Norway, Toby Genkel, Reza Memari - WP

Tesoros, Mexico, María Novaro - WP

Shi Tou (Stonehead), People’s Republic of China, Zhao Xiang - WP

Short FilmsGeneration 14plus

After the Smoke, Australia, Nick Waterman - WP

In a Nutshell, Switzerland, Fabio Friedli - WP

La prima sueca (Swedish Cousin), Argentina, Inés María Barrionuevo, Agustina San Martín - WP

Libélula (Firefly), Mexico, José Pablo Escamilla Gonzáles Aragón - IP

Milk, Lithuania, Daria Vlasova - WP

Morning Cowboy, Spain, Fernando Pomares - WP

Sheva Dakot (Seven Minutes), Israel, Assaf Machnes - IP

Sirens, Monaco, Emmanuel Trousse, screening out of competition - WP

Smashed, Australia, Sean Lahiff - WP

SNIP, Canada, Terril Calder - EP

The Jungle Knows You Better Than You Do, Columbia / Belgium, Juanita Onzaga – WP

U Plavetnilo (Into the Blue), Croatia / Slovenia / Sweden, Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic - WP

White Riot: London, United Kingdom, Rubika Shah - EP

Wolfe, Australia, Claire Randall - WP

Short Films Generation Kplus

1Minuutje natuur (1Minute of Nature), Netherlands, Stefanie Visjager, Katinka Baehr - IP

Aaba (Grandfather), India, Amar Kaushik - WP

Der kleine Vogel und die Raupe (The Little Bird and the Caterpillar), Switzerland, Lena von Döhren - WP

Dziedošais Hugo un viņa neticamie piedzīvojumi (Singing Hugo and His Incredible Adventures), Latvia, Reinis Kalnaellis - WP

Em busca da terra sem males (In Search of the Land Without Evil), Brazil, Anna Azevedo - WP

Engiteng‘ Narok Lukunya (Black Head Cow), USA, Elizabeth Nichols - EP  

Hedgehog´s Home, Canada / Czech Republic, Eva Cvijanovic - WP

Jazzoo, Sweden, Adam Marko-Nord - IP

Li.le, Georgia, Natia Nikolashvili - WP

Min Homosyster (My Gay Sister), Sweden / Norway, Lia Hietala - IP

Odd er et egg (Odd is an Egg), Norway / Portugal, Kristin Ulseth - IP

Promise, USA, Xie Tian - IP

Sabaku, Netherlands, Marlies van der Wel - IP

Terrain de jeux (Playground), France, Maxence Lemonnier - WP

The Catch, Canada, Holly Brace-Lavoie - WP

The Dress on Her, Taiwan, Wen Chih Yi- WP

Vulkánsziget (Volcanoisland), Hungary, Anna Katalin Lovrity - WP

Xalé Bu Rérr (Lost Child), Senegal, Abdou Khadir Ndiaye - WP

84 min, Finland, B&W + color, 2016, Sámi + French spoken, English subtitles

Screenings:
Fri, Feb 10, 21.00 at IMAX, NATIVe opening ceremony, screening, Q+A
Sat, Feb 11, time TBC, CUBIX at Alexanderplatz.

Variety: "[...] like a Guy Maddin movie as an anthropological dig"
The Hollywood Reporter: "A fascinating historical chapter, inventively told.”

Following a sold-out world premiere at Hot Docs and rave reviews in the trades, KAISA's ENCHANTED FOREST has been selected to open NATIVe, Berlin's bi-annual section devoted to indigenous cinema, which is dedicated this year to films from the Arctic Circle.

By sending postcards around Europe to make inquiries, award-winning Sámi filmmaker Katja Gauriloff found a spectacular treasure trove of 16mm footage from the '50s and '60s of her great-grandmother Sami. Combined with newly-created animation, this moving documentary is a poetic tribute to a lost way of life of the indigenous Skolt Sámi tribe native to Finland and Russia. 

In 1935, Swiss writer Robert Crottet, suffering from tuberculosis, began having vivid and powerful dreams of bright-eyed creatures that called to him from the enchanted northern forests of Finland. So moved by his dreamworld visitors, Crottet recovers from his sickbed and journeys north to find them. His travels lead him to the Skolt Sámi community where he meets the magical Kaisa, a storyteller and seer.

Capturing Kaisa’s legends and stories, Crottet publishes his first book, Enchanted Forest. When war breaks out, he hears news that the Skolt Sámi people have been displaced by invading Russians, and launches a desperate campaign across Europe to bring attention to their plight. With incredible and rare archival footage and animation Gauriloff beautifully weaves the story of the lifelong friendship between Crottet and her great-grandmother Kaisa together with Skolt Sámi legends and the tragedies of war.

Katja Gauriloff was born in Inari, Lapland. She has studied film directing at the Tampere University of Applied Sciences, School of Art and Media. Today she is a film director and a part-owner of the Oktober Production Company. Her films A SHOUT INTO THE WIND and CANNED DREAMS have been awarded the State Quality Support for cinema productions in Finland. CANNED DREAMS premiered at the Berlinale in 2012 and went on to make rounds on the film festival circuit. 

Production company: Oktober Oy www.oktober.fi

NATIVe – A Journey into Indigenous Cinema will focus in 2017 on Indigenous cinema from the Arctic. The film programme for the special series, which is comprised of nine short and ten feature-length films, will also be complemented by a number of events featuring discussion and other spoken word formats.

