Festival Tour 2005

JULY 15 BERLIN - AMPHITHEATER MAUERPARK

The preparations for our premiere in the open-air amphitheater of Berlin’s Mauerpark were hindered by gushing rain. Just half an hour before the planned start of our screening did the sky become clear. After momentary hesitation we made a decision: the premiere would take place. Within a short time the bar, screen, beamer and sound were set up and the show could begin. Despite wet seats the amphitheater was completely filled with over 1000 short film lovers, whose enthusiastic applause gave proof of a grand start to the festival! Meanwhile, we documented audience reactions before, during and after the event on video for our tour documentary.

JULY 22 CRACOW - SQUARE IN FRONT OF THE OLD SYNAGOGE MUSEUM

The very next day, part of our team set off on the journey to Poland. True to our effective “guerilla promotion,” we hung up posters in Cracow bars, cultural institutions and selected public places, distributed flyers in nightly wanderings through the city, and chatted with people on the streets. On the screening night, an enthusiastic young audience of around 500 people came to the event on the historical square in front of the synagogue. On the way from Cracow to the next tour stop, Budapest, Moviemiento made a small detour to the Era New Horizons festival in the border town of Ciezyn for a guest screening.

AUGUST 5 BUDAPEST - MILENARIS PARK

In Budapest, more team members from Berlin hopped on the bus. Rain forced us move the planned open-air screening indoors from the park of cultural institution Millenaris. Nevertheless, the audience – numbering around 400 – once again responded with overwhelming enthusiasm. After a stop-over in Vienna, where the team set up a spontaneous screening within only three days, we were off to Croatia.

AUGUST 13 MOMIANO - VISURA APERTA FESTIVAL

The screening in this picturesque Istrian village was exceptional in terms of size and setting. In the quiet countryside, this was where the yearly media art workshop of “Visura Aperta” took place. Our contact to the artists’ organization had been established through the Zagreb screening in 2003. A true exchange developed between Moviemiento and the international artists’ community, who exhibited their media works in Momiano every evening. Our screening also attracted the entire village population and locals from the surrounding area. Through our event, we succeeded in forming a connection between the artists and the villagers, for whom the more experimental work of “Visura Aperta” was, perhaps, less accessible.

AUGUST 27 PIETRASANTA - ROCCA DI SALA

Our Italian screening took place on the old hilltop castle “Rocca di Salla,” with a magnificent view of the ocean, and formed the final event of an exhibition by the artists’ association “Asart.” Our cooperation with “Asart” was the result of a spontaneous screening in Pietrasanta during the 2003 tour. Despite language barriers and a light drizzle, the courtyard of the castle was filled with about 300 spectators who had accomplished the steep and stony climb up the hill.

SEPTEMBER 9 MARSEILLE - FRICHE LA BELLE DE MAI

With its sixth tour stop, Moviemiento returned to a familiar city setting. During the week, we gave numerous press interviews arranged by the locally prominent cultural institution “La Friche,” who was our cooperation partner. We presented the film program at the “Friche,” in the courtyard of the former factory, in front of an audience of over 700 people. Among them was our regular target audience of culturally interested people, but also young migrants from the district, whom we had reached through street promotion. A concert with local French musicians and our DJ followed the screening.

SEPTEMBER 16 BARCELONA - PLAYA DE LA BARCELONETA

Barcelona marked the grand finale of our festival tour with a beach setting, just as the screen construction on the sand also posed a final grand logistical challenge. Despite the huge number of competing events in this vibrant city, our promotion strategy proved successful once again. The film program was presented at night by the ocean in front of around 600 people. Here, a good part of our audience were spontaneous passers-by, interrupting their evening stroll to watch the shorts.