26 Mar 2009 1
Written by Grace Pattison
Alessandra Magnaghi and Ortensia Visconti’s Fidelity is a portrait of a complicated Cuban society, allegedly destined to disappear with its leader. In this interview they talk to Kamila Kuc about the nature of their collaboration and about exploring and filming the island.
25 Mar 2009 0
Written by Grace Pattison
In his latest film, Stone Pastures, Donagh Coleman depicts day-to-day life of a family in the high Himalayas. In this interview he tells us more about the villagers and discusses the difficulties surrounding the making of the film by Kamila Kuc
24 Mar 2009 0
Written by Patrick Hazard
LIDF Director Patrick Hazard is currently in Pakistan working with film students who are making documentaries about their own country as part of our new initiative Pakistani Filmmakers for Social Change. He records the experience here in the second part of his diary.
24 Mar 2009 0
Written by Katharina Chase
“May all beings be happy and create the causes of happiness,” sings a young boy from the Himalayas. This constitutes the key message of Donagh Coleman’s lyrical Stone Pastures – a story of one’s family’s struggle to make ends meet and ensure a better life for their children with good education. The theme seems familiar but the setting and cultural context of this film is not.
23 Mar 2009 0
Written by Michael Brooke
Karosta is a small town in western Latvia, effectively a suburb of the city of Liepaja, and it’s clear from the opening shots of Peter King’s film that it’s unlikely to top a quality-of-life index. Most of its buildings are crumbling concrete boxes, originally assembled cheaply and quickly, and now boarded up and covered in graffiti (their dilapidation emphasised by the faintly admonishing presence of St Nicholas’ Orthodox Naval Cathedral in the distance). Fresh bloodstains can be seen on a bench, rubbish flaps in long-abandoned rooms through which icy winds howl, and the seafront is far from picturesque, being studded with decaying naval bunkers. Meanwhile, the residents of Liepaja express their fear of the place: its reputation as a good place to dump bodies without getting caught speaks volumes in itself.