NATIVe 2017 will open with a film from the cultural sphere of the Sámi, Europe’s only Indigenous people: 2016’s Kuun metsän Kaisa (Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest), by Finnish Skolt Sámi director Katja Gauriloff.

Kuun metsän Kaisa tells the story of Gauriloff’s charismatic great-grandmother Kaisa. This personal and poetic documentary film effortlessly weaves original film and sound recordings from the 1930s to the 1970s together with animated sequences and folk tales of the Skolt Sámi. It stands as a testament to the eventful history of the Skolt Sámi and their struggle to preserve their unique culture in the wake of resettlements brought about by shifting borders throughout the course of the 20^th century.

The pressure to assimilate and wider social change influence all of the Indigenous peoples who call the area around the Arctic Circle home: these include the Inuit of Canada, the Greenlanders, the Sámi of Northern Europe and Russia’s Kola Peninsula as well as the Yakuts and Chukchi of the Russian Federation’s Eastern Siberian region.

Sustainability, climate change, delocalisation and questions of Indigenous rights and self-empowerment are further themes addressed in this year’s featured films. “Climate change in the Arctic and the economic machinations of the industrialised nations of the West represent serious impositions in the everyday lives of the Indigenous communities which still inhabit the region. The medium of film can play a positive role by enabling them to position themselves and gain international exposure for their points of view,” comments NATIVe Curator Maryanne Redpath.

Festival Director Dieter Kosslick also emphasises the significance of Indigenous cinema: “With each new regional focus, NATIVe demonstrates how multifaceted and creative the world of Indigenous filmmaking is and how much its films enrich the international cinema landscape.”

As in previous years, the film programme of this special series will be accompanied by an extensive supporting programme. On two afternoons, the Canadian Embassy will assist the NATIVe team in co-hosting panel discussions with Indigenous filmmakers and international guests in the rooms of their Leipziger Platz location, to be followed by film screenings.

The event “Arctic Change, Indigenous Life and Scientific Tracks in Sakha / Russia”, organised in co-operation with the Climate Initiative Regional Climate Change (REKLIM) at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, and the DEKRA Hochschule für Medien, will present the effects of climate change on everyday life and the environment in Sakha to a Berlin audience in the scope of talks and short films.

For the first time, NATIVe will also be represented in the special series Berlinale Goes Kiez with an additional screening of the documentary film Angry Inuk, which provides insight into the Inuit perspective on the heated international debate surrounding seal hunting.

Feature Films at NATIVe:

24 Snega (24 Snow)

By Mikhail Barynin, Russian Federation 2016

Documentary form

International premiere

Despite the sacrifices it entails, Sergei passionately devotes his life to traditional horse breeding, toughing out the winter in the taiga like a lone cowboy hero. Spectacular cinematography conveys the biting cold feeling of nomadic life in Sakha.

Angry Inuk

By Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, Canada 2016

Documentary form

A vivid depiction of the quiet anger of a people whose very subsistence is being threatened from many angles. An outcry to reassess the preconceptions around commercial seal-hunting, while illustrating the role of global sealskin trade for Inuit.

Johogoi Aiyy (God Johogoi)

By Sergei Potapov, Russian Federation 2016

Documentary form

International premiere

The young horse herder Johogoi feels summoned by the equine deity to attend the celebrated summer festival of Sakha. His excitement radiates through his smile as he participates in the rituals, believing he will find the woman who appears in his dreams.

Jumalan morsian (A Bride of the Seventh Heaven)

By Anastasia Lapsui, Markku Lehmuskallio, Finland 2003

With Angelina Saraleta, Viktoria Hudi, Ljuba Filipova, Jevgeni Hudi

At birth, Syarda was promised as a bride to Num, the highest god of the Nenets. Now an elderly lady, still bound to this fate, she tells the story of her wistful, yet self-determined life to a blind young girl who alleviates her loneliness.

Kniga Tundry. Povest' o Vukvukaye - Malen'kom Kamne. (The Tundra Book. A Tale of Vukvuka - the Little Rock.)

By Aleksei Vakhrushev, Russian Federation 2011

Documentary form

Jovial and as energetic as a teenager, the wise Vukvukai guides his nomadic Chukchi community. These tough reindeer herders survive in their snowy wonderland despite the harsh threats posed by the weather and Russian politics.

Kuun metsän Kaisa (Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest)         

By Katja Gauriloff, Finland 2016

Documentary form

The Swiss author Robert Crottet visits the Skolt Sámi and records spirited Kaisa’s unique storytelling gift. Handmade animation and rare archival footage illustrate the full world of the Skolt Sámi, from magical moments to the hardships of war.

Maliglutit (Searchers)

By Zacharias Kunuk, Canada 2016

With Benjamin Kunuk, Jocelyne Immaroitok, Karen Ivalu, Joseph Uttak

European premiere

The tranquil life of a nomadic family in Nunavut is torn apart by a marauding gang of hunters looking for wives. Kuanana, the head of the family, goes out for revenge. A poetic Inuit Western.

Sameblod (Sami Blood)

By Amanda Kernell, Sweden 2016

With Lene Cecilia Sparrok, Mia Erika Sparrok, Maj Doris Rimpi, Julius Fleischanderl

A teenage girl from a traditional Sámi family yearns to be accepted by the Swedish society of the 1930s, a society full of prejudice and discrimination against her people. A shrewd commentary on institutionalised abuse and its consequences.

