BIFF 2015 - Up Close & Personal

The thing I love the most about BIFF, apart from the great programming, is the GV's or guest visits. They work hard to make it a filmmakers festival and invite lots of directors, producers and actors to attend the festival. It's a great chance to hear it straight from the horses mouth and to meet and greet if you are in the right place at the right time. My festival program revolved around GV's and pretty much every film I wanted to see had a GV. The glaring exception was Sion Sono but I have heard from him at past festivals and hey I got to meet him at BIFAN earlier this year. The other which was a bit more disappointing was Hong Sang Soo (his one GV was booked out very early on) and Brillante Mendoza (not in attendance) but I got to see Taklub, his latest film.

Ode to my Father - Yoon Je-kyoon

This film spans the history of South Korea from the civil war up to today and is a classic example of how to play the audiences emotions. I wept on at least six different occasions and on some I couldn't keep watching. This man is a meastro of sadness, melancholy and nostalgia and he played me like a violin. 
Zubaan - Mozez Singh
This was a world premiere and it is a debut feature plus it opened the festival, a lot of firsts!
A great movie about destiny and music is central to the plot. The music is hybrid Bollywood/modern along with some traditional spiritual Punjabi. A beautiful visual feast.

Director Mozez Singh

Sarah Jane Dias

Manish Chaudhari & 설화

Lav Diaz & Hazel Orencia (Filipino Royalty)

 Not showing any films this year but he was over to talk about work in progress of the latest film Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis and show a few clips. Having reviewed a couple of his films and conversed via email it was a real treat to meet him in person and have a bit of a chin wag.

Stop - Kim Ki duk

Hiromitsu Takeda

Kim Ki duk & fan pose for selfie

Tsubasa Nakae

The gang at the Q&A

Not his best and it did suffer from the production values, a result of shooting it on location in Japan with only him as the crew! But the acting is good and the message is right.

Office - Hong Won chan

Sungwoong Park 박성웅, Hyunkyung Ryu 류현경,Asung Ko 고아성 & Hong Wonchan 홍원찬

What a cracker this was. Tight and compelling with at least five 'jump out of your seat' moments. A thrilling story of how fucked up the office politics can get and the pressures the workers face on a daily basis.

Asung Ko 고아성

She may look cute but she is a mad, cold killer though the circumstance that compel her to such behavior are not in her control and a product of the system. She gets away with it all to apply for another intern position in a different company. She also had a role in Hong Sangsoo's film Right Now Wrong Then. Her diversity and range is very inspirational.














Highway to Hellas - Aron Lehmann
A very funny German comedy set in Greece about banking. Ironic but true!

Aron Lehmann & Producer

A Korean in Paris - Jeon Soo-il A surreal searching for movie that has many open ended questions.

Mi Kwan Lock, one of the stars from A Korean in Paris

What a absolute treat of a festival and this year I was only there for five days. Looking forward to the next already.

Filmmaking Legend or just Lav Diaz?

The power of networking and the generosity of filmmaking.
When I reviewed Lav Diaz's documentary Storm Children Vol#1 for Filmed in Ether not only was I startled by this amazing, passive observation of typhoon Yolanda's (Haiyan) carnage and the unflinching gaze upon the children in among it but questions kept coming up about the techniques used and the approach he used to dissect this disaster. What was the thinking behind this film, cause I found myself speculating endlessly. I've already seen a few of his narrative films like Norte, the End of History, From What is Before and a short I caught at BIFF, so I kinda know a little of his style but this was the first doco I'd seen.

A while ago I'd had the pleasure of interviewing Sigrid Andrea P Bernardo for a review on her fabulous film Anita's Last Cha Cha and I caught it on the big screen, along with her, at the Seoul Women's International Film Festival. It was from these meetings that I learnt that she had a close relationship with Lav Diaz and a lot of admiration for him too. She even cast him in her latest feature, Lorna (more of that latter). So it was with some apprehension that I asked her to pass on my details and a request to ask him some questions. She obliged and a bit later so did he.

Wow, what a great thing to do cause his answers to my questions were fascinating and it just fleshed out the film in a quite perfect way. I just love the generosity of filmmakers in a situation like this. Thank you Lav and Thank You Sigrid.
Here's the review here