Image festivals

RED and its staff will be present at Camerimage 2017.

I’m at Bitola, in Macedonia, for a Festival dedicated to cinematographers everywhere in the world: the “Manaki Brothers” Festival. In 1905, these two brothers began to film daily life in the Balkans. I’ve been here for a few days and here are my first impressions.

When certain people die, those who you sadly never met but meant so much to you, in fact meant the world to you, perhaps really long ago when they were young and very much alive and kicking, It’s so easy to let things go, to not openly react or respond, but to leave it to others, perhaps read an obituary, or just offer up a ’too bad’ or ’how sad’ and now let’s move on, what’s next? But the news last week of Raoul Coutard’s death has affected me deeply and I wish to say something because for me he was a god, a master like no other... and since this is Camerimage, the cinematography festival, something needs to be said here.

At the Camerimage festival, God only knows why, we award frogs (zaba in Polish, I forgot to ask why…) instead of palm fronds. I received a golden one fifteen years ago, and it earned me an invitation to be a member of the jury for the 2016 festival.

When, last year, I arrived at Camerimage, I was carrying with me the painful trauma of the attacks perpetrated two days earlier in the streets of Paris. This year, I came with the sadness of just having lost Raoul Coutard, a teacher and a friend. But I was welcomed with an equivalent dose of warmth by our foreign counterparts and especially by Ed Lachman, ASC, and Dick Pope, BSC, both of whom are colleagues and friends.

Super Friday: what better way to wrap up an invigorating week immersed in "all things cinematographic" than to have an entire day devoted to female cinematographers with screenings, workshops and master classes by women that culminated with an animated panel discussion on Gender and Diversity entitled “What Works”.

Since Slumdog Millionnaire, in 2008, opened the doors of Hollywood to him, Anthony Dod Mantle, DFF, BSC, ASC, has been alternating between movies with directors the likes of Ron Howard, Kevin Mc Donald, or his faithful accomplice Danny Boyle. Always looking for new forms of visual expression, as in his past films with Lars Von Trier and Harmony Korine, he has just signed off on the visuals of Snowden, directed by Oliver Stone.

Following in the footsteps of the likes of Roger Deakins, BSC, ASC, it is now Bradford Young’s turn to work alongside director Denis Villeneuve (Incendies, Prisoners, Sicario). Arrival is a daring exercise in style that focuses on the arrival of a fleet of extraterrestrial spaceships on Earth and the way in which the global community must react. The story hones in on a young female specialist in linguistics who is sent by the military officials to attempt to communicate with the creatures. Bradford Young, the radiant cinematographer from Baltimore, who is preparing a new Star Wars, shares his vision of this film with us.

Ari Wegner is an Australian cinematographer who worked on a number of short films before moving on to feature-length productions in 2011. She presents, in the Directors’ Debuts competition, Lady Macbeth, a film by British director William Oldroyd. A feminine tale set in the Victorian period that is as sombre and tragic as it is rigorous in its form. A look at this project that is at the crossroads between painting and cinematographic imagery.

Currently in Poland (Bydgoszcz – Nov 12/ 19, 2016), the 24^th edition of the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography: the most expected meeting of cinematographers in the world. Angénieux is there and very pleased to present all cinematographers and future cinematographers who came to Bydgoszcz its newest zoom lenses. In 2016, Angénieux presented to the market a 10x anamorphic zoom lens – the Optimo 44-440 A2S and the Angenieux Type EZ series.

Avi Nesher’s latest film, shot between Łódź and Jerusalem, is in competition for the Golden Frog at Camerimage this year. Michel Abramowicz, AFC, discusses the making of this period film that plunges viewers into Israeli society of the 1970s.

Nicolas Loir has become a regular in Camerimage’s Video Clips competition. He won a double prize in 2013, and this year he’s back in competition with KCPK "Who Wants It". (FR)

In a video interview, the cinematographer James Laxton talks about his work on Barry Jenkins’ movie, Moonlight, in Main competition. On movie mates, isolation, swiming lesson, moonlight on the beach, dark skins lighting...

The Innocents, directed by Anne Fontaine, recounts the meeting of a young Red Cross volunteer with a group of nuns, in the Polish countryside, just after the War. The occupants of the convent, victims of rape by Red Army soldiers during the liberation of Poland, are confronting the ensuing pregnancies, which they do not want disclosed to the outside world. Torn between religious obligation and maternal instinct, the destiny of these women, who have taken vows of celibacy, is suddenly in question...

Apprentice is the second feature-length film by young Singaporean director Boo Junfeng. It deals with a subject that is taboo in the small, prosperous Southeast-Asian city-state: the death penalty.

The AFC will be represented at the 24^th Annual Camerimage Festival (Bydgoszcz, Poland) thanks to selected films that will be screened, the attendance of eight of its member-cinematographers, and the publication of a daily newsletter reporting on the highlights of this annual event focusing on cinematography and cinematographers.

On Monday November 16^th, very early in the morning, I left my parisian home to attend the Camerimage Festival in Bydgoczsz, Poland; to be sure to catch the plane, I arrived three hours before scheduled take-off. My heart was broken and I was on the verge of tears while I read the newspapers and watched the pictures of the faces of the young people massacred in the streets of Paris.

The Camerimage Festival ended with the closing ceremony that took place on Saturday, 21 December 2015 at the Grand Theatre of the Opera Nova of Bydgoszcz (Poland) and the announcement of the winners. The jury, presided by director Michael Hoffman, awarded the Golden Frog to Todd Haynes’ film Carol, cinematography by Ed Lachman, ASC; the Silver Frog to Grímur Hákonarson’s film Rams, cinematography by Sturla Brandth Grøvlen, DFF; and the Bronze Frog to Lázló Nemes’ film Son of Saul, cinematography by Mátyás Erdély, HSC.