Seitsemän laulua tundralta (Seven Songs from the Tundra)  

By Anastasia Lapsui, Markku Lehmuskallio, Finland 2000

With Vitalina Hudi, Hatjako Yzangi, Gregory Anaguritsi, Nadezhda Volodeeva

A rich contemplation of the Nenets in a seven-part chronicle, each guided by a meaningful song. Once a free people, the Soviet rule arrives to infringe upon their culture, affecting their identity irreversibly. An emotional political statement.

SUME - Mumisitsinerup Nipaa(SUMÉ - The Sound of a Revolution)

By Inuk Silis Høegh, Greenland / Denmark / Norway 2014         

Documentary form

For the Greenlanders of the 1970s, the surge of the progressive rock band SUME was mind-blowing: lyrics in their own language, inspiring them to act against the repression of their people. This is the compelling testimony to their revolution.

Short Films at NATIVe:

Bihttoš (Rebel)

By Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Canada / Norway 2014

Documentary form

In a poignant personal essay, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers examines her complex relationship to her Sámi father. Her family’s blissful life was silently affected by a dark pain her father harboured. A pain rooted in past injustices against a whole generation of the Sámi.

Half&half

By Aka Hansen, Denmark / Greenland 2014

Documentary form

Aka Hansen ponders her mixed heritage by posing well-struck questions about how others perceive her, which in contrast to the filmic symmetry suggests that identity cannot be split neatly in half.           

Nowhere Land

By Rosie Bonnie Ammaaq, Canada 2015         

Documentary form

Denied the opportunity to lead a true Inuit life on Baffin Island, Rosie Bonnie Ammaaq shares the grief she felt when forced to relocate, while witnessing the heartbreaking demise of her homeland. She stands in front of the camera and bares her soul.

Ogo Kuyuurduu Turara (Boy and Lake)

By Prokopyi Nogovitsyn, Russian Federation 2003      

With Slava Titov, Roman Danilov, Vladimir Krivoshapkin

A Sakha boy sets out on a lyrical journey through the boreal forest to catch fish in a secluded icebound lake. He performs the laborious task as a meditative ritual, at the same time drifting into a magical oneiric world.

Sámi Boddu (Sámi Moment)

By Ken Are Bongo, Norway 2011         

With Nils Henrik Buljo, Svein Birger Olsen

Surrounded only by the wintry tundra, two Sámi men meet and contemplate the immense horizon. The silence is scarcely broken by the soft breeze, shared cigarettes and a few laconic words.

Sikumi (On the Ice)

By Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, USA 2008                    

With Brad Weyiouanna, Tony Bryant, Olemaun Rexford

On the frozen barren horizon, Apuna spots a furious fight between two hunters, which escalates to a fatality. As Apuna rushes to the scene he becomes conflicted when the perpetrator asks him to bend his morals and appeals to his sense of community.

Sloth

By Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, Canada 2011

With Bryan Pearson

A witty sketch of the Inuit way of life, playfully poking fun at stereotypical perceptions.

Tungijuq

By Félix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphaël, Canada 2009

With Tanya Tagaq, Zacharias Kunuk

An artistically powerful statement about the reality of hunting, expressed through a fantastic icy universe and Inuit throat singing, embracing the relevance and appreciation of this vital act.

Vor dem Schnee (Before the Snow)

By Christian Vagt, Germany 2007         

Documentary form

Eerie first-hand accounts of the supernatural and the dead in the world of the Khanty and Nenets. An intimate atmosphere encompasses the spiritual world void of interpretation, and tells of the mysteries beyond the reality of western Siberia.

“Passion Food” is the motto of the eleventh Culinary Cinema, which will be held from February 12 to 17, 2017. This year eleven recent full-length films focusing on the relationship between food, culture and politics will be presented.

“Undoubtedly, passion – and its mastery – is a driving force behind the work of cooks and filmmakers, and simultaneously one of its themes,” Festival Director Dieter Kosslick says in explaining the motto.

At 7.30 pm the main programme of Culinary Cinema will present four world and one international premieres. Following these screenings, star chefs Eneko Atxa, Alexander Koppe, Tim Raue, Sebastian Frank and Christian Lohse will take turns serving a menu inspired by the films in the Gropius Mirror Restaurant.

The Spanish documentary Soul by José Antonio Blanco and Ángel Parra will open the programme. The film’s protagonist Eneko Atxa runs a restaurant complex near Bilbao in the Basque region. His exploration of the soul of cooking has him travelling to famous colleagues in Catalonia and Japan. Eneko Atxa (three Michelin stars, “Azurmendi”, Larrabetzu, province of Bizkaia) will create the meal on this first evening.

Barkeepers also have to master passions, as otherwise they might lose control of the situation. In the documentary Schumanns Bargespräche (Schumann’s Bar Talks) director Marieke Schroeder accompanies legendary barkeeper Charles Schumann to the world’s best bars. Alexander Koppe (one Michelin star, “Skykitchen”, Berlin) will cook.

In his episode of the Netflix series Chef’s Table (dir: Abigail Fuller), Tim Raue tells how he succeeded in turning the negative energies of his youth into positive ones by cooking. In another episode, David Gelb, who created Chef’s Table, takes us to Korea, to the kitchen of a hermitage where Buddhist nun Jeong Kwan prepares temple food. Tim Raue (two Michelin stars, “Tim Raue”, Berlin) will take up his position at the stove of Culinary Cinema for the seventh time.

