Av Festival 12: Colossal Youth + Discussion With Samm Haillay (2006, Portugal, Dir. Pedro Costa)
Part of the Av Festival 12: As Slow As Possible
| Director: | Pedro Costa |
|---|---|
| Certificate: | Unknown |
| Length: | |
| Format: | Unknown |
| Language: | Portuguese |
| Country: |
"I now believe that Pedro Costa's career arc is one of the most fascinating in modern cinema" - PETER BRADSHAW, THE GUARDIAN
BECKETT OF CINEMA
Hailed as the Beckett of cinema, Costa has produced a staggering trilogy observing the demolition of the Fontainhas housing complex in Lisbon.
Colossal Youth focuses on Ventura, an elderly immigrant from Cape Verde Islands, who has assumed the role of surrogate father to the dispossessed. An intimate epic, where present and past move as one, collaboratively filmed with patience and empathy.
EXCELLENT REVIEWS
Excellent reviews of the film
"Running at over two and a half hours with virtually no plot to speak of, Colossal Youth, by the Portuguese director Pedro Costa, is extraordinary and otherworldly, but also an utterly unforgiving piece of film-making." - THE GUARDIAN
"However difficult and punishing his films are, I am becoming weirdly hooked on them. They deserve a hearing from people who are open-minded about cinema as an art form, and particularly as an experimental art form." - THE GUARDIAN
"The Portuguese film “Colossal Youth” was one of the most fascinating competition entries at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. (…) Beautifully photographed, this elliptical, sometime confounding, often mysterious and wholly beguiling mixture of fiction and nonfiction looks and sounds as if it were made on another planet." - NEW YORK TIMES
DIRECTOR CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED
Pedro Costa is a Portuguese filmmaker, who was mostly unknown until Collossal Youth (2006) was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, where it got great critical acclaim. His films subsequently toured in the US and in Europe, and he is now seen as one of the greatest experimental filmmakers at the moment.
The TAME MODERN showed a retrospective of his work in 2009: http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/film/pedrocosta.htm
"Portuguese director Pedro Costa’s star has been on the ascent for some time now, generally kept as a secret until 2006’s Colossal Youth’s screening at Cannes aggravated a certain kind of audience enough for us to know a new master had suddenly jumped into the limelight." - MUBI
"Costa’s films transcend others on similar subjects because of his rigor, his knowledge of classical cinema (it seems to be in his blood), the amazing beauty of the images and the precision of the cutting, the unprecedented intimacy of his portraits, his extreme patience (twelve months of shooting for In Vanda’s Room, fifteen months for Colossal Youth), and his willingness to take risks that can leave viewers baffled or fascinated or both."
"For those who get past the initial difficulties, his films can inspire an obsessive devotion." – Thom Andersen, California Institute of the Arts
+ DISCUSSION WITH FILM PRODUCER SAMM HAILLAY
The film will be introduced by, and followed by a discussion with, Samm Haillay, a Newcastle-based film producer who knows very well the work of Pedro Costa. Samm Haillay is founder of the independent production company Third Films. He has produced the film "Better Things", the debut feature from director Duane Hopkins, which gained incredible international critical acclaim. He also produced short films from Dan Elliott, who won awards at Venice and Berlin film festivals, and a short by Andy McVicar, which recenlty won the prize for best short film at the London Short Film Festival.+ CINEMA OPEN AT 6.30PM + PIZZA!
The cinema will be open from 6.30pm, and we will be serving pizza, so come and have a drink and a pizza with us before the screening!Part of AV Festival 12: As Slow As Possible, www.avfestival.co.uk
AV Festival Film Loyalty Card - Collect 4 stamps and the 5th film is FREE
WHOLE PROGRAMME OF THE AV AT THE STAR AND SHADOW HERE http://www.starandshadow.org.uk/on/season/111
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Other films in the Av Festival 12: As Slow As Possible:
04
Film: Av Festival 12: Stalker (1979, Russia, Dir. Tarkovsky)
4 Mar 2012, 9 p.m.
One of the most enigmatic films ever made about time, from the widely admired director Tarkovsky.
