Filmfest DC April 16-26 features best in new foreign films
Filmfest DC will screen more than 70 foreign films from April 16 through 26, including premieres — the world’s first interactive movie — and many of the most popular new international movies. Movies Download site
The festival is one of DC’s best, and one of the best bargains. General admission tickets are $10, and a package of ten is $80.
Filmfest begins with “Departures”, winner of the 2008 best foreign film Oscar® for Japan’s Yojiro Takito. An unemployed cellist accepts a job preparing corpses for cremation, which transforms him. The opening night
Oscar-winner “Departures” opens Filmfest DC April 16
$45 ticket, not exactly a bargain nor a splurge, includes a dessert and champagne reception at the Harman Center for the Arts. Download online Movies
Also among the festival’s six “New Japanese Cinema” selections is the 80th feature of director Yoji Yamada, “Kabei” (“our mother”). After her professor husband is arrested for “thought crimes”, Kabei struggles to support her family, even harder after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.
Among the festival’s showings with a Washington, DC regional connection:
– “Breaking News Breaking Down”. This documentary by Mike Walter, who covered Hurricane Katrina and 9/11 for DC’s WUSA, examines how “trauma journalism can be dangerous and emotionally devastating.” He’ll attend the April 18 showing. It’s one of several films examining “Views from the News” around the world.
– “Bonecrusher”. A son is determined to follow the family tradition of working in Virginia’s Hazel Mountain coal mine, despite the wishes of his father who has lung cancer. Director Mike Fountain will appear at the April 20 screening. Download new Movies
– “Bedford: The Town They Left Behind”. The Virginia National Guard’s Company A, from Bedford, lost the most men per capita on D-Day. The documentary makes connections between those soldiers and Bedford’s men now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Directors Elliot Berlin and Joe Fab will appear at the April 25 screening.
Some 30 directors from around the world will attend their films’ showings and discuss their work.
A special Filmfest presentation is the U.S. premiere of the world’s first interactive film, “Kinoautomat”, a Czech creation in which the audience determines the plot through voting buttons. The 1967 film had been shelved by the Communist government in 1972, and this is one of the film’s few showings since then.
“Kinoautomat” is one of several Eastern European offerings in the festival. Other categories are “Latin Films”, “Francophone Films”, and “Global Rhythms”.
Here is the complete listing and schedule of the 23rd annual Filmfest DC.