In Mark Tchelistcheff’s film André – The Voice of Wine we learn that vines have to suffer to bear quality grapes. This knowledge from viniculture is, in a figurative sense, also true of André Tchelistcheff, an oenologist who emigrated from Russia. In the 1930s, after the end of Prohibition, he helped re-establish winemaking in California. Sebastian Frank (two Michelin stars, “Horváth”, Berlin) will serve the meal for this film.

In Monsieur Mayonnaise, Australian director Trevor Graham accompanies painter and filmmaker Philippe Mora who is researching his family’s eventful past. His father, Georges Mora alias Monsieur Mayonnaise fought in the Résistance. After the war he moved to Australia and founded an artist colony. Christian Lohse (two Michelin stars, “Fischers Fritz”, Berlin) will cook on this evening.

To wrap up the main programme, Culinary Cinema Goes Kiez will present the Canadian production Theater of Life by Peter Svatek at EISZEIT Kino. It shows how highly celebrated chef Massimo Bottura sets up a soup kitchen in Milan that cooks meals made from discarded food.  Markthalle Neun and restaurant “Restlos Glücklich” will be responsible for this evening’s meal.

At the late-night screenings (where no meals are served afterwards), the passion for good food and ecological engagement will remain the leitmotif. Should we eat animals or just pet them? This is the question explored by filmmakers John Papola and Lisa Versaci in At the Fork. And in Christopher LaMarca’s Boone, three young farmers from Oregon have a dilemma: they may milk their goats but are not allowed to sell the milk. In Atlantic, Risteard Ó Domhnaill examines how it was possible that the fish population of the vast North Atlantic was almost wiped out and the ecosystem destroyed. In addition Wendell Berry, who has shaped ecological thinking in the USA for the past 50 years is portrayed by Laura Dunn in Look & See: The Story of Wendell Berry.

The Canadian short film Hand.Line.Cod. by Justin Simms completes this year’s programme.

“In its eleventh year, Culinary Cinema will once more be a melting pot for films and cooks who explore the human body and soul through the topic of food. Is eating a passion, a vital activity, or a profit-oriented commercial sector? This requires clarification,” says Thomas Struck, curator of Culinary Cinema.

A fiery passion also blazes during Culinary Cinema’s“TeaTime”: The cookbook “Studio Olafur Eliasson: The Kitchen” features the communal spirit of cooking and creativity by one of today's most recognized artists („TeaTime“, Feb. 14, 2017). Kamal Mouzawak, Slow Food activist from Lebanon, reflects on problems of migration, and the relationship between a person’s homeland and food. (“TeaTime”, Feb. 15, 2017).

Nobody visiting the Festival should have to forego eating well: in cooperation with Markthalle Neun and Slow Food, delicious Berlinale Street Food will again be on sale at food trucks at the corner of Joseph-von-Eichendorf-Gasse and Alte Potsdamer Straße (Feb 8 - 19, 2017).

Tickets for Culinary Cinema will go on sale starting at 10.00 am on February 6, 2017 at central ticket counters in the Arkaden am Potsdamer Platz, at Kino International, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Audi City Berlin, and online at www.berlinale.de.

The films in the Culinary Cinema programme 2017:

André – The Voice of Wine - USA

By Mark Tchelistcheff
Documentary

World premiere

 

Atlantic– Ireland / Canada

By Risteard Ó Domhnaill

Documentary

German premiere

 

At The Fork - USA

By John Papola

Documentary

International premiere

 

Boone - USA

By Christopher LaMarca

Documentary
German premiere

 

Chef’s Table - Jeong Kwan - USA

By David Gelb
Documentary-Series

World premiere

 

Chef’s Table - Tim Raue - USA

By Abigail Fuller

Documentary-Series

World premiere

Hand.Line.Cod. - Canada

By Justin Simms

Documentary

Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry - USA

By Laura Dunn

Documentary

European premiere

 

Monsieur Mayonnaise - Australia / Germany

By Trevor Graham

Documentary

International premiere

Schumanns Bargespräche (Schumann’s Bar Talks) - Germany

By Marieke Schroeder

Documentary
World premiere

Soul - Spain

By Ángel Parra / José Antonio Blanco

Documentary
World premiere

Theater of Life - Canada

By Peter Svatek

Documentary

German premiere

​We are excited to announce that our horror/thriller "All I Need" (a.k.a. "Wake in Fear") has been released in UK and the US release will follow in February, as the deal with Gravitas Ventures and Girls and Corpses has been successfully closed. Several territories are still available, so don't hesitate to ask for avails and a screener!
  


All I Need (2016)

Horror, thriller
A young woman, Chloe, wakes bound and gagged in a dirty motel room. Disoriented, it only takes a moment to realize the horrifying situation she finds herself in. The room is filled with other young women, not unlike her: beautiful, undressed, and bound. However, she’s the only one that wakes up – and the only one that can hide when the Killer who’s set it all in motion comes to make his withdrawal from the room.

Concurrently, a man desperate for work, Andrew, takes a new job to provide for the daughter his estranged wife keeps from him. The new job pays plenty, but increasingly questions Andrew’s morals and will force him to ask how far he will go as his new “work” comes face-to-face with Chloe’s predicament.

Watch the trailer for "All I Need" here!








The leading actress in "All I Need" Caitlin Stasey is a rising star and interesting media personality. Stasey is most well know for her roles in tv series including Reign 2013-2015 (as "Kenna"), Neighbours 2005-2009 (as Rachel Kinski) and a feature film "Tomorrow When The War Began". Stasey is also known for her fiery online presence; she runs her own feminist website supporting womens body positivity, and she has also gathered nearly 100 000 followers on Twitter with her witty and courageous tweets. The latest media buzz that she created was her tribute to John Lennon and Yoko Ono, an Instagram picture of herself spooning a dog naked. She knows how to get attention!

