They’ll make space for us as a group at 10pm onwards, and we’ll order and pay for food and drinks like other customers. They’ll also play “our” music. Yays!
I had a great time in Copenhagen! The NATFILM festival took excellent care of me, fed me well, and sent people to pick me up when I was too tired or confused to navigate the twisty streets myself. The audience for Sita was very sweet and generous and didn’t mind that the sound mysteriously switched from Dolby Surround to quiet analog stereo mid-way through the screening. Although I didn’t attend many films, the festival program looked excellent; they programmed not one, not two, but THREE Guy Maddin films, along with Sita and Loins of Punjab Presents, so they clearly have exquisite taste.
A quick update from abroad: This NATFILM festival is sweeeet. Copenhagen is possibly the most beautiful city I’ve ever visited - sorry other cities, but the medieval architecture here wins my heart. I just saw Guy Maddin’s fantastic new film “My Winnipeg,” which I missed in Berlin. Guy Maddin is one of the few filmmakers I can honestly call inspiring. Unfortunately he couldn’t attend NATFILM in person. But I did get to meet John Sayles and his partner Maggie and a bunch of really nice Danish film people at a superb homecooked dinner in a palatial (literally, in a palace) apartment here. Sweet, I tells ya.
“Sita” screens at 3pm tomorrow at Empire Bio. If you’re reading this and in Copenhagen, please come! We can hang out afterwards. NATFILM is nothing if not intimate.
This Saturday, fellow indie animatrix Signe Baumane is presenting a program called Women’s Side of Sex, including a clip from Sita. She and I and one other filmmaker will be present to answer questions and further embarrass ourselves.
Saturday March 22, at 8pm
at Millennium Film Workshop, 66 East 4th street
information: 212 673 0090
www.millenniumfilm.org
cinema@millenniumfilm.org
$8 admission
Seven seasoned in animation, sex and relationships women are going to share their sex/love stories with you :
Friday, April 25, 8:15 pm, AMC Village VII
Sunday, April 27, 3:45 pm, AMC 19th Street East
Monday, April 28, 10:45 pm, AMC Village VII
Thursday, May 1, 1:45 pm, Village East Cinemas
Friday, May 2, 3:00 pm, AMC 19th Street East
AMC Village VII (AV7)
66 Third Avenue (at 11th Street)
New York, NY 10003
AMC 19th Street East (A19)
890 Broadway (at 19th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Village East Cinemas (VEC)
181 Second Avenue (at 12th Street)
New York, NY 10003
An ongoing feature in which I recommend the work and websites of people who buy me lunch. Today’s entry: people I’ve neglected to post about who bought me lunch in Berlin!
Pierre-Jean Duffour and Stéphanie Gerlier (above) of MASALADOSA attempted to buy me lunch but were intercepted by Sita patron/Temple Construction Engineer Tom Swain (with wife Elke, below). However the next day they managed to pay for my food at the Teddy Awards party. I can’t praise the music of MASALADOSA enough. They found me online, sent me their music, and now it’s in Sita Sings the Blues. Hopefully I’ll see them again soon in France - fingers crossed for the Annecy festival, to which I submitted as soon as I got back. Kaisa Penttilä, a Finnish animator living in Berlin, saw Sita and subsequently emailed me. One thing led to another, and the next thing you know, she bought me lunch.
Bonus lunch: Greg Sextro, and Reena Shah and I were also treated to lunch at the Berlinale Lunch Club.
Would YOU like to be featured in Links for Lunch? Then buy me lunch. My email address is at the bottom of the middle column, the one with the pictures linking to my movies and cartoons and stuff.
Vi bøjer Bollywoodbegrebet med ‘Sita Sings the Blues’, men det gør vi gerne, for Nina Paleys debutanimation i spillefilmslængde, der vandt en special mention på filmfestivalen i Berlin i februar, er i sandhed en film ud over det sædvanlige….(more)
Copenhagen:
March 30 Empire Bio 15.00
April 6 Cinemateque 19.30
plus:
Aarhus: April 2 Ost for Paradise 18.00
Odense: April 4 Cafe Biografen 16.00
Sita is going to the NATFILM FESTIVAL in Copenhagen! Word is she’ll screen Saturday March 29 (I’ll be there!) and Sunday April 6 Cinematque at the Filmhouse in Copenhagen, but I don’t know what times yet. I also just learned one of my favorite films ever, Loins of Punjab Presents, will be at the festival too. Sita, Loins and Denmark: it’s a dream come true.
Sorry for the delay. I’ve been jetlagged and, dare I say it, a little depressed - must be that post-partum thing they warned me about. I’m only talking about my mood here, not my reality - my reality is great! I’m very lucky, very blessed, and I know it. I just wish my brain chemistry corresponded. Anyway, photos here. (Photo above by Markus Kempken.)
…because, much to my delight and surprise, she was listed as a TEDDY film: the GayLesbianBisexualTransgender category at the Berlinale. Films were classified as follows:
G / g : Gay
L / l : Lesbian
T / t : Transgender
GS : Gender Studies / Role Models
C : Queer Context
Sita Sings the Blues is “C: Queer Context.” The film may not be specifically pro-gay, but it’s pretty anti-het. Or maybe the film, like me, is so utterly non-straight it has to be queer. Whatever the reason, I am thrilled: queer cinema on the whole tends to be much more interesting than mainstream. Thanks, Teddy people!
I’m back! Sorry I couldn’t blog from Berlin, nor clean up the comment spam until just now. Photos and stories to come after I sleep off my jetlag, but first some news in brief:
