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Event
Stop and Look: Three Films by Sergei Loznitsa
Saturday, February 25, 2017, 7:30pm
Los Angeles Filmforum presents
Stop and Look: Three Films by Sergei Loznitsa
At the Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028
Sergei Loznitsa in person! LA premieres!
NOTE THE CHANGE FROM OUR NORMAL DAY
The Oscars are tomorrow in Hollywood: Allow extra time for road closures (especially on Hollywood & Highland)
Sergei Loznitsa is one of the most heralded filmmakers in Europe, but is still little known in America. Generously supported by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, Filmforum presents Loznitsa in Los Angeles for his first time, for in-person screenings at Filmforum, UCLA, Cal Arts, and Cinefamily. This is the first night of the series, featuring the award-winning short films The Train Stop and The Letter, followed by the remarkable hour-long Blockade. The Train Stop is a portrait of a quiet train station and the people waiting there; The Letter is an unnerving look at a few residents of a mental asylum. Blockade, anticipating his film The Event (screening next Wednesday at Cinefamily), re-edits film shot during the WWII blockade of Leningrad. Utilizing the material shot by a wide range of camera people trapped in the suffering city, Loznitsa finds a new poetry and eloquence, giving a new generation access to events rarely discussed.
Educated originally in mathematics, Loznitsa redirected his life to filmmaking after the fall of the Soviet Union, and has been producing a series of documentaries since the mid-1990s looking at life in a wide array of places and events: portraits of small towns, fishing communities in Siberia, recoveries of political unrest, tourists in Nazi concentration camps. Hes been the subject of a retrospective at the International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA), often considered the leading doc festival in Europe. In recent years he has been working in scripted narrative films as well, making two films that have premiered at Cannes.
Interview with Loznitsa in Variety: http://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/sergei-loznitsa-art-life-new-film-a-gentle-creature-idfa-1201923368/
Tickets: $10 general; $6 for students/seniors; free for Filmforum members. Available in advance from Brown Paper Tickets at or at the door.
Coming up in the series:
Monday Feb 27, 7:30 - The End(s) of Remembrance: Two Films on Holocaust Memory, by Sergei Loznitsa, The Old Jewish Cemetery and Austerlitz, at the James Bridges Theatre at UCLA, free!
Tuesday Feb 28, 7:30 pm Maidan, at the Cal Arts Bijou Theatre, free!
Wednesday March 1, 7:30 pm The Event, at Cinefamily
http://www.cinefamily.org/films/special-events-march-2017/#the-event-w-director-sergei-loznitsa-in-person
In addition to the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, Filmforum thanks the following entities for their support of this series: the UCLA Department of World Arts and Culture/Dance; the UCLA Center of European and Russia Studies; the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television; the UCLA Department of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures; Cal Arts; Cinefamily; and the International Documentary Association.
For more information: www.lafilmforum.org or 323-377-7238
Screening:
The Train Stop
2000, b/w, mono, 35mm, 25 min. (screening digitally)
Director - Sergei Loznitsa; Cameraman - Pavel Kostomarov; Sound designer - Alexander Zakarjewskiy
Speeding trains slice through the silence of the small train stop. The whistle on the locomotive and the thunder of the wheels disappear into the night, but fail to wake up people at the station. People just continue to sleep. What do they wait for? What will wake them up?
Awards include: 'Silber Taube' Leipzig International Documentary Film Festival, Gemany, 2000; Grand Prix International Film Festival in Lyon, France, 2001; Best Documentary 'Golden laurel' National documentary film prix, Russia, 2000
The Letter
2012, b/w, Dolby Digital, 35 mm, 20 min. (screening digitally)
Director - Sergei Loznitsa; Cameraman - Pavel Kostomarov; Sound designer - Vladimir Golovnitzkiy; Production - "Atoms & void"
A remote village in the Northwest of Russia. A mental asylum is located in an old wooden house. The place and its inhabitants seem to be untouched by civilization. In this pristine setting no articulate human voice is heard, and pain is muted.
Awards incude: Golden Dragon, The Best Short Film Krakow Film Festival ,Poland, 2013; PRIX EFA for the Best European Film Krakow Film Festival ,Poland, 2013; Nomination to the European Film Award 2013 in the short film category
Blockade
2005, b/w, stereo, 35 mm, 52 min.
This movie is about the siege of Leningrad during the Second World War. There are no words, no music, only sounds and pictures of slowly dying city.
