Chelsea Hotel Artist with Undiscovered Work
GIRL WITH BLACK BALLOONS
– US Premiere
By Corinne van der Borch
Doc NYC - Metropolis Competition
USA, 2010, HD, Color, 63 min
Public screenings:
Sun, Nov 6 @ 7:30 pm at NYU – Kimmel Center: Eisner & Lubin Auditorium (60 Washington Sq. South, 4th fl.). Followed by a Q&A.
Mon, Nov 7 @ 3:45 pm at IFC Center (323 Avenue of the Americas: 6th Ave @ W. 3rd St.)
Director Corinne van der Borch and artist Bettina Grossman are available for interviews.
After its world premiere at the 2010 Edinburgh International Film Festival, GIRL WITH BLACK BALLOONS will have its US premiere in New York, where the film was shot about a very New York subject. Director Corinne van der Borch discovers artist Bettina (in her 80’s), who has lived and worked in the Chelsea Hotel since the 60s. As the hotel has literally closed its doors for renovation, GIRL WITH BLACK BALLOONS is an ode to one of New York’s most fascinating citizens and to the city’s adventurous spirit in decades gone by. Director Corinne van der Borch is currently shooting additional footage of Bettina in the almost-deserted hotel – which she hopes to include in the Doc NYC screenings.
GIRL WITH BLACK BALLOONS is a multi-faceted portrait of Bettina – a reclusive, artist living within the confines of Manhattan’s legendary lodgings. Said to be the most beautiful woman to have ever lived in the Chelsea Hotel, Bettina has hidden away in her studio for over forty years. She sleeps on a lawn-chair and surrounds herself with boxes stacked from floor to ceiling, filled with works of her art of which a fraction has been shown only once, in a 1980 exhibition in the OK Harris Gallery, whose owner Ivan Karp launched the careers of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Filmed over two years, Bettina lets down her guard and reveals a treasure trove of her artwork- boxes filled with constructivist-inspired multi media pieces. But it's come at a huge cost.
Dutch filmmaker Corinne van der Borch (Wimbledon, 1977) is based in New York where she graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2009. She established Wondertime Films in order to create ‘ordinary magic’, by collecting intimate stories and visuals, which can easily go unseen by using her camera as a notebook. Albert Maysles was a mentor during the two-year shoot of GIRL WITH BLACK BALLOONS, with Alan Berliner committed as consulting editor and producer. Corinne’s new documentary project, “The Twin Moms” – currently in development – was chosen to participate in the highly selective Summer School of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam earlier this year.
Praise for GIRL WITH BLACK BALLOONS: “You captured her soul.” Academy-award winning director Barbara Kopple. "I can't wait to see the next work from the directors of The Mouth of the Wolf and Girl with Black Balloons, to name just two.” Creative Director Edinburgh Film Festival Hannah Mc Gill (EIFF newsletter August 2010)
Website: www.girlwithblackballoons.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/wondertimefilms
Tiwitter: @wondertimefilms
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DIALOGUE OF CULTURES
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
NEW YORK, OCT 20-27
First Edition 2011
16 World Cinema Features and Docs
The Quad Oct 20-27: Fifteen feature-length films, including:
Theatrical release of Transit Cities by Mohammad Al Hushki (Jordan, 2010) US Premiere
SVA Theater Oct 20-23: Seven feature-length films, including:
Opening night film CIRKUS COLUMBIA by Danis Tanovic (East Coast Premiere)
Closing night film THE SKETCH OF MUJO by Koichi Omiya (NY Premiere)
DIALOGUE OF CULTURES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (DCIFF) is the world’s first film festival dedicated to the impact of globalization, which has millions of people moving to different countries, confronting or embracing new cultures. In one way or another, most of us have become modern nomads. DCIFF is based on this international spirit. The festival’s goal is to jumpstart a dialogue between cultures through the universal language of cinema. After this first edition, the festival will move to a different country every year, with Paris slated to be next year's location.
As festival founder Boris Cherdabayev comments, "It is not a coincidence that we chose New York as a first location of our festival, because it is here that you can see the greatest diversity of cultures living together side by side. In a sense, New York is the world’s biggest melting pot."
DCIFF presents 16 features and documentaries from all over the world, each of them exploring characters, which find themselves dealing with different cultures from their own in various dramatic ways. Many of these are U.S. or New York premieres:
1. Week-long theatrical run in The Quad, Oct 20-27: TRANSIT CITIES (Jordan, 2010) by Mohammad Al Hushki (attending) US Premiere
Escaping a life of disconnection and emptiness abroad, thirty-something Laila returns to her native Amman, Jordan. Unannounced and uninvited, Laila attempts to construct a new life, but her simple old town is now a complex entity, a city that is being torn apart by forces of religion from the right and globalization from the left.
2. Opening night film, CIRKUS COLUMBIA (Bosnia-Herzegovina) by Danis Tanovic – East Coast Premiere
After the fall of the Communist regime in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1991, Divko Buntic (Miki Manojlović, Irina Palm) returns to his former home after a 20-year exile in Germany.
3. Special screening of BRIDE FLIGHT (Netherlands, Luxembourg) by Ben Sombogaart with star Rutger Hauer (attending)
Spanning over five decades, BRIDE FLIGHT is inspired by the true story of the 1953 "Last Great Air Race" London-Christchurch (NZ), and follows Esther (Anna Drijver), Ada (Karina Smulders) and Marjorie (Elise Schaap), three young women who, eager to escape post-WWII Holland, emigrate to New Zealand for what they hope will be a better life.
4. Closing night film, THE SKETCH OF MUJO (Japan) by Koichi Omiya (attending)
After the earth shook and the tsunami swept, what remains? One month has passed since the The Great East Japan earthquake.
The complete list of films screening at DCIFF follows in alphabetical order:
ALL THAT REMAINS (Switzerland) by Pierre-Adrian Irlé (attending) & Valentin Rotelli
Four people—bound by the common thread of a deeply personal loss—take to the road at a pivotal moment in their lives, hoping to move ahead. Along the way they unexpectedly intersect with one another—the result of which forever alters their understanding of brotherhood, friendship, and love.
BACK TO AFRICA (Germany) by Othmar Schmiderer
Tata, Huit Huit, Sonko, Waterman and Georges are successful artists both in Africa and in Europe, where their performances in “Afrika! Afrika!” have greatly contributed to the success of this André Heller circus show. BACK TO AFRICA follows the five protagonists over a period of one year: during rehearsals, in the show – but mostly during their visits to their home countries in Africa.
BOLLYWOOD DREAM (Brazil, India, USA) by Beatriz Seigner (attending)
Three Brazilian actresses decide to go to India to break into the Bollywood film industry, but once they are inside the heart of Indian Culture and Mythology, their dreams and wills start to change on the contrast between the East and the West, the ancient and the contemporary values, between the individual and the collective yearnings.
BRIDE FLIGHT (Netherlands, Luxembourg) by Ben Sombogaart with special guest Rutger Hauer (attending)
Spanning over five decades, BRIDE FLIGHT is inspired by the true story of the 1953 "Last Great Air Race" London-Christchurch (NZ), and follows Esther (Anna Drijver), Ada (Karina Smulders) and Marjorie (Elise Schaap), three young women who, eager to escape post-WWII Holland, emigrate to New Zealand for what they hope will be a better life.
CIRKUS COLUMBIA (Bosnia & Herzegovina) by Danis Tanovic (attending)
After the fall of the Communist regime in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1991, Divko Buntic (Miki Manojlović, Irina Palm) returns to his former home after a 20-year exile in Germany.
CITY OF LIFE (UAE) by Ali F. Mostafa (attending)
City of Life is set in Dubai and intertwines the stories of three characters: a privileged Emirati man, a disillusioned Indian taxi driver, and a naïve Romanian flight attendant, living in a complex metropolis where ambition, growth and opportunity are a way of life.
DANCE OF TIME (South Korea) by Song Il-gon
Back in 1905, just before the onset of the Japanese military occupation over Joseon (present day Korea), about 300 people fled to Cuba via Mexico. With hopes of returning home wealthy, they worked tenaciously at henequen farms. They established their own Korean schools and sent money back to finance the independence movements against Japan, and even eventually partaking in the revolution of Che Guevera.
DOOMAN RIVER (South Korea, France) by Zhang Lu (attending)
Writer-director Zhang Lu’s fascinating window into a rarely seen corner of rural China revolves around 12-year-old Chang-ho, living with his grandfather and mute sister along the frozen river- border with North Korea.
EVEN THE RAIN (France, Mexico, Spain) by Iciar Bollain
Costa and Sebastian arrive in Cochabamba, Bolivia, to shoot a period film about Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. They’re on the tightest of budgets, but the shoot gets off to a smooth start. But things get complicated when their extras and main actor, locals to Cochabamba, rise up against the privatization of their drinking water. Their battle to get their film made intertwines with the fight of their Bolivian crewmembers, deprived of their most basic rights, prohibited from collecting even the rain.
HI-SO (Thailand) by Aditya Assarat
Ananda has returned home from studying abroad. Unsure of his career plans, he tries his hand acting in a new movie for a famous director. During the filming in a small seaside town, Zoe, his girlfriend from University, arrives for a week-long visit. But the change of country takes its toll and she soon becomes frustrated at the situation.
MAN WITHOUT CELLPHONE (Israel) by Sameh Zoabi
Twenty-something Palestinian-Israeli slacker Jawdat just wants to have fun with his friends, talk on his cell phone and find love. Instead, he navigates unconvincing dates with Muslim, Christian, and even Jewish girls, and wrestles with the Hebrew college entrance exam.
MY TEHRAN FOR SALE (Iran, Australia) by Granaz Moussavi (attending)
In this riveting, insider’s perspective on life in Iran’s capital city, Marzieh—a terminally ill actress—wearily relates her desperate quest for political asylum through a series of interviews with an unsympathetic government official.
SHAHADA (Germany) by Burkhan Qurbani
Berlin, today. During a razzia for clandestine employees in a warehouse, the fates of three young German-born Muslims collide.
SKETCH OF MUJO (Japan) by Koichi Omiya (attending)
After the earth shook and the tsunami swept, what remains? One month has passed since the The Great East Japan earthquake.
THIS PRISON WHERE I LIVE (UK) by Rex Bloomstein (attending)
This is a film about two comedians. Maung Thura, better known as Zarganar, is Burma’s greatest living comic. Relentlessly victimised by the Burmese military junta, he is now in prison. Michael Mittermeier, in stark contrast, is free to practise his art of humour and provocation as one of Germany’s leading stand up comedians.
TRANSIT CITIES (Jordan) by Mohammad Al Hushki (attending)
Escaping a life of disconnection and emptiness abroad, thirty-something Laila returns to her native Amman, Jordan. Unannounced and uninvited, Laila attempts to construct a new life, but her simple old town is now a complex entity, a city that is being torn apart by forces of religion from the right and globalization from the left.
VENUES: The Quad, 34 West 13th St, tel. 212 255 8800, www.quadcinema.com
SvA Theatre, 333 West 23 St, tel 212.592.2980, www.svatheatre.com
TICKETS: $5 per screening
WEBSITE: www.dciff.net
