Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema 2013
Co-presented with the Romanian Film Initiative and in collaboration with Transilvania International Film Festival
Tickets
November 29 – December 3
Film as propaganda tool. Filmmaking as metabolic process. Throw in a triple dose of Transylvanian flavor from a popular series of Red Westerns; the complete works of one of The New York Times’ 20 Directors to Watch, Corneliu Porumboiu; Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear award winner Child’s Pose; and the World Premiere of Closer to the Moon; and you’ll have the 8th edition of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema.
This year’s festival continues at the Jacob Burns Film Center, December 5 – 10. This year’s edition of Making Waves is dedicated to the Save Rosia Montana movement.
Lineup
Film as propaganda tool. Filmmaking as metabolic process. Throw in a triple dose of Transylvanian flavor from the popular series of Red Westerns inventively playing the propaganda tune in Communist Romania; the complete works of one of The New York Times’ 20 Directors to Watch, Corneliu Porumboiu; Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear award winner Child’s Pose; and the World Premiere of Closer to the Moon; and you’ll have the 8th edition of another fun and insightful Making Waves festival.
Closer to the Moon
Opening Night! World Premiere!
Director Nae Caranfil and actor Harry Lloyd in person for Q&A!
The true but incredible story of a group of Jewish top members of the nomenklatura who, in 1959, robbed Romania's National Bank and made it look like a film shoot. Vera Farmiga and Game of Thrones' Harry Lloyd star.
Child’s Pose
Centerpiece! New York Premiere!
Star Luminița Gheorghiu in person for Q&A!
Luminița Gheorghiu (The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu) is pitch perfect in this Golden Bear winner that deals with the mother of all moral dilemmas: a parent willing to do everything in order to save her son, who killed a child in a car accident.
When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism
Closing Night! Director Corneliu Porumboiu in person for Q&A!
A rigorously structured and fascinatingly oblique new film from Corneliu Porumboiu that examines the life of a film director during the moments on a shoot when the camera isn’t rolling.
The București Experiment
U.S. Premiere! Director Tom Wilson in person!
A disturbing film (or documentary?) about what really happened in Romania’s 1989 coup d'etat that dares to investigate a secret project for psychological engineering set up by the secret police.
Domestic
There's a tender and humorous touch to this light collection of tales about people who eat the animals that they love and animals that love people unconditionally, masterfully directed in impeccable wide one-shots.
Here… I Mean There
U.S Premiere!
This deeply felt coming-of-age documentary follows two girls whose parents left to work in Spain and are cared for by their grandparents—a brief but intimate portrait of a broken family.
Love Building
U.S. Premiere! Star Eugen Lumezianu and screenwriter Oana Răsuceanu in person!
Fourteen couples enroll in a camp designed to mend broken relationships, but things get out of hand in this charming low-budget comedy that has "American remake" written all over it.
Police, Adjective
Discovering a teenager with drugs, a young policeman hesitates about turning him in. But his supervisor has other ideas in this beautifully acted, provocative modern morality play.
Three Exercises of Interpretation
U.S. Premiere!
Inspired by the work of Russian philosopher Vladimir Solovyov, this trilogy focuses on a group of friends gathered for lunch and engaged in rich conversation covering life's most complex moral topics.
Special Program: Creative Freedom Through Cinema
Making Waves continues its special program about the relationship between arts and politics, focusing on film as a propaganda tool and inviting the Czech Republic and Slovakia to join in the conversation. Special screenings of landmark films by Dan Pita, Mircea Veroiu, Stefan Uher and Jiri Menzel will be accompanied by a panel. Presented in partnership with the Romanian National Film Center, Czech Center New York and the Slovak Film Institute, with the leading support of the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
The Sun in a Net
Preceding the Czechoslovak New Wave, the second film by Slovak director Stefan Uher did much to push the boundaries of acceptable Socialist Realism in an episodic narrative about a casual teenage couple at the end of the school year.
The Prophet, the Gold and the Transylvanians
New 35mm print! Introduced by Richard Peña!
This first installment in the so-called Transylvanians Trilogy is a fun red western shot in Romania that tells the story of two Transylvanians who go to the mining town of Cedar City, Utah to persuade their brother to come back home.
The Actress, the Dollars and the Transylvanians
New 35mm print!
The second film in the trilogy continues the American adventures of the three Transylvanian brothers, throwing in some more gunfights, bar brawls, train ambushes, bandits, Indians and a flamboyant cabaret actress.
The Oil, the Baby and the Transylvanians
New 35mm print!
The last part in the trilogy follows the three brothers on their way home, but having to settle in Swanton City where the eldest of them finds oil while digging for water. Romanian propaganda films were never that inventive.
Free Amphitheater Programs
New Romanian Shorts
Free and open to the public!
The Chekhov-like <em>Shadow of a Cloud by Radu Jude leads this eclectic bunch of seven shorts that also includes the Romanian answer to Kill Bill, 12 Minutes, and the hypnotic video-art of Matriarch, featuring a striking Luminița Gheorghiu.
The Short Films of Corneliu Porumboiu
Free and open to the public!
Three early shorts—Liviu’s Dream (2004, 39m), A Trip to the City (2003, 19m), Gone with the Wine (2002, 9m)—by the director of Police, Adjective and NYFF51 favorite When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism.
Cristi Puiu’s 2013 TIFF Trailers
Free and open to the public!
The Cannes award-winning director of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu produced 20 two-minute trailers for the Transilvania International Film Festival starring Romanian icon Luminița Gheorghiu.
Tickets
Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema 2014
The vibe of the ninth edition of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema is perhaps best captured by Faulkner’s famous words “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Twenty-five years have passed since the fall of Communism, but for most of the films in this series, the past remains unfinished business. Read More
Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema 2013
Film as propaganda tool. Filmmaking as metabolic process. Throw in a triple dose of Transylvanian flavor from a popular series of Red Westerns, the complete works of Corneliu Porumboiu, Golden Bear award winner Child’s Pose, and the World Premiere of Closer to the Moon, and you’ll have the 8th edition of Making Waves. Read More
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Following on the success of the six previous editions of the Romanian Film Festival in New York, the newly rechristened Making Waves will offer a week of impressive recent films from the much-discussed Romanian “new wave” (including this year’s Romanian Oscar entry, Beyond the Hills), plus special panel discussions, classic film revivals and a retrospective devoted to influential master filmmaker Alexandru Tatos. Read More