 
Picture: Newshub.co.nz

If edgy horror and the fiery Caitlin sounds like a good combination for you, contact us and ask avails for "All I Need". The film is ready for immediate delivery. And if you want to know more, here's some other media coverage of Caitlin Stasey and "All I Need", and below we've also listed our other films in this genre you might find interesting..! 

"Wake in Fear Debuting on UK VOD November 21st; Arrives in the US February 7th"  
 "When The War Began" film review in Hollywood Reporter 
  
Cinema Autopsy's review of "When The War Began"

"Former Neighbours star Caitlin Stasey now has a VERY racy career"   
  "29 Times Caitlin Stasey Was Actually The Greatest Celebrity On Twitter"
 

Sincerely,

The Summer Hill Films & TomCat Films Team

                            

Ted Chalmers              &              Emma Ilves
  COO                                              Marketing 

Summer Hill Films
10645 N. Tatum Blvd., #200-130, Phoenix, AZ 85028 USA
Main: +1-480-535-8711
Fax: +1-480-535-8712
Email: info@tomcatfilms.com
www.tomcatfilmsllc.com / www.summerhillfilms.com/

Martin Gropius Bau 151

The French production Belinda by Marie Dumora is slated to open Panorama Dokumente with a contribution to the previously announced thematic focus “Europa Europa” (see press release from December 20, 2016). The Yenish people have occupied a difficult position in the national fabric of Europe since time immemorial: like the Sinti and Roma, they typically have trouble aligning themselves as they are legally and socially excluded by majority populations. The grandparents of 15-year-old sisters Belinda and Sabrina first met in a German concentration camp – the young women were placed in foster care at an early age and were lucky to land in the La Nichée children’s home. With the start of life comes the start of a long struggle with the world – a world also determined by limits and rules on this most diverse of all continents. A haunting, harrowing documentation of everyday life as it is lived on the margins of society.

Three films demand that we take a fresh historical look at European events whose echoes are still felt so many years later:

First off is No Intenso Agora (In the Intense Now) from Brazil’s João Moreira Salles, who juxtaposes a cornucopia of archive materials documenting the events which unfolded in Paris in 1968 with amateur footage showing the suppression of the Prague Spring and footage of a self -confident Chinese society under Mao, just as his mother experienced it back then – as a private political reflection.

Next up is an exciting bit of time travel in Jochen Hick’s Mein wunderbares West-Berlin (My Wonderful West Berlin), an account of queer living situations in West Berlin in an era when emancipation had yet to be invented, primarily covering the 1960s to the the 1980s but also taking time to revisit the roots of the gay rights movement in the immediate post-war period.

And finally, a long look underneath the rug of Spanish reticence in Bones of Contention by Andrea Weiss of the USA: In search of the earthly remains of iconic Spanish poet and fascist murder victim Federico García Lorca, the filmmaker stumbles upon the entirely unexamined history of the suppression of the LGBT community under Franco, while also becoming familiar with the struggles of today’s movement, whose efforts to procure some sort of long overdue justice for the hundreds of thousands who were “disappeared” during the fascist era are met with little support.

In Tahqiq fel djenna (Investigating Paradise), distinguished French director Merzak Allouache seeks answers to a question which also exerts an influence on today’s Europa. In order to try to fathom the origins of the desire for death exhibited by so many young Arab men in Algeria, one must understand that they are motivated by the florid fairy tales that their spiritual leaders have led them to believe, including above all the notion that sex and wine will finally be available in abundance after death. The young Algerian journalist Nedjma researches the paradise that Salafist preachers promise young men together with her colleague Mustapha. A dense analysis of the extreme manifestations of a destructive, conservative Islam that seeks to dominate.

The second of the two previously mentioned thematic focal points “Black Worlds” is reinforced by Yance Ford’s Strong Island. The director processes the murder of his own brother 25 years ago in a documentary film by equal turns personal and political, in a formally open examination of racist terror, grief work and smouldering anger about inequality.

Is this the heart of “America”? And does Rambo live inside it like the man in the moon lives inside his satellite? Erase and Forget by Andrea Luka Zimmerman (Great Britain) doesn’t pose the question, it answers it instead. The all American hero, the most highly decorated soldier of all time with hundreds of human lives on his conscience, roams like a benevolent patriarch through Idaho, where the people are proud of the high level of diversity in the available flavours of right-wing radicalism, just another normal part of life out here.

Two films turn their attention to Latin America and structures that still make their effects felt from left and right-wing authoritarian forms of society.

In Tania Libre, Lynn Hershman Leeson, a guest at Panorama for the third time, accompanies Cuban artist Tania Bruguera during sessions with trauma therapist Dr. Frank Ochberg. After having served a sentence for treason meted out in the wake of a performance that expressed criticism of the regime, she wants to acquire the skills necessary to process the invasive infringement wrought by the paranoid machinery of the people’s dictatorship, including the revocation of her right to practice her art. The founder of the Institute for Artivism Hannah Arendt in Havana intends to campaign in Cuba’s next presidential election in 2018.

The second film hails from Chile: El Pacto De Adriana (Adriana's Pact) by Lissette Orozco. The director accidently comes across indications that her once favourite aunt Adriana colluded actively with the secret service back in the days of the Pinochet junta. Her research yields a picture that can be found after the fall of every dictatorship ever: those that lived well under the terror regime steadfastly deny their involvement after the winds have shifted. A macrocosm opens up within a family’s intimate history – and no one knew nothing.

