Olivier Assayas' new film "Carlos" *full cut* at Northwest Film Forum : Nov 5 - 7

A perfect way to spend a loooong, cold, raining Nov night. This weekend only at NWFF, the *full cut* of Olivier Assayas' 5+Hour biopic of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez. Sanchez, a world renowned terrorist' and mercenary with involvement in causes ranging from pro-Palestinian activism to the Japanese Red Army was at once a figure of the extreme left and later an opportunistic mercenary in the pay of powerful governments.
From Northwest Film Forum: "Carlos tells the story of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (played by Edgar Ramirez), a central figure in international terrorism of the 1970s and 1980's. He lived several lives under various pseudonyms, weaving his way through the complexities of international politics of the period. He formed his own organization, basing it behind the Iron Curtain, and was active during the final years of the Cold War. A daring and amazing biography of a still-living figure, delving into international politics, terrorism, history, religion, sex and much more. Assayas handles all the issues with staggering dexterity, intelligence and skill. The film is nothing short of a must see!"
From LA Times: "Think of The Bourne Identity with more substance, or Munich with more of a life to it, and you begin to have a sense of what Assayas has accomplished with this globetrotting and epic look at one man's rise to the station of international guerrilla leader and terrorist celebrity."

Link to IFC's "Carlos" site

Link to Northwest Film Forum's "Carlos" site

Ryuichi Sakamoto "Playing the Paino" Tour & Earshot Jazz Festival : Oct 15 - Nov 7

Christoph Heemann "The Rings of Saturn" Tour at Chapel Performance Space: Oct 25

Christoph Heemann longtime collaborations with Jim O'Rourke, Andrew Chalk, Charlemagne Plalestine and Andreas Martin over the years has produced a wide-ranging corpus of work spanning Psychedelic Dronsescape, Surreal Ambiance, Downer Folk, Krautrock Jams and John Fahey-like acoustic guitar meanderings, many of them released through his own Streamline label but it's mostly just his adept, almost alchemical working of SOUND itself that stands most highly. Heemann's most recent work is a cinematic exploration of the themes and concepts from the literature of W.B. Sebald, aurally evoking the haunted scapes of his "The Rings of Saturn". I expect it will be this material explored in this rare (decades apart) performance by him stateside. Should be quite a night of sonic journeying not to be missed, and not just for it's rarity alone!
From Wayward Music Series: "Christoph Heemann (born 1964 in Aachen, Germany) began his musical work in 1983 as a founding member of the group HIRSCHE NICHT AUFS SOFA, who released several albums of their surreal collagemusic between 1985 and 1993, drawing inspiration from such diverse elements as musique concrete, avantgarde, krautrock and improvised music. After the group disbanded Heemann continued working solo and with the group MIMIR (with Edward Ka-spel and Jim O'Rourke), the drone projects MIRROR (with Andrew Chalk), and IN CAMERA (with Timo van Luyck). Heemann's solo compositions have often been described as "ear-movies", in which he fuses field recordings, acoustic instruments, electronics, and electroacoustic sounds into audio narratives. Aside from this Heemann has done a series of musical collaborations (with Jim O'Rourke, Lee Ranaldo, Charlemagne Palestine, William Basinski) and works as a producer (Keiji Haino, Charlemagne Palestine, Limpe Fuchs, Current 93). Since 1994 he runs the Streamline label."

Link to Nonsequitur/Wayward Music Series Christoph Heemann site

Sounds on Rotation - Oct / Nov - Books in Circulation

Been a while since I've done one of these! So here's whats been playing at my place/on my pod
this past month or so. Have been particularly enthused again with the past couple months of new
albums I've acquired, these being (as per usual) mostly dissonant, minimal, abstract, avant and
atmospheric type sounds. Consisting of random modern composer titles, few choice electronic
releases, couple new avant-jazz/improv recordings, noise post-rock psych stuffs and a couple
doom-ish metal records. Indeed! New sounds make such an excellent compliment to the change
of seasons, as the Fall/Winter is definitely here with the torrential rains, sunset at 6pm and the
changing leaves falling from trees. 5 more months of spectacular off-and-on crepuscular
Northwest gloom, here we come!