07
Film: Av Festival 12: Five + Discussion (2003, Iran, Dir. Kiarostami)
7 Mar 2012, 7:30 p.m.
Radically minimalist film from the genius Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami.
08
Film: Av Festival 12: Frost (Start Of Slow Cinema Wkend) + Q&A (1997, Germany, Dir. Kelemen)
8 Mar 2012, 8:30 p.m.
Frost is a landmark European film, made on 16mm film by german director Fred Kelemen.
09
Film: Av Festival 12: Whole Evening Of Films (Slow Cinema Wkend): 6pm - 11pm + Directors Q&A
9 Mar 2012, 6 p.m.
Masterpiece from German filmmaker Fred Kelemen + incredible from "the ideological father of the New Philippine Cinema".
10
Film: Av Festival 12: Whole Day Of Films (Slow Cinema Wkend): 11am - 11pm + Directors Q&A
10 Mar 2012, 11 a.m.
Gorgeous film from British superstar Ben Rivers + 10 hour film from Phillipino director Lav Diaz!
11
Film: Av Festival 12: Whole Day Of Films (Slow Cinema Wkend): 11am - 11pm + Directors Q&A
11 Mar 2012, 11 a.m.
Latest film from the incredible British artist and filmmaker Ben Rivers - NOT TO MISS!! Followed by film epic from Lav Diaz.
15
Film: Av Festival 12: Honor Of The Knights + Intro From Film Lecturer (2006, Spain, Dir. A. Serra)
15 Mar 2012, 7:30 p.m.
Serra’s striking, controversial adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, is a revelatory portrait of the relationship between the frail Quixote and his stout loyal scribe Sancho.
18
Film: Av Festival 12: Finisterrae + Skype Q&A W. Director! (2010)
18 Mar 2012, 7:30 p.m.
Two Russian-speaking ghosts leave the Sonar Music Festival, along the pilgrim path to Santiago de Compostela then on to Finisterre: the end of the world, to seek rebirth. Inspired by Garrel’s 1972 film The Inner Scar, this surreal and humorous tale is Caballero’s first feature, with a stunning soundtrack including Nico and Suicide.
21
Film: Av Festival 12: Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbours + Discussion (2011, Thailand)
21 Mar 2012, 7:30 p.m.
This debut feature by visual artist Tiravanija is a portrait of the slow passage of time and simplicity of everyday life in a small village near Chiang Mai. The artist follows old uncle Lung Neaw with a 16mm camera during his daily routines. With compassion and humility, we see him walk, talk, eat, pray, cook, hunt, smoke, drink and visit his neighbours.
22
Film: Av Festival 12: Still Life (2006)
22 Mar 2012, 7:30 p.m.
Still Life is set in Fengjie, 150 miles from the Three Gorges Dam, the hydroelectric project on the Yangtze River that submerged thousands of towns and displaced more than a million people. Shot while Fengjie was being demolished, the film has a powerful documentary impact, as two people travel there separately to look for their missing spouses.
25
Film: Av Festival 12: Eternity + Discussion (2010)
25 Mar 2012, 7:30 p.m.
This debut feature won the prestigious Tiger Award at Rotterdam 2011. Evoking the traditional Thai belief that the spirit of the dead returns, Eternity follows a man through three stages of being - as a ghost in his childhood home, as a young man falling in love, and absent in the life of his family in the days following his death.
28
Film: Av Festival 12: Double Bill: Butterflies Have No Memories + Independencia
28 Mar 2012, 7:30 p.m.
Special double bill!
29
Film: Av Festival 12: Let Each One Go Where He May (2009)
29 Mar 2012, 7:30 p.m.
Russell’s stunning feature debut is an epic road movie drawing from documentary and ethnography. Set in Suriname and shot almost entirely with 16mm steadicam, in thirteen extended ten-minute shots it follows two brothers as they trek from Paramaribo to rainforest villages of the Maroons. Their journey powerfully mirrors that undertaken by their ancestors escape from slavery 300 years earlier.