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Press release For immediate diffusion
EcransMed’s third edition Mediterranean Cinema Under the Spotlight in Montreal A rich and inspiring event starting 10 May through 21 May
Montreal, April 28, 2014— The third edition of EcransMed festival (EM3) will take place between May 10 and 21 2014, featuring a selection of internationally renowned and award-winning emerging young filmmakers from 17 Mediterranean countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Spain, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey. The event offers free-of-charge screenings of exceptional productions including 27 short films from 14 different countries of the Mediterranean basin, 7 video art projects from 7 different countries, plus EM2.2: a collection of films previously screened at EcranMed-1 and EcranMed-2, in addition to multiple public screenings in several outdoor and indoor spaces. The Short Films Program will be held at the Cinématheque québécoise, while the Video Art Program, plus EM2.2, will be hosted by the MAI (Montreal, arts interculturel.) Other events will take place in different public spaces (metro stations, cafés, parks, etc.)
Short Films Program The Cinématheque québécoise is hosting EcransMed for the first year. The festival’s main program consists of short films made by filmmakers from Mediterranean countries, and presents a set of creations that share a common cultural and historical substrate. Jean- Bernard Marlin’s “The Runaways” (France) has won numerous awards including the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlinale 2013, and was also honored at the Césars 2014 with the Best Short Film Award. It is supposed to be screened along with Abdurrahman Öner’s first film “Vanished into Blue” (Turkey), as part of the remarkable range of selection that EcranMed-3 is offering this year.
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This selection also includes “5 Ways to Die”, the latest short film by the talented Daina Papadaki (Cyprus). She describes it as “a socio-political allegory about a country’s governmental system based on false appearances. It was loosely inspired by the paradox legal system, the political and the social norms of Cyprus. Corruption is inevitable when the rules and laws do nothing to prevent it. In such cases the lines distinguishing the sinner from the victim are blurred —if not existent.” As for Tunisian director, screenwriter and composer Youssef Chebbi, he has received praise and awards at the International Short Film Festival of Clermont-Ferrand for his second short film “The Depths”. Similarly, Virgil Vernier, winner of 2011 Cannes’ Best Short Film for “Pandora”, and the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival in 2012 for “Orléans”, presents “Andorre” (France), next to Jean-Baptiste Mees’s “Fifteen” (France), a very intriguing first documentary. Aleš Kurt (Bosnia and Herzegovina), one of the most creative theater directors in Bosnia, waited for almost 20 years before making his first short film, “Car Battery”. It will be presented alongside with Dialla Zidani, Lamees Abd Eljalil, Mahmoud Alkhawaja, Shireen Abu Hamda (Palestine), four young Palestinian filmmakers, who have developed four visions around one theme: “Stories of Ramallah.” “Hama 82-11” is a Syrian short film by an anonymous director who offers a unique perspective on the current conflict. The film will be screened next to Lola Contal’s first documentary “Gazette Station” (France). EM3 is also an opportunity to discover: Neritan Zinxhiria’s “Chamomille” (Greece) and its archaic creation and powerful images, which merited the first prize of Filmfest Dresden 2013; Antonello Schioppa’s “The Maine Coon” (Italy), winner of Best Short Film at Rome International Film Festival; Josecho Linares’s “My Right Eye” (Spain), winner of the First Price at Seattle International Film Festival 2013 as well as The Audience Choice at the Stony Brook Film Festival; Julian Ballester’s “Curiol Street” (France), which recently participated at the sixth edition of the International Student Documentary Film Festival of Saint-Ouen (France); Sabah Haider (Lebanon), who has directed four short films, including her recent film “Abu Rami”, which has been screened in more than twenty international film festivals; Fernando Franco, director, editor and writer of “The Cold Shoulder” (Spain), which has been screened at several festivals and received many prizes; Filippo Meneghetti’s “The Intruder” (Italy), winner of one of the Genova Film Festival 2012 prizes; Ivan Salatic (Montenegro) a young director who released several short films and documentaries including “Intro”, and participated in the student selection of several festivals.
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The EM3 selection also lists “Easter Eggs” by Slobodan Karajlović (Croatia), which has been selected in the Short Film Competition at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in 2013; “A Story for the Modlins” by Sergio Oksman (Spain) who won the Grand Prize in five festivals, such as the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, the Elche International Independent Film Festival, Goya Awards, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival; “Dead End” by Tonia Mishiali (Cyprus) which has been officially selected in more than a dozen of international festivals, and was awarded in Thessaloniki International Short Film Festival and its director has been recently selected as Best Director at Athens International Film Festival. Not to miss: Fyzal Boulifa (Morocco), writer and director of several short films including “Burn my body” described by Sight and Sound as ‘extreme’, winner of the Best Short Film at London East End Film Festival and of the Grand Jury Prize of Angers Premiers Plans 2010. His latest film “the Curse” was nominated at the International Short Film Festival of Clermont-Ferrand and at the BAFTA/ Orange British Academy Film Awards 2013; Siamak Etemadi (Greece), of Iranian origins and based in Greece since 1995, has presented his latest film “Cavo d’Oro” at Locarno Film Festival 2012 which has been awarded as Best Short Film at the Greek Film Academy Award; Adrian Orr (Spain), a young graduate from Audiovisual Communication department at the University of Madrid and the Higher School of Theatre and Film of Lisbon, is presenting his third short film, “Good Morning Resistance”, after it was screened, among others, at the 20th independent Film Festival of Barcelona and the International Film Festival of Rotterdam.
