3rd EMFF - November 18th-20th, 2010. Husum/Hüsem, North Frisia

Welcome to the 3rd European Minority Film Festival

The North Frisian Organisation - Friisk Foriining - is in charge of the organisation of the 3rd European Minority Film Festival 2010.

The date of the festival will be from 18th - 20th of November 2010. The festival will take place in the CINEMA CENTRE HUSUM in the region of North Friesland and further places. The experiences of the Cinema Centre Husum with the "Husumer Filmtage" (Husum Film Festival) for more than 10 years and the reputation of the North Frisian county capital as a place of cineastic and cultural interest were decisive for this choice.

The festival will be opened on Thursday, 18th of November with a small reception in the lodge of the cinema.

The festival ends with a gala celebration where the European Minority Film Award will be the focus. Scenes from all five feature films will be shown again accompanied by speeches of directors, actors and organisers. A couple of international musicians will round off the evening.

Download official flyer 'European Minority Film Festival 2010'.

CWCW by Delyth Jones is the winner of the 3rd European Minority Film Award!

PUDANA - Last of the Line by Anastasia Lapsui is the winner of the Audience Award 2010.

 

LAUDATIO: CWCW

Who is the Cwcw?

This film plays with fiction and identity in astonishing and sophisticated way. It is a puzzling and fascinating post-modern drama.

But who is the cwcw?

Is it Jane or Virginia Wolf, whose aesthetic discourses do not match the world of tele-novelas and soap operas?

Or is it Martha - the food reflexionist - who plays the wonder-healer in the old village of Yet I Bompren? In the scene with the man whom she takes down from the tree and whose life she saves, we see allusions to the crucifixion of Jesus and the pietà. However, her attempts to live as a wonder-healer are shot down by her partner’s basic capitalism and the fact that she is not able to save the life of the old doctor of the village, whose dead body is carried away from her clinic because it is 'no good for the business'.

Or is Martha/Jane God's voice?

Or is she the medium of Virginia Wolf (or the voice of Virginia Wolf in sense of Bachtin)? She claims not to be an author, but only a medium of transcendence: I am receptive, she says, I only write down what is already there between the stars.

Jane not only is a soap opera scriptwriter, she is also an actress. She plays the part of the lunatic woman who seduces the drug addict at the bus stop and persuades him to kill Dr. Garath, "The Family Doctor", in order to bring a definite end the soap opera.

This is a puzzling patch-work of identity. The climax is that even the story which forms the framework - Jane's marriage with the violent actor Sam, who is an alcoholic and plays the part of Dr. Garath - also turns out to be fiction in the fiction. Are you confused? I think everybody is - including Jane herself.

Astonishingly constant, however, is Jane's intension to construct and configure identities and lives. But, on the other hand, it seems that the scripts of the other persons and scriptwriters constantly tend to interfere with hers.

So, are they the cwcws?

Not only identities are constructed and de-constructed in the film, the settings are also created and destroyed again. The house in Cardiff becomes a battlefield with holes in walls and lamps from IKEA.
The idyllic, old-fashioned world of Yet I Bompren is destroyed: The flowers of the garden turn to hay within a few minutes, the lovely cottage turns into a dark shack.

But this is really not important, because all the settings turn out to be artificial scene-settings for role-plays.

In the end, when the medial scene-settings are torn down, nothing is left but an empty stage. Then a bus arrives and takes Jane (and the audience) to the next fictional station of the medial world. The name of the destination is "something tremendous is going to happen". The audience will be confronted with new scripts of life.

Do Jane and we need those scripts - the fiction of the media - to get away from the emptiness and loneliness?

Is the theme (topos) of this film 'horror vacui', which actually is a central motive not only in the history of art and philosophy, but also in post modern life and art? The film reminds me of Christoph Ransmayr’s wonderful postmodern novel 'Die letzte Welt'.

I am not certain. The film is open to interpretations. And that is part of the reason why Cwcw is such an excellent film.