Supersilent "10" & "11" (Rune Grammofon)
Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld "Mimikry" (Raster-Noton)
Cloudland Canyon "Fin Eaves" (Holy Mountain)
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma "Love Is A Stream" (Type)
Ultralyd "Inertiadrome" (Rune Grammofon)
Max Richter "Infra" (Fat Cat)
V/A "Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep" (Rune Grammofon)
Peter Broderick "Music For Contemporary Dance" (Erased Tapes)
Earth "Bureaucratic Desire for Extra Capsular-Extraction" (Southern Lord)
Pan Sonic & Keiji Haino "Synergy Between Mercy & Self-Annihilation Overturned" (Blast First)
Marcus Fjellström "Schattensieler" (Miasmah)
Hildur Guðnadóttir "Mount A" (Touch)
Grails "Black Tar Prophecies - Vol. 1-4" (Important)
Boris "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Vol.1-4" (Southern Lord)
Rafael Anton Irisarri "The North Bend" (Room40)
Philip Jeck "An Ark for the Listener" (Touch)
Emeralds "Does It Look Like I'm Here?" (Mego)
Nadja "Autopergamene" (Essence)
World's End Girlfriend "Seven Bastards" (Virgin Babylon)
Jasper TX "Singing Stones" (Fang Bomb)
Kemialliset Ystävät "Ullakkopalo" (Fonal)
Goldmund "Famous Places" (Western Vinyl)
Aaron Martin "Worried About the Fire" (Fang Bomb)
Benoit Pioulard "Lasted" (Kranky)
Brian McBride "The Effective Disconnect" (Kranky)
Morgan Packard "Moment Again Elsewhere" (Anticipate)
François Couturier "Un Jour Si Blanc" (ECM)
Arvo Part "Symphony No.4" (ECM)
Tord Gustavsen Ensemble "Restored, Returned" (ECM)
Pale Sketcher "Jesu: Pale Sketches Demixed" (Ghostly Intl.)
Ryuichi Sakamoto "Playing the Paino" (Toei Music)
Svarte Greiner "Penpal Forever (and Ever)" (Digitalis)
Jon Meuller "Whole" (Type)
Kangding Ray "Pruitt Igoe" (Raster-Noton)
Heavy Winged "Sunspotted" (Type)
Hauschka "Foreign Landscapes" (Fat Cat)

Books in question being split between a couple authors, the Bolano was recently completed
and near mind-destroying in it's depth, intensity and duration. The Ballard is a ongoing on/off
again dipping in/out of in the midst of other books as it's his short fiction collection, the others
being pop/pulp adventures to satisfy that appetite:

Roberto Bolano "2666" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
J.G. Ballard "The Complete Stories of j.G. Ballard" (W.W.Norton)
Jonathan Lethem "Chronic City" (re-read) (Knopf)
Jeff Noon "Vurt" (St. Martin's Griffin)
Audrey Niffenegger "Time Traveler's Wife" (Houghton Mifflin)
Daniel J. Boorstin "The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination" (Vintage)
Alan Moore "Swamp Thing" Hardcover Vol.1-3 (DC Comics)
Grant Morrison "Batman & Robin" & "The Return of Bruce Wayne" (DC Comics)

...And the new Sept/Oct issue of Film Comment, Oct issues of The Wire, Sight & Sound,
Artforum, Frieze and McSweeney's 34 have all made for good reads.

Photo credit: http://petrocellidesigns.carbonmade.com/projects/2652935
Petrocelli Designs LLC from a series for the Rafael Anton Irisarri release "The North Bend"