Awards include: Jury Award International Film Festival 'Stalker' in Moskau, Russia, 2005; Grand Prix 'Gold Dragon' International Krakow Short Film Festival, Poland, 2006; Best Documentary Film from archive Jerusalem International Film Festival, Israel, 2006; Grand Prix for Best Dokumentary Film Film Festival Viborg, Russia, 2006 Best Documentary Film Open Documentary Film Festival 'Russia' , Ekaterinburg, Russia, 2006; Arie&Bozena Zweig Innovation Award Chicago International Documentary Festival, 2007
This footage, shown at the end of the film, was shot in 1946 and comes from a documentary called 'The People's Verdict', Loznitsa said. It shows German prisoners of war, a detail that is secondary in the director's view. 'Only 60 years ago, we gathered on the street and watched other people being hanged', he commented. 'On the one hand, you can understand people, since they lived through something that -- I don't know -- reconciled them to such a fact. Anna Malpas, Moscow Time
Told without voiceover, explanatory subtitles or any other contextualizing material, Russian docu 'Blockade' looks unlikely to show up on the History Channel as it stands now. Nevertheless, this absorbing account of the 900-day siege of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) during WWII, told entirely through re-edited archive footage with freshly made sound, reps poignant viewing as it focuses on the daily lives of the city's inhabitants. Pic by experienced helmer Sergei Loznitsa ('Landscape') should soon besiege fests and upmarket cablers. Culled from newsreel material, pic's visuals are grouped thematically to show different aspects of the Leningrad Blockade. Shots of burning and later devastated buildings are backed by a soundtrack of sirens and raging flames. Sounds of soft weeping are matched to imagery of mass graves, which still have power to shock. Later on, dead, shrouded bodies are seen littering the streets, but most of the pedestrians, by this point so inured to the sight, simply walk past. Match between sound and image is concise but not too literal, and editing builds the pace well toward its climax, when the city is finally liberated and the war ends. Leslie Felperin, Variety
Sergei Loznitsa was born September 5th, 1964 in the city of Baranovitchi, in Belarus. At that time Belarus was part of the Soviet Union. Later Loznitsas family moved to Kiev, Ukraine, where Loznitsa finished high school. In 1981 Loznitsa applied and was admitted to Kiev Polytechnic Institute, with the major in applied mathematic and control systems. In 1987 he graduated with a degree in engineering and mathematics.
From 1987 through 1991 Loznitsa was employed as a scientist at the Institute of Cybernetics. He was involved in the development of expert systems, artificial intelligence, and decision-making processes. In addition to his main job, Loznitsa worked as a translator from Japanese. During that time Loznitsa developed a strong interest in cinematography, and in 1991 he applied to Russian State Institute of Cinematography, in Moscow. After passing a very vigorous selection process, Loznitsa was admitted to the Institute. He studied in the studio of Nana Dzhordzhadze. In 1997 Loznitsa graduated with honors with the major in movie production and direction. From 2000 he produces works in the Studio of Documentary Films in St.Petersburg. In 2000 he was awarded a Nipkov program grant in Berlin. In 2001 Loznitsa immigrated with his family to Germany.
Sergei Loznitsa has directed 18 internationally acclaimed documentary films. His two feature films, Schastye moe (2010) and V tumane (2012) had their world premieres at the Festival de Cannes, where V tumane received the FIPRESCI prize. Loznitsas feature-length documentary film Maidan, dedicated to the Ukrainian Revolution, premiered in 2014 at the Festival de Cannes. His feature-length documentary film The Event that revisits the dramatic moments of August 1991 in the USSR, a failed coup détat attempt (known as Putsch) premiered at la Biennale di Venezia in 2015. http://loznitsa.com
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This program is supported by the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts; the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission; the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles; and Bloomberg Philanthropies. We also depend on our members, ticket buyers, and individual donors.
Los Angeles Filmforum is the citys longest-running organization dedicated to weekly screenings of experimental film, documentaries, video art, and experimental animation. 2017 is our 42nd year.
Feb 27 Sergei Loznitsa in person at UCLA Austerlitz
Feb 28 Sergei Loznitsa in person at Cal Arts Maidan
Mar 1 Sergei Loznitsa in person at Cinefamily The Event
Mar 5 Films by Straub & Huillet at the Echo Park Film Center
Memberships available, $70 single, $115 dual, or $50 single student
Contact us at lafilmforum@yahoo.com.
Find us online at http://lafilmforum.org.
Become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LosAngFilmforum!
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LocationSpielberg Theater at the Egyptian (View)
6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
United States
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| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: Yes! |
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| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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