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AV FESTIVAL 12: FILMS
Sun 4 March 2012 – Thu 29 March 2012
Our film programme ran throughout the Festival with five screenings each week, plus two special weekends with visiting guest filmmakers.
During the Opening Weekend we welcomed leading American filmmakers James Benning and Sharon Lockhart to introduce their work in person.
The Slow Cinema Weekend focused on the work of four filmmakers: Fred Kelemen, one of the boldest German filmmakers of the last twenty-years; Lav Diaz internationally celebrated as the ideological father of the New Philippine Cinema; Lisandro Alonso one of the most accomplished and original Argentine artists working today; and the distinctive UK filmmaker Ben Rivers.
The film programme featured the work of forty international filmmakers from 21 different countries. This included sixteen UK premieres and twenty regional premieres, with the majority rarely seen and undistributed.
Highlights included: the eight-hour screening of Lav Diaz’s Melancholia and discussions with the filmmaker at Star and Shadow Cinema; the UK premiere of James Benning’s new film Nightfall, plus the slow cinema panel discussion.
James Benning: Nightfall
Sat 3 March 2012, 3.50–6pm
Tyneside CinemaWidely acclaimed for his great 16mm durational films about the American landscape, James Benning has been making new work in digital HD since 2009. We were... more
Lav Diaz: Melancholia
Sat 10 March 2012, 1pm-11pm
Star and Shadow CinemaThree strangers arrive in rural Sagada. Past revolutionaries, they adopt different identities to manage their trauma. Exploring the legacy of failed revolution...more
Ben Rivers: Two Years At Sea
Sun 11 March 2012, 11am-12.30pm
Star and Shadow CinemaBen Rivers’ first feature-length film documents the solitary existence of Jake, who lives in isolation in a remote Scottish forest... more
Slow Cinema Discussion
Fri 9 March 2012, 11am-12.30pm
Tyneside CinemaA panel of filmmakers and critics discussed their work and current trends within contemporary cinema, including: Lav Diaz... more
Ben Russell: Let Each One Go Where He May
Thu 29 March 2012, 7.30pm-9.45pm
Ben Russell’s stunning feature debut is an epic road movie drawing from documentary and...more
Raya Martin: INDEPENDENCIA
Wed 28 March 2012, 7.30pm-10pm
Fleeing the American invasion of the Philippines in the early 20th Century, a mother and her son retreat into the jungle. Ingeniously... more
Rirkrit Tiravanija: Lung Neaw Visits His Neighbours
Wed 21 March 2012, 7.30pm-10pm
Star and Shadow CinemaThis debut feature by visual artist Rirkrit Tiravanija is a portrait of the slow passage of... more
Richard Fenwick: Exhaustion
Sun 11 March 2012, 6.30-8pm
The UK premiere of this newly commissioned film chronicles a professional athlete’s journey from rest, to exhaustion, and recovery. Exhaustion... more
Sharon Lockhart: Double Tide
Sun 4 March 2012, 4–6pm
Tyneside CinemaDouble Tide documents a female clam digger in the mudflats of coastal Maine, as she wades slowly through the water. Filmed on the rare occasion in which... more
Lav Diaz: Century of Birthing
Sun 11 March 2012, 1pm-7.30pm
Star and Shadow CinemaStories about a Christian religious cult and a self-involved filmmaker, are brilliantly intertwined in Lav Diaz's newest film, premiered... more
Lav Diaz: Heremias Book II
Fri 9 March 2012, 9.30pm-11pm
Star and Shadow CinemaHeremias Book II introduces one of Lav Diaz's principle characters, the timid yet resolute craftsman and vendor Heremias. The film cuts between the story of...more
Lav Diaz: Butterflies Have No Memories
Wed 28 March 2012, 7.30pm-8.30pm
Star and Shadow CinemaIn a formerly prosperous, remote mining village, unemployed workers live in economic oppression... more
Ben Rivers: Slow Action
Sat 10 March 2012, 11am-12pm
Star and Shadow CinemaSlow Action is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film, operating between documentary, ethnography and fiction. Filmed at different islands across... more
Fred Kelemen: Fate / Verhaengnis
Thu 8 March 2012, 6pm-7.45pm
Tyneside CinemaFate is a remarkable debut film, admired by critic Susan Sontag as “a visionary, one-of-a-kind achievement”. Taking place...more
Fred Kelemen: Frost
Thu 8 March 2012, 8.30pm-12am