The French-Swiss-Palestinian co-production Istiyad Ashbah (Ghost Hunting) by Raed Andoni on the other hand leads us back into the present. In the scope of shooting for a film, a group of ex-prisoners from Israeli detention re-enact a sort of exhaustive catalogue of their experiences, in role plays and often in what borders on trauma therapy. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have experienced things like this in a variety of forms – what impact will these experiences have on the affected societies in the future?

Three extraordinary music documentaries make up a last thematic focus:

On the one hand, we have Chavela by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi, an homage to the Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, whose exceptional talent carried her to the world’s most notable concert halls, and whose independence and prodigious sacrifice in her life as a lesbian testified to an admirable attitude that stayed with her to a ripe old age. The last concert of this lover of Frida Kahlo, which took place under the patronage of Pedro Almodóvar (who has featured her music consistently in his films), was an homage performed in Madrid to the great gay Spanish poet Federico García Lorca (see also the  Panorama production Bones of Contention in this connection).

On the other hand, Panorama brings together two films that treat electronic music culture in Germany: An inventor, innovator, a creator of genres, that’s Edgar Froese. Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream by Margarete Kreuzer is devoted to the story of the band and their influential, world famous music – while director Romuald Karmakar turns his attention once again to the settings of his “Club Land Trilogy”: With Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht (If I Think of Germany at Night) he shows the development of the music genres in question in the here and now, by enabling us to watch and listen to notable DJs while they work, including Ricardo Villalobos, Sonja Moonear, Ata Macias, Roman Flügel and Move D/David Moufang.

After her success at Panorama with Anderson, Annekatrin Hendel is back with an extremely intimate story of friendship that has larger societal implications. In Fünf Sterne (Five Stars) she spends four existential weeks in a seaside hotel with a close female friend. The two women’s conversations revolve around the often glamorous past in East Berlin, the current struggle with a diagnosis – and how our life plans relate to our actual lives.

Speaking of life plans: they can be found in abundance in Tristan Milewski’s Dream Boat – even if they seem to resemble one another, here under the premise of a temporary manipulation of society on a cruise exclusively for gay men. A society completely devoid of heteros, who normally rule the world, and completely devoid of women too: by purging the majority the minority becomes one. Many of the guests come from countries where simply being the way they are exposes them to serious danger: a concentrated form of existence is the result here, which represents a challenge beyond the purely physical for the participants.

Special TEDDY for Monika Treut

The Special TEDDY Award is presented by the friends’ association TEDDY e.V. to a filmmaker whose accomplishments have made an especially significant contribution to the characterisation of queer filmmaking over the years.

As a director, producer and author, Monika Treut has not only left her mark on feminist and lesbian cinema since the 1980s – she has also had a great impact on the German-speaking independent film scene and inspired practitioners and audiences alike all the way into world of US American indie cinema as a trailblazer for the New Queer Cinema. The boldness of and iconoclastic approach to her subjects and aesthetics are closely linked with the liberating energy of the Spontex movement of the 1970s. Her documentary Gendernauts won the TEDDY Award for Best Documentary Film in 1999 as well as audience prizes the world over. Since the presentation of her feature film debut with Elfi Mikesch Seduction: The Cruel Woman in 1985, the Berlinale has shown more than twelve of her films. On the occasion of the presentation of the award in the scope of the 31^st TEDDY Awards on Friday, February 17^th, Panorama will be showing her second feature film, the 1989 classic Die Jungfrauenmaschine (Virgin Machine).

Panorama Dokumente

Belinda – France

By Marie Dumora

World premiere

Bones of Contention – USA

By Andrea Weiss

World premiere

Chavela – USA

By Catherine Gund, Daresha Kyi

With Chavela Vargas, Pedro Almodóvar

World premiere

Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht (If I Think of Germany at Night) - Germany

By Romuald Karmakar
With Ricardo Villalobos, Sonja Moonear, Ata, Roman Flügel, Move D/David Moufang

World premiere

Dream Boat – Germany

By Tristan Ferland Milewski

World premiere

Erase and Forget – United Kingdom

By Andrea Luka Zimmerman

World premiere

Fünf Sterne (Five Stars) - Germany

By Annekatrin Hendel
World premiere

Istiyad Ashbah (Ghost Hunting) – France / Palestinian Territories / Switzerland / Quatar

By Raed Andoni

World premiere

Mein wunderbares West-Berlin (My Wonderful West Berlin) – Germany

By Jochen Hick

World premiere

No Intenso Agora (In the Intense Now) – Brazil

By João Moreira Salles

World premiere

El Pacto de Adriana (Adriana's Pact) – Chile

By Lissette Orozco

World premiere

Revolution of Sound. Tangerine Dream – Germany

By Margarete Kreuzer

With Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann, Christoph Franke, Johannes Schmoelling

World premiere

Strong Island - USA / Denmark

By Yance Ford

International premiere

Tahqiq fel djenna (Investigating Paradise) – France / Algeria

By Merzak Allouache

International premiere

Tania Libre – USA

By Lynn Hershman Leeson

With Tania Bruguera, Frank Ochberg

Spoken by Tilda Swinton

World premiere

Already announced for Panorama Dokumente:

Casting JonBenet - USA / Australia,  by Kitty Green

Combat au bout de la nuit (Fighting Through the Night) - Canada by Sylvain L’Espérance

I Am Not Your Negro - France / USA / Belgium / Switzerland, by Raoul Peck

Política, manual de instrucciones (Politics, instructions manual) – Spain, by Fernando León de Aranoa

Ri Chang Dui Hua (Small Talk) – Taiwan, by Hui-chen Huang

Untitled - Austria / Germany, by Michael Glawogger, Monika Willi

The 31st Teddy Award is presented within the framework of the Berlin International Film Festival (9 Feb. – 19 Feb. 2017) on February 17th, 2017 in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele. 

