Panorama
SlingShot Paul Lazarus
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
USA, 2014 DCP, color / black-and-white, 93 min Director: Paul Lazarus Editing: Paul Lazarus, Doug Blush, Edward Osei-Gyimah Sound: Matt Vowles Music: Marco d’ Ambrosio Production: Paul Lazarus & Barry Opper for White Dwarf Productions Executive Production: Sara Williams, Evan Williams, Eric Aroesty, Ronald Aroesty, Lewis Katz Screening Copy: White Dwarf Productions Website: www.slingshotdoc.com
Paul Lazarus:
Seven Girlfriends (Fiction, 1999) First: Robotics Promition (2011) SlingShot – short (2012)
Awards: Audience Favorite Choice Award Documentary Feature Cinequest San Jose Film Festival, Kaiser Thrive Award Cinequest San Jose Film Festival, Audience Award Best Documentary Feature Florida Film Festival, Grand Jury Award Best Documentary Feature Florida Film Festival, Audience Choice Award Documentary Feature Kansas City FilmFest, Audience Award Future Forward Feature Maui FIlm Festival a.o.
As a child, Dean Kamen was inquisitive about everything, such as why a ball goes less high each time it bounces. He never lost that childlike sense of curiosity. Nowadays, Kamen is a permanently denim-clad grown man who talks passionately about his inventions, which include the Segway, the two-wheeled human transporter. His new project aims to save the world from a shortage of clean, pure water. We accompany him as he prepares for a time when, even in the poorest parts of the world, there will be a machine producing clean water. But it soon becomes clear that for the global roll-out of this water purification machine, which has even been praised by Bill Clinton, he needs a major partner. Who can help him get it to the right places? After a long search, Kamen realizes that there is just one company whose product can be found everywhere, and that company is Coca Cola, the same multinational that was the target of so much criticism in the past for exhausting local water supplies in its manufacturing process. For Kamen, it’s just the latest obstacle on his path. But, as he says himself, if you’re an inventor, “you have to be an optimist.” It’s not without reason that he’s named his water machine the SlingShot, after the weapon David used to defeat the giant Goliath.
Sluizer Speaks Dennis Alink
WORLD PREMIERE
The Netherlands, 2014 DCP, color / black-and-white, 89 min Director: Dennis Alink Cinematography: Thomas van der Gronde Editing: Tom van Klingeren Sound: Marcel de Hoogd, Bob Aronds, Martijn Snoeren Music: Niek Lucassen Production: Dennis Alink Co-Production: Angelo Pèrez Lebbink, Thomas van der Gronde Screening Copy: Dennis Alink
Dennis Alink:
directing debut
The Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer died on September 20 of this year. This time he didn’t rise from the dead – during a previous arterial bleeding, he was wrongfully declared dead and “almost shoved into the fridge.” A typical Sluizer statement, as this distinctive portrait shows, in which the quirky artist looks back on his rich life, his sources of inspiration, great loves, legendary encounters with the greats, and above all his films: the leitmotif in his life. Sluizer (Spoorloos, The Vanishing, Dark Blood) turns out to be a vessel full of beautiful, strong stories. We hear about how he once got into a fight with Klaus Kinski, and how he single-handedly patched up a crashed plane on set with gaffer tape during the tragic filming of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo. Or about the time that secret services rang his doorbell since he had made recordings of JFK 10 days before his death. But also about his connection with Spielberg and being ignored in his own country. “I am an immigrant in the Dutch film industry,” he says without a doubt. This is the life story of Sluizer in his own words, supported by excerpts from his work and the filming of Dark Blood, his final triumph on the film festival circuit.
141