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Film Festival Dispatch: Fuckin’, Cold Berlin Edition

  • February 13, 2012 4:32 pm

The title of this blog entry says it all — I’m freezing my gonads off here at the 62nd Berlinale. After a freezing experience at Sundance with the YOMYOMF crew, I guess I was cursed to continue onward on my own through my festival gypsy trip to another freezing place. With temperatures clocking in the mid-teens Fahrenheit, and short, brisk walks through the icy streets that will have the tip of your nose form icicles, the outside elements just compel you to stay indoors and sit through foreign film fare in toasty theaters.

Inside the Martin Gropius Bau, the film market of the Berlinale.  Read more...

Short Film Spotlight: ON TIME

  • June 5, 2011 3:25 pm

In this edition of the Short Film Spotlight, I highlight a short film that was a part of the Berlinale Talent Campus, a six-day creative summit for filmmakers and film professionals that takes place during the Berlin Film Festival (It’s a great program to check out, if you’re in the film industry). ON TIME is a great little sci-fi short, in the vein of classic Rod Serling’s TWILIGHT ZONE. A bittersweet story of heartbreak, the mysterious man with the briefcase poses the age old question, “what would you do if you can see the future?”  Read more...

Dispatch from Berlin: The Gay Labyrinth

  • February 23, 2010 1:35 am

When it comes to sex culture, Berlin is the place to be. With the very comprehensive Erotic Museum, with its collection of 5,000 sexual artifacts from around the globe, there’s pretty much something for every everyone. You’ll see sex toys, lubes and other paraphenalia sold in restroom dispensers at movie theaters, restaurants, shopping malls, etc.

Sometimes you go to a party (and there are many during the Berlin Film Festival) and you just don’t expect to see glass bowls of lube peppered throughout the club like centerpieces at a banquet table. Or my personal fave, a French distributor’s after party with completely naked dancers wearing space helmets. Now that’s a nifty image.

Even walking down the street, racing to screenings, you come to signs like this:

 Read more...

Dispatch from Berlin: Take a Chance on Jackie Chan

  • February 19, 2010 3:05 am

Guten tag from Berlin! I’m currently wrapping up my annual jaunt at the Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival). Watched a lot of films and warming up my lower extremities because of one of the coldest winters in Berlin in a decade. For such a well run, beautiful place with rich history, their city services in salting sidewalks and streets is left to be desired. The sidewalks are ice rinks and many people have slipped and fell around the festival. A poor Indian film buyer actually broke his leg on his first day at the fest and had to travel back to India the next day because he was immobile.  Read more...