Star and Shadow CinemaFrost is a landmark European film, cementing Fred Kelemen as an inheritor of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner... more
Fred Kelemen: Nightfall / Abendland
Fri 9 March 2012, 6pm-8.30pm
Star and Shadow CinemaFred Kelemen’s third feature is a devastating, tender and sublime masterpiece. Expanding the location to Portugal integrates... more
Bela Tarr: The Turin Horse
Sat 10 March 2012, 7.45pm-11pm
Tyneside CinemaThis preview of Bela Tarr’s last ever work, filmed in collaboration with Fred Kelemen, depicts six days in the life of a father, daughter ...more
Lisandro Alonso: La Libertad / Liberty
Fri 9 March 2012, 1.45pm-3.20pm
Tyneside CinemaLisandro Alonso’s brilliant debut film follows a day in the life of Misael, a migrant woodcutter... more
Lisandro Alonso: Los Muertos / The Dead
Fri 9 March 2012, 3.30pm-5.15pm
Tyneside CinemaLisandro Alonso’s second feature is the enigmatic journey of released convict Vargas... more
Lisandro Alonso: Liverpool
Sun 11 March 2012, 9pm-11pm
Star and Shadow CinemaEvoking Ulysses, Lisandro Alonso’s latest film follows estranged seaman Ferrel on a journey home to his family. Filmed in snowy Tierra del Fuego, the world’s most... more
Fergus Daly & Katherine Waugh: The Art of Time
Sat 3 March 2012, 1.30-3.20pm
Tyneside CinemaThe Art of Time explores how leading artists and thinkers are inventing new and radical notions of time, contesting the idea that... more
Andrei Tarkovsky: Stalker
Sun 4 March 2012, 9pm-12am
One of the most enigmatic films ever made about time, Stalker depicts an expedition led by the Stalker, an outlaw able to safely navigate the decayed... more
Alexander Sokurov: Russian Ark
Mon 5 March 2012, 5.45pm-7.45pm
Russian Ark is a unique journey through time and Russian history. Filmed entirely in the Hermitage Museum, Sokurov’s... more
Cristi Puiu: Aurora
Tue 6 March 2012, 7.45pm-11pm
Aurora is the story of the fall of an ordinary man, set in contemporary post-Communist Romania. We follow protagonist Viorel... more
Abbas Kiarostami: Five
Wed 7 March 2012, 7.30pm-8.50pm
This radically minimalist film features five extended, seemingly single-take sequences, shot on a hand-held DV camera along the shores... more
Nuri Bilge Ceylan: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Mon 12 March 2012, 8pm-11pm
Winning the Grand Prix at Cannes 2011, Ceylan’s hypnotising crime film follows the search by police, prosecutors, a doctor... more
Bruno Dumont: Hors Satan
Tue 13 March 2012, 5.45pm-8pm
Hors Satan is a mesmerising and brutal drama set in the sparse grandeur of Northern France’s Opal Coast. A nameless outsider... more
Pedro Costa: Colossal Youth
Wed 14 March 2012, 7.30pm-10.15pm
Hailed as the Beckett of cinema, Costa has produced a staggering trilogy observing the demolition of the Fontainhas housing... more
Albert Serra: Honor of the Knights
Thu 15 March 2012, 7.30pm-9.15pm
Serra’s striking, controversial adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote... more
Jia Zhang-ke: Still Life
Thu 22 March 2012, 7.30pm-9.30pm
Star and Shadow CinemaStill Life is set in Fengjie, 150 miles from the Three Gorges Dam, the hydroelectric project on the Yangtze River that submerged... more
Sivaroj Kongsakul: Eternity
Sun 25 March 2012, 7.30pm-9.30pm
This debut feature won the prestigious Tiger Award at Rotterdam 2011. Evoking the traditional Thai belief... more
Apichatpong Weerasethakul: Syndromes and a Century
Mon 26 March 2012, 5.45pm-7.50pm
Described as a hospital comedy with a metaphysical bent, Syndromes and a Century is inspired... more
Kim Ki Duk: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring
Tue 27 March 2012, 5.45pm-7.50pm
This simple and serene film shows the life of a Buddhist monk as he passes through the... more
Sergio Caballero: Finisterrae
Sun 18 March 2012, 7.30pm-9pm
Star and Shadow CinemaTwo Russian-speaking ghosts leave the Sonar Music Festival, along the pilgrim path to Santiago de Compostela then on... more
Pablo Giorgelli: Las Acacias
Mon 19 March 2012, 5.45pm-7.35pm
Tyneside CinemaWinner of the Camera d’Or at Cannes 2011, this slow paced road movie tells the story of a long distance truck driver, who agrees... more
Carlos Reygadas: Silent Light
Tue 20 March 2012, 5.45pm-8.20pm
Tyneside CinemaSublimely shot entirely on location in the Mexican Mennonite community near Chihuahua, Silent Light opens and closes with slowly... more



