Since its beginning in 2004 the Crossing Europe festival focuses on contemporary European cinema, including not only feature films, but also documentary, animated and experimental film. Apart from the main sections presents also retrospectives of European filmmakers and this year for the first time will introduce in collaboration with ORF new documentary film award, Crossing Europe Award for European Documentary.
The Circle – A Portrait of a Demonstration (Tereza Reichova, 2009)
Czech Republic, 62 min.
Portrait of one demonstration in Litvínov that ended up with a fight on the streets.This was break-through in the Czech history, because local people marched against the ghetto of gypsies for the first time along with Neonazis.
Osadne (Marko Skop, 2009)
Slovakia, 65 min.
Osadne is a film about an encounter between current top European leaders and the local politicians from the last village on the edge of the European Union. The small village of Osadné welcomes a delegation from the European Parliament. And vice versa – the mayor and priest from OSADNÉ visit Brussels institutions on invitation from the European Parliament.
Milltown, Montana (Rainer Komers, 2009)
Germany, 33 min.
Time inscribes itself into Rainer Komers' meticulously composed images and impressive sound collages of MILLTOWN, MONTANA. Each picture tells a story of a place that once belonged to the largest mining area in the United States that was contaminated by toxic substances and heavy metals. But the film does not only show the devastated landscape. Without dialogue, it sensitively portraits the people living and working there: cowboys branding their calves, Blackfeet Indians laying down the foundation stone for a new educational center, trappers and golfers, workers in a silicium plant, old miners, and young scholars competing in a mining contest.MILLTOWN, MONTANA is visibly scarred by man and trapped in a postindustrial phase of standstill. By alluding to its former wealth but showing the area's actual lack ofprospects, the film dramatically undermines the image of the American Dream.
This film is part of the ‘Breathless – Dominance Of The Moment’ documentary film project. A project of Zipp – German-Czech Cultural Projects, the Institute of Documentary Film, Prague, and DOK Leipzig. Zipp is an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Czech and German films supported by this project were premiered at the international festivals DOK Leipzig 2009 and Jihlava 2009.