On behalf of the jury of the 3rd European Minority Film Award

Prof. Dr. Elin Fredsted

Programme

November 18th-20th, 2010, Husum/Hüsem, North Frisia

All events take place at
Kino Center Husum
Neustadt 114, D-25813 Husum
Phone +49 (0) 4841 2569

Final Gala takes place at
Husum Hus
Neustadt 95, D-25813 Husum

 

Thursday, November 18th	Friday, November 19th	Saturday, November 20th
6:00pm Reception at the foyer of the Kino Center Husum 6:30pm Opening speeches 7:00pm Screening (hors concours): Dåt san we North Frisian / Nordfriislon (D), 2010, 60 min. A documentary by Elin Rosteck Frisian with German subtitles 8:00pm Screening: Eutsi! Introduction by Baleuko SL (requested) 9:45pm Break 10:00pm Screening: Pudana - Last of the Line Introduction by Roza Laptander, actor	6:00pm Screening: Cwcw Introduction by Delyth Jones (requested)	6:00pm Screening: Dat mokt wi gistern Introduction by Martin Hermann, director & producer 9:00pm FINAL GALA at HUSUM HUS Moderation Antje Arfsten and Gary Funck Music - Junge Stimmen des Nordens (North Frisian, Island of Föhr/Feer) - Weiss Trio (Sinti) - Cha da Fö (Raetian, CH) Coordination Peter Nissen

About the Film Festival

The EMFF is a film festival on a European level for feature films in minority languages, which means those authochtonous small nations and minorities in particular without a so-called kin-state in the background. These are e.g. the Frisians in the Netherlands and Germany, the Sorbs in Germany, the Sami in Scandinavia, the Welsh, Scottish and Cornish in Great Britain, Sinti and Roma, Rhaetians in Switzerland, Basques and Catalans in Spain or Bretons in France.

Within the framework of the festival five chosen feature films, all with English or German subtitles and all from different regions, will be shown on three evenings. Among these films an independant Jury will vote the winner of the European Minority Film Award 2010.

The festival is aimed at the cineastic minded people from North Friesland and other regions in Europe where small nations are situated. The organisers are expecting numerous representatives of the minorities and small nations which are organized in the Federal Union of European Nationalities. As guests actors and directors of certain feature films will also be invited.

 

The European Minority Film Festival is realised by:

And it is supported by:

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Info about previous festivals:
2006 | 2008

About the organisers: Friisk Foriining

In 2003 the Friisk Foriining (Frisian Society) celebrated its 80th anniversary. Founded under the name of 'Friesisch-Schleswiger Verein' in the year 1923, the society has always considered the Frisian language and culture as independent and therefore on equal terms with the other languages and cul tural groups within the German-Danish border area. The society's main objective is to maintain and to develop the Frisian language and the Frisian identity.

The Friisk Foriining has about 600 members. The Friisk Foriining regards the Frisians as being a people in their own right and an ethnic-autoch-thonous minority within Germany, comparable to the Sorbs in Lusatia. The most important objective is to protect and to promote the Frisian language and culture.

In cooperation with the Frisian youth organization 'Rökefloose' (flock of ravens, www.roekefloose.de) the Foriining arranges events for young people and leisure activities, among other things. During these arrangements Frisian is spoken. In the area of school education, the Friisk Foriining cooperates with the Dansk Skoleforening (Danish School Association of the Danish minority in Southern Schleswig). The Skoleforening offers Frisian lessons in some of its schools and, furthermore, runs the only school in which classes are conducted in Frisian on an equal footing with Danish and German (www.risumskole.de). The Foriining also arranges tours to other language minorities in Europe and offers a so-called 'Friisk Harfsthuuchschölj' for individuals and families every year.

The Friisk Foriining works close together with the 'Ferian för en Nuardfresk Radio' (Frisian Radio Association, www.ffnr.de) in order to support Frisian media and film activities. The radio association and the 'Rökefloose' are both members of the Friisk Foriining.