Camerimage

After Moonlight, in 2016, which won the Oscars for best film and best screenplay, director Barry Jenkins decided to adapt Colson Whitehead’s 2017 Pulitzer Prize winning "Underground Railroad" for his first series. He teamed up again with James Laxton, ASC, whom he has known since they were both students at the University of Tallahassee, Florida. Both filmmakers explored a very different universe from that of their prior films, one that mixes the authenticity of a period film (the story takes place in the slave era in the middle of the 19^th Century) with fantasy. The story follows the flight of Cora, a young slave being pursued by one of her master’s employees, through several states. A series broadcast on Amazon Prime, which has been heaped with praise since its release online. (FR)

Lucie Baudinaud is a young French cinematographer who has recently signed off on many shorts and feature films, both documentary and fiction. Noteworthy amongst her recent projects is Elie Grappe’s Olga, in competition at the Cannes Critics’ Week, and which will be released in theatres on Wednesday. Today at Camerimage, she is presenting Les Enfants Terribles, a documentary by Ahmet Necdet Cupur. (MC)

Stéphane Kuthy, SCS, is a Franco-Swiss cinematographer who lives and works in Zurich. He has shot over fifteen fiction features and about twenty documentary features with the likes of Bettina Oberli, Emily Atef, Georges Gachot and, recently, Mano Khalil, a Swiss director of Kurdish origin. The latter’s film Neighbors is Kuthy’s entry to this year’s Camerimage festival, in the Cinematographer’s Debuts Competition. The film is a reconstitution of life in a Kurdish village on the border between Turkey and Syria in the early 1980s. Mixing humour and drama, this is the story of a young boy’s life in this rapidly changing country divided by an arbitrary border. (FR)

The AFC’s presence at Camerimage this year will first and foremost be through its representation in the selection: seven films shot by its members are in competition in various sections. In the wake of the “Lifetime Achievement Award” presented to Philippe Rousselot, AFC, ASC, in 2020, a retrospective of four of his films will be screened. Another film shot by Will Kurant, AFC, ASC, will be screened as part of the series entitled “In Memory of the Masters”, and the cinematography of two short films, which are part of the “Focus on La Fémis” series, is by two AFC members at the start of their respective careers.

Angénieux will be present at Camerimage 2021 by offering a conference on the Full Frame range of its Optimo optics, on the one hand, and thanks to part of its team, on site in Torun from 15 to 17 November, on the other hand.

Arri will be present at EnergaCamerimage with a stand at the Market, two Arri events will be scheduled and an Arri team will be present.

The Leitz team will be happy to welcome you from November 13 to 20, 2021, in Torun, Poland, for the 29^th edition of the Camerimage International Film Festival.

Our Rosco / DMG team will be present in numbers, from Novembre 15 to 19, 2021, at the EnergaCamerimage 29^th edition, and will lead two conferences: one about the Rosco SoftDrop backgrounds, and the other on LEDs and workflow.

Sony will be present at the EnergaCamerimage Market during the whole festival, from November 13 to 20, and will offer a screening and two "Sony CineAlta" conferences.

Zeiss will be present at the Camerimage 2021 festival on the Market where its team will welcome visitors, and with a conference in which two young women directors of photography will explain how Zeiss optics have helped them to put into images the stories they have helped to tell.

A short time before the start of the Camerimage Film Festival, at which Sympathy for the Devil was selected in the Director’s Debuts Competition, cinematographer Pierre Aïm (winner of the Grenouille d’or in 1995 for La Haine) granted the AFC an interview about his work on that film. During the festival, he reminisced about his experience during a Q&A session held right after a Q&A by the film’s director, Guillaume de Fontenay.

On the occasion of his being awarded a lifetime achievement award, Philippe Rousselot, AFC, ASC, answered questions from Jean-Marie Dreujou, Caroline Champetier, and Denis Lenoir. During their conversation, which was broadcast live on the 2020 Camerimage Festival’s online platform, they discussed the start of his career in France and abroad, including his work with Nestor Almendros. In keeping with his relaxed attitude and straight-talking approach, this recipient of three César awards and one Oscar delighted his colleagues with many memories from shoots and a discussion of the risks a DP sometimes has to take, and the opportunities he has to seize, on set. (FR)

Among the music videos in competition this year at Camerimage, one of them definitely gives light a leading role. "Good Luck", from the group Broken Bells tells the run away of a young boy who gets bored at home and starts meeting people who seem a bit like him, shining from inside. Andrew Droz Palermo tells us how this original music video was made. (FR)

Available on Amazon Prime Video, "Hunters" is one of the flagship programs of year 2020 for Jeff Bezos’ platform. Produced by Jordan Peele (Get Out), and written by David Weil, this 10-episodes series is a kind of homage to B cinema. The premise: a Nazi hunt in New York City in the 70’s, led by Al Pacino. Somewhere between extreme violence and humor. Fred Elmes, ASC, has lensed this pilot, picked up from the Fist Look - TV Pilots section at Camerimage 2020. (FR)

Produced and starring actor Ethan Hawke in a state of grace, The Good Lord Bird is a Showtime set just before the Civil War.
Albert Hughes (who directed Menace II Society, with his twin brother Allen) directed the pilot, while Peter Deming, ASC (Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive...) shot the seven episodes. He spoke with us about this film shot in Virginia, and which proposes a simultaneously modern and classic vision of a Western.(FR)

After Dogman, in 2018, the Roman director Matteo Garonne once again teams up with Danish cinematographer Nicolaj Brüel, DFF, on a new adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s popular tale Pinocchio. In this adaptation Garonne’s passion for the marvelous is obvious – it was already present in Tale of Tales, 2015, with a parade of characters and places that transpose the children’s tale into a world sometimes close to German romanticism. Pinocchio is selected in the main competition at the Camerimage 2020 festival. (FR)

Adapted from a true story, The Banker is directed by George Nolfi (screenwriter of Ocean’s Twelve and The bourne Ultimatum). This movie tells the uncommon journey of Bernard Garrett and Joe Morris, two black businessmen who eventually bought banks in Texas and democratized loans for the Afro-American community in the late 50’s. Written as a heist film with an Hitchcockian visual tone, Charlotte Bruus Christensen signs the image of this Apple TV production. (FR)

Selected in competition in Camerimage in the "Cinematographer’s Debuts" and "Director’s Debuts" categories, which are open to first and second films, Two of Us, by Filippo Meneghetti, tells the turbulent love affair between two retired women. At once a romance, a drama, and even at times a thriller, this film was cinematographer Aurélien Marra’s second feature film. The film is mainly set under the autumn sun in the south of France, with interiors shot in studio in Luxembourg. (FR)