Einstürzende Neubauten "Strategies Against Architecture IV" US Tour : Dec 1 - 15

On the very ground floor of this precipitous cultural structure built on the ruin of the early 20th century's vision of Europe, in the dilapidated warehouses, urban ruins, and null-zone of Potsdamer Platz in proximity to the Berlin Wall, Einstürzende Neubauten were there at Industrial Music's inception, giving its birth a voice, form, and aesthetic. Following in the wake of Punk and early New Wave, Industrial Music culture bore many correspondences to its Postpunk and Gothic Rock siblings, yet defined itself apart for the literal mechanics of its production and aesthetics. Globally a number of epicenters for the sound's earliest formation could be found in Berlin, Chicago, New York, London, and the major coastal cities of California. Most notably and formative for the sound and its culture, the German scene was the initial defining locus. Gathering around the Geniale Dilletanten Festival, and its burgeoning music and performance subculture through efforts largely spearheaded by Wolfgang Müller, the genre's origin immediately expanded outwards to encompass multimedia, performance art, print and literary works. In a span of half a decade, this thriving scene in the margins of the divided city, gave birth to such artists as Die Tödliche Doris, Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, F.S.K., Mania D, Palais Schaumburg, Sprung Aus Den Wolken, Abwärts, Malaria!, and Einstürzende Neubauten along with their various side projects and solo iterations. Theirs is a legendary presence that spans decades, and has been documented in numerous expansive articles and interviews, such as The Wire's cover feature, "Einstürzende Neubauten: Annihilating Angels", The Guardian's recount of a 1984 London performance, "How to Destroy the ICA with Drills", and Wired magazine, in "Einstürzende Neubauten has Cooked Mud, Transformed Meat".

Coinciding with Einstürzende Neubauten's 30th anniversary, they have released a fourth anthology of studio improvisations and commercially released recordings, live excerpts, and previously unreleased compositions. "Strategies Against Architecture IV", acts as a perfect summation of their decade of sonic explorations. This futurist anthology runs the gamut of grinding industrial ruin, theatrical poetic digressions, atmospheric meanderings, and propulsive rocking motoric groove. In his review for The Quietus, Tim Burrows states; "Approaching a world tour followed by imminent hiatus, they leave behind this varied yet cohesive record of the last eight years, a period of creativity that belies the band’s three decades. It’s a virile, nuanced alternative to a lot of the flat pop around at the moment, and suggests that there could be a lot more to come." Marking this occasion, this winter they embark on a tour of these explorations into the furthest fringes of experimental rock, lyricism, and collapsing architectural structures. The tour's announcement states that select cities will also play host to a second night wherein they will present a three-part program of films and installations; a short Neubauten live set with “material that has never been played live, hasn’t been played live for a long time or never in this form”; and performances by the band’s individual members “recomposed from city to city.” Update: "Einstürzende Neubauten Cancel US Tour". The band issued the below statement: “While the US Department of Homeland Security did issue approvals for the band’s visas, it was not done in time to secure the appointments at the overseas embassies and consulates that represent the necessary final step in the process. The band members are tremendously disappointed by this turn of events and wish to thank all those fans who purchased tickets for these performances, and for their support."

Link to Einstürzende Neubauten 30th anniversary tour tickets site

Link to official Einstürzende Neubauten site

Gaspar Noe's new film "Enter the Void" at Northwest Film Forum : Oct 8 - 14

Coming to Northwest Film Forum! From the director of the single-most-difficult piece of cinema I've ever seen,
not due to duration or glacial slowness or high-concept hoobaloo, but simply that the events depicted were of
a brutality and believability that I've never seen in cinema, before or since. Yep, we're talking Gaspar Noe's
"Irreversible", which at the time, friends and I spent a month debating it's potential merits and reasons to see it
knowing the premise and questioning the objective, relevance and result... and guess what? When finally seeing
it the film stands as a paramount, transformative, powerful piece of cinema like no other in the history of the medium.
Honest. That said, his previous film, "I Stand Alone" watches like a bit of postmodern comedy now, complete with
shock-value 'get out while you can!' mechanism that in the 90's was probably effective and original, but hasn't
weathered quite as well as "Irreversible" overall, yet still retains much of it's original brutality. My review of his
newest, "Enter the Void" begins with a lengthy string of qualifiers, but make it past those and you'll see my point here:



Even for it's dippy drug user 20something protagonist and his wayward sister (read: self-endangering, damaged),
even for the corniness of the '2001: A Space Odyssey' cosmic baby/vagcam nonsense of the end, even for it
exploring pretty literally the whole setup of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, as alluded to be the extended opening
sequence discussion of the three Bardos of 'Life, Death & Rebirth', even for all it's overlong redundancy, even for the
all first-person literalism - this was truly one of the most hallucineogenic, cosmic, tripped out explorations of perception,
sex and mortality that I've seen on screen in many years. From Chris Norris' fairly brilliant overview/article on the film in
the Oct. issue of Film Comment: "Noe calls the film's genre 'psychedelic melodrama', but it also falls into the much older
tradition of 'void' tales, whose tellers run from Dante, to Dickens, to Poe to Thornton Wilder. But the feeling I found in the
wake of Enter the Void was an ineffable sense of devotion - to craft, experience, perception, consciousness - whose only
meaning is likely in the topography Thorton Wilder saw gazing into Bardo: a land of the living, and a land of the dead,
bridged only, and tenuously, by love."