The TEDDY AWARD honours films and filmmakers who contribute tolerance, acceptance and equality to society through queer topics and cinematographic commitment. Films will be awarded in following three categories: best short, best documentary and best feature film.

For 31 years the TEDDY AWARD has been rewarding movies and filmmakers, who, by engaging with queer topics, contribute to more tolerance, equality, acceptance and diversity in the society. Prizes are awarded in the following categories: Best Feature Film, Best Documentary/Essay Film and Best Short Film.  Furthermore, the special TEDDY Award will be awarded; it goes to a filmmaker who contributed extraordinary merits to the characterization of the queer filmmaking over the years. This year the special TEDDY Award goes to a German director, producer and writer Monika Treut. Last year the US producer Christine Vachon received this award.

Monika Treut has been engaging with not only the feminist and lesbian cinema since the 1980s, but also with the German-speaking independent film scene and as a pioneer has introduced the New Queer Cinema to the US American Indie film. Her courageousness and critical approach of the topics and aesthetics are closely related to the liberating energy of the Mao-Spontex movement in the 1970s. Her documentary Gendernauts won the TEDDY-Award in 1999 as Best Documentary/Essay Film and several other audience awards all over the world. Since her feature debut with Efi Mikesch, Verführung: Die grausame Frau, more than 12 of her movies have been screened at the Berlinale. On the occasion of her Special TEDDY AWARD, Berlinale Panorama screens her second feature film, the classic die Jungfrauenmaschine from 1989.

Tickets for the TEDDY AWARD Ceremony in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele on February 17th, 2017 are available at www.teddyaward.tv. Ticket reservations are possible via e-mail at tickets@papagena.de, via Ticket-Hotline 0(049)30-4799 7474. Tickets without the pre-sale fee are also available at Prinz Eisenherz bookshop, Motzstraße 23, 10777 Berlin.

The ceremony on February 17th will take place at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Schaperstraße 24, 10719 Berlin, starting at 9 PM. From 11 PM onwards the hot After Show Lounge and the TEDDY AWARD BACKSTAGE PARTY will open their doors!

Avant Première is the coproduction market for film production,
distribution, broadcasting, the creative industries
and the international TV industry in the cultural sector.
www.avantpremiere.at

Creators Smriti Keshari and Eric Schlosser will take the international premiere of their film on the paradoxes of nuclear deterrence to Berlin

The bomb is a 55-minute experimental multimedia film that immerses the audience in the strange, compelling, and unsettling reality of nuclear weapons. The Berlin screening will feature a live performance of the score by electronica band The Acid.

the bomb exists at the intersection of art, politics, and technology and places the viewer in the middle of the story of nuclear weapons - the most dangerous machines ever built - from the Trinity Test in 1945 to the current state of the nuclear threat in 2017. It explores the culture surrounding nuclear weapons, the fascination they inspire, and the perverse appeal they still exert. It conveys the impossibility of controlling this technology. Entertainment Weekly called the bomb a "stunning avant-garde approach to a plea for nuclear disarmament.”

The project’s creators Smriti Keshari (producer of 2014 Berlinale selection Food Chains) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation, Food Inc., Command and Control) assembled an exceptional and wide-ranging creative team for a truly innovative visual and audio approach to the project: Filmmaker and DOP Kevin Ford shares directing credits; the enthralling live score was composed and performed by The Acid; Stanley Donwood, the graphic designer famous especially for his work with Radiohead was responsible for art direction; and the staging of the live installation comes courtesy of United Visual Artists. 

CREATIVE TEAM

the bomb

Produced and Conceived by Smriti Keshari & Eric Schlosser

Film directed by Kevin Ford, Smriti Keshari & Eric Schlosser

Music by The Acid

Art Direction by Stanley Donwood

Animation by The Kingdom of Ludd 

Live Version Designed and Staged by United Visual Artists

Smriti Keshari is an Indian-American award-winning filmmaker, artist, and director. Her work explores under-represented perspectives and stories outside the mainstream, which seek to inspire social change. She has a roster of highly notable projects. Most recently Keshari was a producer of Food Chains, a documentary that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014. Narrated by Forest Whitaker and featuring commentary by Eva Longoria and Eric Schlosser, it examined the plight of migrant farm workers in the United States.

Eric Schlosser is a writer whose work has been published in dozens of countries, performed on stage, and adapted into films. His most recent book, Command and Control, tells the story of America's effort to prevent nuclear weapons from being stolen, sabotaged, or detonated by accident. It was a New York Times best seller and a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in History. His two other books were also New York Times best sellers. Fast Food Nation helped start a revolution in how Americans think about what they eat. And Reefer Madness looked at the nation's thriving underground economy.  Schlosser was an executive producer of Richard Linklater’s film Fast Food Nation, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, the documentaries Food Chains and Hanna Ranch, as well as co-producer of the Oscar-nominated documentary Food, Inc.  A documentary based on Command and Control, co-written and co-produced by Schlosser, was recently shortlisted for an Oscar.