Video Art Program The video program consists of 7 video art projects from 7 different countries. The pieces are appeasing, challenging and tickling, and offer original approaches that renew not only the language but also the production modes of artistic expression. On the list: Arwa Abouon (Libya), a well-established artist, who was born in Tripoli (Libya) to Amazigh parents, and graduated from Concordia University; Roy Dib (Lebanon), winner of the Teddy Award for Best Short Film in Berlinale 2014 for his recent film “Mondial 2010’’; Mohamed Abdelkarim (Egypt) with his masterpiece “Comparison of Appearance”, which he describe it as “A pseudo documentary about a real author figure.” We’re also glad to present Mark Mangion’s “Union” (Malta) which was presented at MAXXI: National Museum of the 21st Century Arts in Italy; Cristiana de Marchi (Italy), an artist and a writer who explores issues related to the verbalization, the translation and the relation between physical and nominal dimensions; Basma Alsharif (Palestine) who was
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nominated at the 63rd Berlinale in 2013 (Germany), the 57th BFI London Experimental Film Festival (United Kingdom), the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2013 (Canada), and finally, Dalibor Barić’s “Amnesiac On The Beach” (Croatia) which won the prize of Best Experimental Film at Days of Croatian Films 2013 and another prize at Paris Festival of Different and Experimental Cinema 2013.
Public Screenings Touring screenings at different outdoor and indoor spaces around Montreal will be announced on Twitter (@EcransMed) on 10 and 11 May 2014.
General Information • The entire program is presented free of charge; • The main program will be held from 14 to 17 May 2014 at the Cinémathèque québécoise (salle Fernand-Séguin) located at 335 Boulevard de Maisonneuve East (Tel: 514 842-9763); • The video art program will take place on 14, 15, 16, 17, 20 & 21 May 2014 at the gallery of MAI (Montreal, intercultural arts) located at 3680 rue Jeanne-Mance (Tel: 514 982-1812).
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About EcransMed Launched in December 2012, EcransMed is an annual short film festival based in Montreal that aims to support and promote short films from the Mediterranean region. With different events spread across a variety of different public spaces and indoor venues, the festival exposes the culturally diverse audiences of Montreal to a program of recently produced short films from the Mediterranean. EcransMed works in unison with a group of artists, filmmakers, partners and volunteers in an effort to present all screenings free of charge, making them accessible to a wide and varied audience. EcransMed partakes in the vibrant cultural life that characterizes the cosmopolitan city of Montreal to contribute to the dynamic dialogue between its different communities. EcransMed invites the audience, film fans, artists and professionals to meet together and to share experiences. EcransMed also seeks to develop a professional network to facilitate the exchange and collaboration between artists, producers and festivals working in the short film industry from the Mediterranean and their peers, in Montreal in particular, and in North America in general. In addition to its official editions, parallel events are held throughout the year in collaboration with partners and professional venues. These annexes programs offer a great opportunity to show some short films from previous editions of the festival and to reach out to a larger audience.
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Acknowledgement We would like to express our sincere appreciation to our partners of this edition: the Cinémathèque québécoise for hosting the main program of the festival, MAI (Montreal, arts interculturels) for hosting the video art program, and Vidéographe for offering the equipments needed for the video art program and the outdoor screenings. Honorable mention to the individual filmmakers for believing in the importance of this event and for offering their work, free of charge as well as the volunteers who offered the time and the effort to support this initiative.
For more information please contact: Ruba Tel: (514) 573-1878 media@ecransmed.com Thérèse Tel: (514) 515-1211 admin@ecransmed.com
Thank you.
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Calendar Sat. 10 - Sun. 11 / 5 / 2014 Touring screenings at different outdoor spaces around Montreal. Wed. 14 / 5 / 2014 4:00 - 6:00 PM: Opening of the Video Art program at MAI (Montreal, arts interculturels) • • • • • • • •
Bursting Bubbles Comparison of Appearance Objects in Mirror are Closer Than They Appear Union Doing & Undoing (Borders) Farther Than The Eye Can See Amnesiac on the Beach EcransMed-2.2: A selection of previously screened films from EM1 & EM2
8:30 - 10:30 PM: Opening of the Short Films program at the Cinémathèque québécoise • • • • • •
Andorra Vanished Into Blue Chamomile The Runaway 5 Ways 2 Die The Depths
Thu. 15 / 5 / 2014 12:00 - 6:00 PM: Video Art program at MAI (Montreal, arts interculturels) 6:30 - 8:30 PM: Short Films screenings at the Cinémathèque québécoise • • • • •
Fifteen Easter Eggs The Maine Coon My Right Eye Curiol Street
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• • • •
How Delicious Check-point Boy iBad The street artist
Fri. 16 / 5 / 2014 12:00 - 6:00 PM: Video Art program at MAI (Montreal, arts interculturels) 6:30 - 8:30 PM: Short Films screenings at the Cinémathèque québécoise • • • • • •
Abu Rami The Cold Shoulder The Curse A Story For The Modlins Car Battery Hama 82-11
Sat. 17 / 5 / 2014 12:00 - 6:00 PM: Video Art program at MAI (Montreal, arts interculturels) 9:00 - 11:00 PM: Short Films screenings at the Cinémathèque québécoise • • • • • •
Intro Gazette Station The Intruder Dead End Cavo d’Oro Good Morning Resistance
Tue. 20 - Wed. 21 / 5 / 2014 12:00 - 6:00 PM: Video Art program at MAI (Montreal, arts interculturels)