Link to Northwest Film Forum "Enter the Void" site

Link to IFC "Enter the Void" site

Link to Film Comment Sept/Oct Issue

Cary Grant Singlehandedly Averts the Cold War, Proving McCarthy to be the Fool He Is: MI6, Yugoslavia & Alfred Hitchcock's Unmade Film in Wu Ming's 54

Any novel that begins with this prologue:
"'Post-war' means nothing.
What fools called 'peace' simply meant moving away from the front.
Fools defended peace by supporting the armed wing of money.
Beyond the next dune the clashes continued. The fangs of chimerical beasts sinking into flesh, the heavens full of steel and smoke, whole cultures uprooted from the earth.
Fools fought the enemies of today by bankrolling those of tomorrow.
Fools swelled their chests, talked of 'freedom', 'democracy', 'in our country', as they devoured the fruits of riots and looting.
They were defending civilisation against Chinese shadows of dinosaurs.
They were defending the planet against fake images of asteroids.
They were defending the Chinese shadow of a civilization.
They were defending the fake image of a planet."
...and follows it on the back cover with reviews like this by the London Times Literary Supplement:
"This new work amply confirms Wu Ming's talent... Utterly convincing. What emerges is an epic about identity and celebrity, communism and corruption... A stupendous, charming, provocative and profound novel. It makes most modern books seem paltry in comparison."
...has my attention. A almost Pynchon-esque post-WW II depiction of the Italian/Yugoslavian 'zone' after the division of the territories and the partisan armies fighting both the Fascist forces in Italy and the encroaching German horde on the Communist border. The result? The amorphous postwar time/geography where the United States, Russia, the UK and Italy were all vying for a foothold as criminals, opportunists, political factions and espionage on all sides working the angles. Told from the generation who saw the very end of the war and attempts to reclaim their familial and cultural heritage from these competing factions, "54" by Wu Ming collective takes off from these political realities to spin a 'alternate reality' tale akin to Chabon's "Yiddish Policeman's Union" set in the era of the birth of the TV, the Suburbs, the postwar influence of America's Dream being the only dream, Hollywood's battle with McCarthyism and the nationwide witch hunt that was the 'Red Scare', the very beginnings of Vietnam and the decades of the Cold War that was to follow. So entrenched in reality and history, that when the events to detour, I often went to check my facts, especially when as we're reaching the culmination of the ensemble-cast threads all beginning to converge, Hollywood, British espionage MI6, Tito's Yugoslavia, Cannes, Italian Mobsters, Alfred Hitchcock and... Cary Grant all find themselves in the most unlikely (totally plausible) ciaroscuro of history, commerce, entertainment, politics, and postwar rebuilding fervor. Pretty darn brilliant. As a young collective of authors, this being an early work of theirs, already ranking near Chabon or Pynchon, if they've got more of this in them, expect Wu Ming to become known.

