The International Film Festival Rotterdam has announced the lineup for Regained, a "renewed" section of the Signals program devoted to what it calls "the memory of film." This year's edition promises a broader ranges of genres and "will consist not only of film projections, but also exhibitions, presentations and events."
To mark the 150th anniversary of Georges Méliès's birth, Regained will present Martin Scorsese's Hugo, the newly restored Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902) and Serge Bromberg's documentary on the restoration, Le Voyage extraordinaire. "In addition, under the title Retour de Flamme, Bromberg will be opening up his box of tricks for us with a live presentation of a series of unique cartoons illustrating how the 3D-effect has been stimulating animators’ imaginations for decades."
The world premiere of Martina Kudlácek's Fragments of Kubelka will be accompanied by screenings of seven of Peter Kubelka's shorts made between 1955 and 2003.
Richard Goldgewicht's Pablo, a documentary on "the revered titles designer, artist and bohemian Pablo Ferro," also sees its world premiere in Rotterdam.
James June Schneider's documentary Jean Epstein, Young Oceans of Cinema focuses "on the period in which he was making films in Brittany. Epstein was inspired by the sea, creating lyrical films such as Le Tempestaire (1947), which will be screened after the documentary."
In memory of the late Raúl Ruiz, Regained will screen his first film, La Maleta, a short from 1963, as well as one of his last works, Ballet Acquatique (2011).
Regained will also honor the recent passing of Bart Vegter with a compilation of his work "interspersed with works by fellow artists."
Madhuja Mukherjee's interactive installation Crumbled Papers, Fragments of Cinema, "inspired by glass plate negatives of Indian film stars from the 1930s, can be seen in the Nieuwe Oogst."
The exhibition Celluloid Brushes at Witte de With is "a collection of fifty films and posters, for which contemporary artists were asked to design new posters for biographical films."
Babeldom is "a science fiction documentary in which a futuristic city is assembled using found footage material on architecture, science and technology (in the Nederlands Architectuur Instituut, Rotterdam)."
And every day between 6 and 7 pm, those in town will be able to see Pour en Finir avec le Cinema on the video wall in the Rotterdam Schouwburg. "French draughtsman Blutch draws his inspiration, as well as quotes and images for this perverse, stimulating and funny autobiographical cartoon from film history." Even if you don't speak French, you do want to watch that report on Blutch up there.
IFFR 2012 opens on January 25 and runs through February 5.
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