THE MACEDONIAN FILM FESTIVAL

THE MACEDONIAN FILM FESTIVAL
TO SCREEN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN NEW YORK
NOVEMBER 20TH—23RD
AT THE VILLAGE EAST CINEMAS

Four-day festival to celebrate some of the best of Macedonian filmmaking including “I Am From Titov Veles,”
the 2008 Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film

NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 29, 2008 – The Macedonian Film Fund in association with International Film Circuit announced today that it will present the first Macedonian Film Festival in New York City, Thursday, November 20th through Sunday, November 23rd, at The Village East Cinema. The aim of the Macedonian Film Festival is to celebrate some of the best cinematic achievements to come from

Macedonia, a small, young country comprised of a large number of diverse ethnic groups.  In a remarkably short amount of time, it has managed to produce a thriving film industry and body of work that has garnered both critical acclaim and international awards.  
 
Several directors of the ten films featured in The Macedonian Film Festival will attend the public screenings of their films for Q&As and be available for interviews. For the complete schedule of screening times and for advance purchase of tickets, please visit the Village East Cinema box office (189 Second Ave at East 12th Street) and online at: http://www.villageeastcinema.com/ <http://www.villageeastcinema.com/>

Festival will screen the following titles:
I AM FROM TITOV VELES (Opening Night Film) Macedonia’s 2008 Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film. A co-presentation with the Global Film Initiative and part of Global Lens 2009 which will premiere in January at the Museum of Modern Art. Director Teona Strugar Mitevska will be in attendance.

BEFORE THE RAIN directed by Milcho Manchevski

KONTAKT directed by Sergej Stanojkovski

THE GREAT WATER directed by Ivo Trajkov

BAL-CAN-CAN directed by Darko Mitrevski, Macedonia’s highest grossing theatrical film

DUST directed by Milcho Manchevski

HAPPY NEW YEAR directed by Stole Popov

BLACK SEED directed by Kiril Cenevski (with short film DAE, directed by Stole Popov)

UPSIDE DOWN directed by Igor Ivanov
 

“The Republic of Macedonia, despite being a relatively new country, only formally recognized as an independent nation in 1991, has become, through its cinema, a “melting pot” of the region’s mixed cultural diversity – Albanian, Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian, Bosnian, Kosovar and Croatian.” said Wendy Lidell, President of International Film Circuit. “The films featured in The Macedonian Film Festival have been selected to shine a light on this culturally rich nation and as a declaration of its artistic independence. It is this independent spirit that we hope will appeal to all New Yorkers. Hopefully, the festival will find a home here.”
 
“We are thrilled to be working with International Film Circuit to further introduce fans of foreign films to the great scope of our country’s best film talent,” said Jana Stanisavljeva, Head of Sales and Marketing for The Macedonian Film Fund.  “We are very proud of the work we do to help established and emerging Macedonian filmmakers, like Teona Strugar Mitevska, Ivo Trajkov, Milcho Manchevski, Sergej Stanojkovski and Stole Popov, get their stories told and shown at home and internationally.
 
Highlights of the Festival Include:
Opening Night Film – Thursday, November 20th

I AM FROM TITOV VELES
(2007; 102 min)
Director:  Teona Strugar Mitevska
 
Teona Strugar Mitevska will be in attendance for public Q&A

Macedonia’s submission for the 2008 Academy Awards is a moving story of three sisters locked in a tormented relationship, and their battle to overcome an environment polluted by human negligence. Features another stunning lead performance by Labina Matevska, who also appears in festival films Kontakt and Before the Rain.  A co-presentation with the Global Film Initiative and part of Global Lens 2009 which will premiere in January at the Museum of Modern Art.
 
BEFORE THE RAIN
(1994; 113 min)
Director:  Milcho Manchevski
 
In this best known and most acclaimed Macedonian film yet made, the circularity of violence is illustrated by a seamlessly structured story that circles in on itself.  In Macedonia, a young monk who has taken a vow of silence offers protection to a fleeing Albanian girl, while in

London, a photo editor and disillusioned war photographer sort out their rocky relationship.  Winner of the VeniceGolden Lion and an Independent Spirit Award.  Nominated for a Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar.
 
KONTAKT
(2005; 96 min)
Director:  Sergej Stanojkovski
 
Two impeccable lead performances distinguish this sensitive story about two misfits who are released from institutions on the same day – she from a psychiatric clinic, he from prison.  Thrown together unexpectedly, they struggle against their impulses to form a tentative emotional bond.  Music by Fassbinder collaborator Peer Raben and written by Gordan Mihic, who also wrote Emir Kusturica’s Black Cat, White Cat and Time of the Gypsies.  

Macedonia’s 2006 submission for the Academy Awards.  
 
THE GREAT WATER
(2004; 94 min)
Director:  Ivo Trajkov
Producer: Robert Jazadjiski
 
Ivo Trajkov and Robert Jazadjiski will be in attendance for public Q&A

A supremely nuanced take on the resilience of the human spirit in the face of political authoritarianism.  An elderly Macedonian politician suffers a heart attack.  During his near death experience, he recalls his childhood in an orphanage that was in fact an ideological labor camp where kids were brought to be reprogrammed for life under socialism. Winner of Best Film, Best Director and Best Cinematography Awards at the Valencia Film Festival. 