Decibel Festival of Electronic Music : Sept 22 - 26

It's that time of the year again! From September 22 to 26th our little urban center of Seattle will host the second-largest electronic music festival in the United States, the Decibel Festival, taking place in venues all over the city. Decibel's whole raison d'etre is about being the global showcase for all things electronic, in the most progressive, all-inclusive sense, regardless of genre or style, whether on the dance floor or in the seated auditorium. Showcasing its diversity, the festival is broken down into thematic events, which this year include, but are not limited to:
Three 'Optical' audio-visual showcases featuring ambient, neoclassical, and experimental musics, with a strong visual parallel, often supplied by the composers themselves Ghostly International label showcase featuring the rich roster of this US label, rocking the ambient space, while moving the dance floor in the most intelligent of ways. Australia's Room40 label showcase highlighting the composerly, cinematic experimental music of this Aussie staple. UK's Planet MU label showcase - Delivering on all things bass, rhymes and rhythms, Planet MU is the home of some of the leading artists in what's become known as the 'UK Bass' sound. Red Bull Music Academy has its own showcase featuring the bewildering skills of some of the finest international dancefloor techno, with maven digital graphic artist Pfadfinderei supplying the visuals. The Flylo & Friends showcase highlights domestic producers working the spaces between hip-hop, beats and urban soundscapes. This year there are two 'Decibel in the Park' showcases, free and open to the public in the pastoral green climes of Volunteer Park. The second, on Sunday, highlights the most progressive of the 'UK Bass' sound. And of course the two 'Opening' and 'Closing' galas, Sunday's closing gala featuring powerful dancefloor techno of a 'dub' persuasion, from around the globe.
Artist highlights include German dancefloor mavens Modeselektor, Pantha Du Prince and Monolake; heavy body-quaking bass from the dubstep and grime scenes supplied by Scuba, Plastician, Starkey, and Distance; urban beats and and atmospheres by Flying Lotus, Lorn and Mount Kimbie; and splendorous ambient experimental and neoclassical soundscapes from Murcof, Robert Henke, Tim Hecker, Ben Frost, Fennesz, Oneotrix Point Never, Rafael Anton Irisarri, Grouper and Lawrence English. These and many others, in innumerable genres and styles, will perform in numerous types of venues - from club dance floors, to after-hours lofts, to the symphony hall - through the course of this five-day festival featuring over 100 artists Check the Decibel site for ticket info, full artist listings, bios, showcase descriptions and times. Previous years have seen showcases at capacity (or even sold out at the door), so advance ticket/pass purchase is advised.

Boris, Red Sparowes & Russian Circles - US Tour : Jul 24 - Sept 5

Japanese heavier-than-heavy psych-rock outfit return to the US again for the 5th
time in a decade! Previous tours have seen them opening for Doom-Metalers SUNN 0)))
on the "Altar" tour and being the headliner with Damon & Naomi supporting their
collaborative album with Michio Kurihara, "Rainbow". This tour sees them back in the
headliner position delivering what has become less Metal, less Psych, and more just
outright BLASTING pop of the rocking variety. It's been a curious journey to observe,
from their earliest Melvins & Earth (they derived their name from a Melvins track)
inspired Doom-tunes as heard on "AbsoutEgo" and "Amplifier Worship" to the Psych/Bro
Rock of "Mabuta No Uta" and "Heavy Rocks (Orange)" through the quiet, yet epic, finger
-picking Folkish styles of "Flood" to the outright Psyche Pop of the aforementioned
"Rainbow" and "Pink" to the most recent mutant strains of fluorescent brutal Pop of
"Smile" and almost violent-Shoegaze of the recent "Japanese Heavy Rock Hits" 7"
series.They've delivered some of the most completely passionately delirious concert
experiences (and crushingly loudest too) I've ever witnessed, so I expect no less
this time. Fans of Doom Metal, Heavy-Psych, epic Rock ala Grails/ Explosions in
the Sky, Shoegaze, and anything just damn loud, vital and hysterical you can do
with a electric guitar, bass and drums - take note!

Link to Southern Lord Label's - Boris US Tour site

Link to Official Boris site

Link to Boris - Japanese Heavy Rock Hits 7" Series site

Cannes Film Festival + Cinema Miscellanea

Link to official Cannes Film Festival site

Link to Cannes 2010 Festival Prize Winners

Cannes Film Festival being one of the major preview/heralds of film to come in the
next year, judging from what I'm seeing here, 2010/ 2011 looks to be shaping up in
pretty awesome fashion.That is, assuming we get these films distributed stateside.
Cannes 2009 saw very little in the way of the major films from the fest ever appearing
in theatres in the US, let's hope this coming year we see otherwise. New ones by some
of the worlds greatest cinematic orchestrators of shock, beauty, subtle entrancement,
rapture and genre-transcendence. Links below to some of the notable Directors works
and prize winners from this years festival. Unfortunate that none of them made it into the
West Coast SIFF/SFIFF Fests this year (the exception being Apichatpong's "Letter to Uncle
Boonmee" which played in the SFIAAFF). After doing reading on the festival in both Sight
& Sound and Film Comment, the abundance of curious and atypical works by established
directors suggests there are some major surprises to be had in the coming year!:

Link to Apichatpong Weerasethakul - "Letter to Uncle Boonmee" at Cannes site

Weerasethakul's amazing Palme d'Or win this year is both a bit shocking and very much
deserved for this Thai director! Congratulations Apichatpong!: "Synopsis: Suffering
from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded
by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife
appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form.
Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his
family to a mysterious hilltop cave -- the birthplace of his first life..."

Link to Lee Chang Dong - "Poetry" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Mija lives with her middle-schooler grandson in a small suburban city
located along the Han River. She is a dandy old lady who likes to dress up in flower
decorated hats and fashionable outfits, but she is also an unpredictable character
with an inquisitive mind. By chance she takes a "poetry" class at a neighborhood
cultural center and is challenged to write a poem for the first time in her life.
Her quest for poetic inspiration begins with observing the everyday life she never
intentional took notice of before to find beauty within it. And with this, Mija is
delightfully surprised with newfound trepidation as if she were a little girl
discovering things for the first time in her life. But when she is suddendly faced
with a reality harsh beyond her imagination, she realizes perhaps life is not as
beautiful as she had thought it is..."

Link to Abbas Kiarostami - "Certified Copy" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: This is the story of a meeting between one man and one woman, in a
small Italian village in Southern Tuscany. The man is a British author who has
just finished giving a lecture at a conference. The woman, from France, owns an
art gallery. This is a universal story that could happen to anyone, anywhere."

Link to Mahamat-Saleh Haroun - "A Screaming Man" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Present-day Chad. Adam, sixty something, a former swimming champion,
is pool attendant at a smart N’Djamena hotel. When the hotel gets taken over by new
Chinese owners, he is forced to give up his job to his son Abdel. Terribly resentful,
he feels socially humiliated. The country is in the throes of a civil war. Rebel
forces are attacking the government. The authorities demand that the population
contribute to the "war effort", giving money or volunteers old enough to fight off
the assailants. The District Chief constantly harasses Adam for his contribution.
But Adam is penniless; he only has his son...."

Link to Jia Zhang-Ke - "I Wish I Knew" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Shanghai, a fast-changing metropolis, a port city where people come
and go. Shanghai has hosted all kinds of people – revolutionaries, capitalists,
politicians, soldiers, artists, and gangsters. Shanghai has also hosted revolutions,
assassinations, love stories. After the Chinese Communists' victory in 1949, thousands
of Shanghaiers left for Hong Kong and Taiwan. To leave meant being separated from home
for thirty years; to stay meant suffering through the Cultural Revolution and China's
other political disasters."

Link to Cristi Puiu - "Aurora" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: An apartment kitchen: a man and a woman discuss Little Red Riding Hood,
their voices hushed, mindful of waking the little girl sleeping in the next room.
A wasteland on the city’s outskirts: behind a line of abandoned trailers, the man
silently watches what seems to be a family. The same city, the same man: driving
through traffic with two hand-made firing pins for a hunting rifle. The man is 42
years old, his name - Viorel. Troubled by obscure thoughts, he drives across the
city to a destination known only to him."

Link to Sergie Loznitsa - "My Joy" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: "My Joy" is a tale of truck driver Georgy. Georgy leaves his home town
with a load of goods, but he is forced to take a wrong turning on the motorway, and
finds himself in the middle of nowhere. Georgy tries to find his way, but gradually,
against his will, he becomes drawn in the daily life of a Russian village. In a place,
where brutal force and survival instincts overcome humanity and common sense, the
truck driver’s story heads for a dead end..."

Link to Olivier Assayas - "Carlos" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, Carlos is a central figure in the history of
international terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s, from pro-Palestinian activism to
the Japanese Red Army. At once a figure of the extreme left and an opportunistic
mercenary in the pay of powerful Middle Eastern secret services, he formed his own
organization based on the other side of the Iron Curtain which was active during
the final years of the Cold War. This film is the story of a revolutionary
internationalist, both manipulator and manipulated, as he is carried along by the
currents of contemporary history and his own folly. We will follow him to the end
of his road, relegated to Sudan where the Islamic dictatorship, after having
protected him for a while, handed him over to French police."

