IFFR 2023 RoundUp
After a very short visit to London to attend the screening of my video A Performance of Valour at the London Short Film Festival, I hopped on a direct Eurostar train from London to Rotterdam to attend a few days of IFFR - mostly for a second chance to watch Godland (Hlynur Pálmason) and Pacification (Albert Serra), and for a first viewing of Aftersun (Charlotte Wells), after only seeing it at home in December (the film has a UAE distributor but sadly went straight to VOD without a theatrical release).
I managed to squeeze in a few more:
The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani) and Blue Jean (Georgia Oakley), two films that I missed in festivals last year. Both about closeted people in a time and place where they cannot live and love freely.
Mudos Testigos (Jeronimo Atehortua Arteaga, Luis Ospina) and The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Péter Lichter), both made with found footage and scenes from silent cinema.
Cain at Abel (Lino Brocka, 1982, Philippines), an absorbing revenge melodrama and Amar Akbar Anthony (Manmohan Desai, 1977, India), which I’ve only seen on TV as a kid on TV decades ago. I never thought I’d get to see it in a cinema.
The Innerview (Richard Beymer, 1973, USA), a restored film and one that I understand is still be reworked and redited by the director (you may now Richard Beymer from West Side Story (1961) who quit acting a few years after that film to focus on making documentaries and experimental films.
The version screened was was described as “the oldest known to exist and the closest to the film's original form. Needless to say, Beymer is busy finishing yet another version!”
Other highlights:
Meeting and going for a walk and talk with Yoana Pavlova, founder of Festivalists, and her son and discussing the current state of images, and looking at art through a letterbox.
Seeing Qila Gill and thanking her in person for selecting A Performance of Valour to show at the London Short Film Festival.
Seeing Mathieu Amalric engrossed at Fotomuseum.
Visiting Steve McQueen’s Sunshine State installation, but left after a short while as there was no comfortable seating (long wooden bench with no back rest) to watch the 2-channel video. Its total running time is 360min and I was hoping to watch at least an hour. If there was comfortable seating and had time, I would’ve stated for all 6 hours. Museums need to do better with providing better seating for duratinally long moving image works.
Seeing a shop called Sense of Dubai.
Lastly, I kept thinking about the long term IFFR film programmers who lost their jobs last year, read this essay by María Palacios Cruz for more about this and why it is something to be concerned about. It looked like business as usual but something felt off. I’ve only attended this festival once before in January 2020 and left thinking it’s one I want to attend annually. Sadly, the pandemic changed all that, so spending a few days this year, I didn’t feel the same energy and vibes as I did during my first visit. Will keep an eye on how things develop long term.