Rounding out the festival are the following titles, some screening for the first time in the

U.S.:

BAL-CAN-CAN
(2005; 89 min)
Director:  Darko Mitrevski
 
Darko Mitrevski will be in attendance for public Q&A

New York Premiere

What happens when you try to smuggle your dead mother-in-law across the Bulgarian border during the 2001 civil war in Macedonia?  The carpet you have wrapped her in gets stolen by smugglers, of course.  This Macedonian-Italian co-production is the highest grossing theatrical film ever released in Macedonia.  It is a picaresque black comedy with echoes of Emir Kusturica that has toured film festivals worldwide including Moscow and Palm Springs. 
 
DUST
(2001; 127 min)
Director:  Milcho Manchevski
 
Ambitious and beautifully photographed, Manchevski’s follow-up to Before the Rain, once again expertly weaves together two stories, this time tales of redemption, a century apart.  In one, two brothers feud over a woman in the American West circa 1890 before the spurned sibling flees to Macedonia and joins freedom fighters against the Ottomans.  In the other, a desperate thief holds up a dying old woman in present day

New York.  Stars Joseph Fiennes and David Wenham.
 
HAPPY NEW YEAR
(1986; 125 min)
Director:  Stole Popov
 
Stole Popov will be in attendance for public Q&A

An incisive look at the inevitable clash between ideology and human relationships.  It’s June 1948, and a group of Yugoslav students return home from school in the USSR after conflict erupts between the two countries. A love triangle develops amidst a backdrop of political intrigue and illicit activity.  Happy New Year swept the awards in Yugoslavia’s 1986 national film festivals and was Yugoslavia’s 1986 submission to the Academy Awards.
 
BLACK SEED
(1971; 89 min)
Director:  Kiril Cenevski
 
It is widely accepted that Macedonian cinema came of age with this breakthrough film by first-time filmmaker Kiril Cenevski.  Black Seed portrays the tragic destiny and struggle for dignity of the Aegean Macedonians who were deported to concentration camps after the end of the 1946 Civil War in Greece. It won three Golden Arenas at the Pula Film Festival (

Yugoslavia) and was Yugoslavia’s submission for the Academy Award that year.
 

Screening with “Black Seed” is the Academy Award nominated short film “Dae.”

DAE
(1979; 16 min)
Director:  Stole Popov
 
Nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject in 1980.  Dae is a poetic look at the Gypsy way of life, and how it has continued to flourish amidst European urbanization. On the eve of St. George’s Day, their greatest holiday, the community celebrates with characteristic joie de vivre.
 
UPSIDE DOWN
(2007; 105 min)
Director:  Igor Ivanov

A penetrating look at life in the newly independent Republic of Macedonia in the 1990s based on a prize-winning contemporary novel, Navel of the World by Venko Andonovski.  While returning to Skopje on “the train of death,” circus acrobat Jan Ludvik flashes back to his childhood as a rebellious prodigy, his life with an alcoholic father, and his love for a beautiful classmate.  Winner of the Best Director Award at the Valencia Film Festival.  
 

About The Macedonian Film Fund:
The Macedonian Film Fund was established in 2006 to provide comprehensive funding for the Macedonian film industry in its cultural and economic aspects, as well as to further develop the tradition of Macedonian Cinema. Formed by the Macedonian Government, the Film Fund is a legal entity under The Law for the Film Fund.  Its main office is located in Skopje, and it officially began working in 2008.
 
Among the objectives and challenges of the Film Fund are continuing the tradition of Macedonian film culture, and building upon it with new Macedonian cinema, encouraging the expressions of young filmmakers, opening new sales channels, and promoting Macedonian Film internationally. We also encourage Macedonian filmmakers to engage in international co-production as a way to provide international distribution and thus wider audience recognition and promotion for Macedonian films and filmmakers. The Film Fund further aims to integrate Macedonia’s resources into an efficient structure to attract foreign productions to use Macedonia as a filming location. 

 

Macedonia has highly educated and trained film professionals who have worked on many domestic and foreign productions, such as Dreamworks’ The Peacemaker with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. More recently, Macedonia is becoming known for its visual special effects work for major Hollywood movies including The Aviator and The Golden Compass.  With the close cooperation and support of the Government of The Republic of Macedonia, The Film Fund of the Republic of Macedonia offers a variety of tax incentives to international producers in order to attract them to shoot their films amidst the country’s many beautiful and readily accessible landscapes.

About International Film Circuit:
International Film Circuit (InFC) was founded by Wendy Lidell in 1987 to bring quality international cinema to American audiences through innovative distribution strategies.  Over the years, the means by which InFC has pursued this goal have changed in response to changing media technology and market conditions. At its inception, InFC circulated touring packages of films to media art centers nationwide. It was responsible for introducing American audiences to films by world-renowned filmmakers including Hou Hsiao-hsien, Raoul Ruiz and Alexander Sokurov.
 
In the 90s, InFC turned toward conventional film and video distribution, culminating in a six-year strategic alliance with Fox/Lorber Associates, which became Winstar Cinema and then Wellspring Media, during which time Lidell built and operated that company’s theatrical division. Lidell left Wellspring in 2004 and returned to independent distribution via her InFC label.
 
In addition to distributing its own titles to the theatrical, nontheatrical, television and home video markets, International Film Circuit also provides theatrical releasing services to producers and other distribution companies. Among its recent clients are California Newsreel, Celluloid Dreams, Red Envelope Entertainment, Liberation Entertainment, Shout Factory, Persistence of Vision Films, City Lights Pictures, Northern Arts Entertainment, and Ghost Robot.

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