Link to Alejandro Inarritu - "Biutiful" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: « Biutiful » is the story of Uxbal. Devoted father. Tormented lover.
Mystified son. Underground businessman. Friend of the disposed. Ghost seeker.
Spiritual sensitive. A survivor at the invisible margins in today’s Barcelona. Uxbal,
sensing the danger of death, tries to reconcile with love and save his children, as he
tries to save himself. Uxbal’s story is simple: just one of the complex realities that
we all live in today."

Link to Ken Loach - "Route Irish" at Cannes site

"Synopsis:Liverpool, August 1976. 5-year-old Fergus met Frankie on his first day at
school. They’ve been in each others’ shadow ever since. As teenagers they skipped
school and drank cider on the ferry over the River Mersey, dreaming about traveling
the world. Little did Fergus realise his dream would come true as a highly trained
member of the UK’s elite special forces, the SAS. After resigning in September 2004,
Fergus persuaded Frankie (by now an ex-Para)to join his security team in Baghdad.
£10,000 a month, tax free. Their last chance to "load up" in this increasingly
privatized war. Together they risked their lives in a city steeped in violence,
terror and greed, and awash with billions of US dollars. In September 2007,
Frankie died on Route Irish, the most dangerous road in the world."

Link to Hong Sangsoo- "Hahaha" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: Filmmaker JO Munkyung plans to leave Seoul to live in Canada. So days
before his departure, he meets his close friend BANG Jungshik, who is a film critic.
After a few rounds, they find out coincidentally, they have both been to the same
small seaside town Tong-yung recently. They decide to reveal their accounts of the
trip over drinks, under the condition that they only stick to pleasant memories.
Not realizing that they were in the same place, at the same time, and with the same
people, the two men’s reminiscence of a hot summer unfolds like a catalogue of
memories."

Link to Lucy Walker - "Countdown to Zero" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: From Participant Media and producer Lawrence Bender, who last teamed
for the Academy Award® winning An Inconvenient Truth, COUNTDOWN TO ZERO is a
stunning documentary about the escalating global nuclear arms crisis. Written and
directed by Lucy Walker (Waste Land, Blindsight), the film is a fascinating and
frightening exploration of the dangers of nuclear weapons, exposing a variety of
present day threats and featuring insights from a host of international statesmen
and experts. Among the voices are President Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez
Musharraf, Tony Blair, former CIA Operations Officer Valerie Plame Wilson, the
Ploughshares Fund’s Joe Cirincione and Stanford political scientist Scott Sagan.
COUNTDOWN TO ZERO traces the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the
present state of global affairs: nine nations possessing nuclear weapons capabilities
and others racing to join them, with the world held in a delicate balance that could
be shattered by an act of terrorism, failed diplomacy, or a simple accident. It makes
a compelling case for worldwide nuclear disarmament, an issue more topical than ever
with President Obama and other world leaders working to revive this goal today."

Link to Sophie Fiennes - "Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow" at Cannes site

"Synopsis: The film bears witness to German artist Anselm Kiefer’s alchemical
creative processes and renders as a film journey the personal universe he has built
at his hill studio estate in the South of France. In 1993 Kiefer left Buchan, Germany
for La Ribotte, a derelict silk factory near Barjac. From 2000 he began constructing
a series of elaborate installations there, comprising 48 buildings, a labyrinth of
tunnels, bridges, lakes and towers. Traversing this landscape, the film immerses the
audience in the total world and creative process of one of today’s most significant
artists. Shot in cinemascope, the film constructs visual set pieces alongside
observational footage to capture both the dramatic resonance of Kiefer’s art and the
intimate process of creation. This polarity - in terms of scale, sensibility and time
- animates the film, creating a multi-layered narrative through which to navigate the
complex spaces of La Ribotte. Here creation and destruction are interdependent; the
film enters into direct contact with the raw materials Kiefer employs to build his
paintings and sculptures - lead, concrete, ash, acid, earth, glass and gold..."