Kevin Ford is a writer and filmmaker who has directed independent feature films and documentaries. He began his career shooting rock bands like Jane’s Addiction and the Stone Temple Pilots. Ford co-directed Stone Barn Castle, a documentary starring the actor Adrien Brody, which premiered at SXSW in 2015. He conceived and directed a short film based on Eric Schlosser’s book, Command and Control, featuring the music of Radiohead. Ford has served as director of photography for commercial projects and documentary films including the political documentary, The Party’s Over, featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Richard Linklater’s Inning by Inning. His latest film, By the River, features Boyhood’s Ellar Coltrane.

The Acid came together from four separate worlds. They are globetrotting, Grammy-nominated DJ and producer Adam Freeland, spearhead of a music scene and label boss of Brighton's Marine Parade Records; Californian Steve Nalepa, whose time is divided between being a producer, composer and professor of music technology; Australian, Grammy nominated artist and producer RY X; and Berklee graduate, LA-based, artist Jens Kuross. The Acid’s debut album, Liminal, came out in 2014.

Stanley Donwood is one of the most celebrated graphic artists in Great Britain and a longtime campaigner against nuclear weapons. For the past twenty years, Donwood has been responsible for all of Radiohead’s artwork. His evocative and haunting images have helped to shape the identity of one of the world's greatest bands.

United Visual Artists is a London-based art practice that combines a wide range of disciplines in its work, including sculpture, installation, live performance, and architecture. Founded by Matthew Clark, Chris Bird, and Ash Nehru, UVA has been commissioned to create pieces for the Tate Modern, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Serpentine Gallery, the Barbican Centre, the Creators Project, Opera North, and YCAM Tokyo.

On February 14, film producers attending “Books at Berlinale” will have the chance to discover twelve new literary works that lend themselves perfectly for adaptation to the screen. The selected novels will be presented at a pitching session in the framework of the Berlinale Co-Production Market. At a get-together following the session, the invited producers will be able to join in conversation with respected, internationally active literary agents and representatives of publishing houses who hold the film rights to the works in question. There they can establish and cultivate contacts in the international book world or perhaps even begin to negotiate right away to option the film rights to one or more of the selected books.

The twelve literary works that make up the selection at this year’s edition of “Books at Berlinale” come from publishers and agencies from Belgium, Brazil, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. More than 130 works from over 30 countries were submitted for consideration in the programme.

In addition to the brand-new novels of best-selling authors Martin Suter (Switzerland) and Herman Koch of the Netherlands, whose international hit “Het Dinner” (“The Dinner”) is represented this year in the Berlinale Competition in a screen adaptation starring Richard Gere, and a new work from multiple prize-winning Kurdish author Bachtyar Ali, the selection presents a broad spectrum of themes and genres with a high potential for adaptation to the screen.

The selected novels deal with urgent contemporary questions such as the potential consequences of genetic manipulation, with dystopian scenarios arising after the extinction of bees, but also with child heroes who grow into crusaders against evil along with a group of mascots in one particularly comedic instance. Beyond that, they relate epic historical sagas based on real persons and events: German POWs in American camps at the end of the Second World War; the opalescent life story of banker Hugo Simon, companion of Thomas Mann and many other artists, who was forced to flee from Berlin with his family into exile in Brazil; and the daughter of James Joyce, who, engaged to Samuel Beckett, moved through Paris of the 1920s as a dancer in search of her destiny.

“Books at Berlinale” has been organised annually by the Berlinale in co-operation with the Frankfurt Book Fair since 2006.

“With ‘Books at Berlinale’, we have been able, together with the Frankfurt Book Fair, to create an event with a large network, which promotes co-operation in the area of literary adaptations, which themselves represent an important part of the film production world,” according to Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick.

Film producers who are active in the area of literary adaptations (or would like to be) as well as publishers and literary agents can register to participate in the event until February 8 at books@berlinale.de.

“Books at Berlinale” takes place in the Berlin House of Representatives in the framework of the Berlinale Co-Production Market. Primary partners of the Berlinale Co-Production Market are MDM - Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung and Creative Europe - MEDIA, a programme of the European Union. The Berlinale Co-Production Market is a part of the European Film Market (EFM).

The following works have been selected for “Books at Berlinale” 2017:

(in alphabetical order by company presenting the film)

„Elefant“ /“Elephant” (Martin Suter), Diogenes Verlag, Switzerland

“Never Be Sad Again” (Baptiste Beaulieu), Éditions Fayard, France

“The Boy” (Marcus Malte), Éditions Zulma, France

“Ein mögliches Leben“ /“One Possible Life“ (Hannes Köhler), Elisabeth Ruge Agentur, Germany

“The Mascoteers: Enter the Zebra” (Rollo de Walden), Kaiken Publishing, Finland

“The Last Pomegranate” (Bachtyar Ali), Literarische Agentur Mertin, Germany

“The History of Bees” (Maja Lunde), Norse Code Agency, Norway

“Berlin - Fires of Tegel” (Fabio Geda & Marco Magnone), Oetinger Filmrechte-Agentur, Germany

“The Ditch” (Herman Koch), Shared Stories, The Netherlands

“We Own the Sky” (Luke Allnutt), The Artists Partnership, United Kingdom

“The Remnant” (Rafael Cardoso), Villas-Boas & Moss Literary Agency, Brazil

“The Joyce Girl” (Annabel Abbs), Zeitgeist Literary Agency, Belgium