Film Society of Lincoln Center Partners With Romanian Film Initiative for MAKING WAVES: NEW ROMANIAN CINEMA

The Film Society of LINCOLN Center and the Romanian Film Initiative are pleased to announce the 9th edition of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema, which has been hailed by The New York Times as one of the "annual treasures" of the Film Society's programming. The festival will take place at the Film Society of LINCOLN Center from December 4-8, offering a selection of the best of contemporary Romanian filmmaking, including features, documentaries and shorts, along with panels and special programs focusing on the work of Romanian filmmakers. For the second consecutive year, select films will also screen at the Jacob Burns Film Center, from December 5-10.

"It is our privilege to present another season of Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema here at LINCOLN Center," said Florence Almozini, FSLC Senior Programmer. "With works from some of the most exciting directors on the world stage, including Corneliu Porumboiu, whose Police, Adjective and 12:08 East of Bucharest are hallmarks of the Romanian New Wave, our provocative and ever-expanding series will be certain to make waves."

The festival's artistic director Mihai Chirilov stated: "The vibe of this year's showcase of contemporary Romanian cinema is perhaps best captured by Faulkner's famous words 'The past is never dead. It's not even past.' Twenty-five years have passed since the fall of Communism, but for most of the films in this program-from Quod Erat Demonstrandum to I'm an Old Communist Hag to Viktoria to Roxanne-the past is still an unfinished business, and proof that Romania's recent history has left an indelible mark on our collective consciousness. When not addressing history, Romanian films embrace the present and attempt to break free from a haunting past, begging the question: can it really be left behind? The ninth edition of Making Waves offers some possible answers."

This year, Making Waves presents a remarkable and complex crop of films that address the recent past, including Andrei Gruzsniczki's SOPHOMORE feature Quod Erat Demonstrandum and I'm an Old Communist Hag by veteran director Stere Gulea, whose work is featured in a special program. Also included in this year's lineup are Valentin Hotea's debut Roxanne; Maya Vitkova's Viktoria, one of the most original films about the communist chimera; and The Second Game, Corneliu Porumboiu's reflection on our relationship with the past.

The Opening Night film is Tudor Cristian Jurgiu's gentle, Ozu-like The Japanese Dog, which is the Romanian selection for the Oscar® for Best Foreign Language Film this year, while Vlad Petri's poignant documentary Where Are You Bucharest? offers a loud and striking portrait of the frantic street protests of 2012.

"It looks like Romanian cinema continues to break through, nationally and internationally," stated Corina ?uteu, President of Making Waves, "even though the tonality of recent films is less radical, feels milder and more tolerant of the recent past. Cinema and reality in Romania are pursuing their consistent dialogue. And so do we, with Making Waves, a daring project whose private supporters strongly believe that giving art a voice is the only reliable 'way out.'"

For the third consecutive year, Making Waves continues as an independent festival, nourished with PASSION and the commitment to the belief that talented Romanian filmmakers deserve more exposure to American audiences, and that platforms enabling a dialogue with contemporary arts are crucial. Initiated in 2006 and chaired by Corina ?uteu, Making Waves has become a fixture in New York City's cultural scene. The festival has grown each year, attracting a large, dedicated following and building wider recognition in the U.S. media and among film professionals, both Romanian and American.

The 9th edition of Making Waves includes a focus on director Stere Gulea. Possessing a worldview that Lucian Pintilie has called both "severe and objective," Gulea is one of the most important Romanian directors, with a 10-film career spanning more than four decades. Well known for his literary adaptations, including Fox: Hunter, based on a book by Herta Müller, Gulea also wrote and directed State of Things, one of the most powerful films about the Romanian Revolution. Making Waves pays tribute to him by screening his most recent film, I'm an Old Communist Hag, and one of the masterpieces of Romanian cinema, The Journey (Morome?ii).

Making Waves also continues its special program "Creative Freedom through Cinema," about the relationship between art and politics in Eastern Europe, and the importance of art in addressing controversial topics and forging a dialogue around challenging issues. This year's focus is on LGBTQ rights in Russia, the featured country of this year's festival, where recent legislation brought controversy around the topic to a boiling point. Two powerful cinematic cases in point will be presented, including Winter Journey, directed by Sergei Taramajev and Liubov Lvova, and Children 404, by Pavel Loparev and Askold Kurov. The screening of the two Russian productions will be accompanied by a panel discussion with artists and thinkers from Romania, Russia, and the U.S., including writer, lecturer, and activist Andrew Solomon. This special program is curated in partnership with Evgeny Gusyatinskiy, film critic and programmer for Rotterdam Film Festival, and is presented with the generous support of the Trust for Mutual Understanding.

Making Waves will also present its annual series of the best recent Romanian short films, highlighting directors to watch and running for free throughout the festival.

Another special event is dedicated to visual artist Hedda Sterne, best remembered as the only female in the abstract expressionist group "the Irascible 18" (and the wife of Saul Steinberg). Born in Romania in 1910, Sterne fled the country in 1941 to find REFUGE in the U.S., where her work later found its way to the collections of MoMA, the National Gallery of Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The art work she LEFT BEHIND at her studio in Bucharest, closely guarded for more than 50 years by her friend and fellow artist Medi Wechsler Dinu, have recently been rediscovered by Cosmin N?sui, director of PostModernism Museum in Bucharest. N?sui will share Sterne's early works and Wechsler Dinu's testimonies for THE FIRST TIME during this conversation, which seeks to recount a story of talent, courage, loyalty, and the shattered lives of a bygone world.

MAKING WAVES 2014
FILMS, DESCRIPTIONS & SCHEDULE

All films in Romanian and with English subtitles, unless otherwise noted.

Opening Night!
The Japanese Dog / Câinele japonez
Romania, 2013, 90m
Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, Romania, 2013, 90m
Featuring the great actor Victor Rebengiuc (Forest of the Hanged, Niki and Flo), this understated first feature about family reconciliation has a touch of Ozu and is Romania's entry in the upcoming foreign-language Oscar race. A New Directors/New Films 2014 selection.
Thursday, December 4, 7:00pm, WRT (Introduction by and Q&A with director Tudor Cristian Jurgiu)
Friday, December 5, 4:00pm, WRT (Introduction by director Tudor Cristian Jurgiu)

Closing Night!
New York Premiere!
Viktoria
Maya Vitkova, Bulgaria/Romania, 2014, 155m
A Romanian/Bulgarian co-production, and the first from the latter country to screen at Sundance, Viktoria is a truly innovative epic about a so-called "baby of the decade," born with no belly button. Infused with strikingly surreal images, Viktoria offers a unique perspective on the Communist chimera. In Bulgarian with English subtitles.
Monday, December 8, 7:00pm, WRT

New York Premiere!
I'm an Old Communist Hag / Sunt o bab? comunist?
Stere Gulea, Romania, 2013, 94m
It takes guts to tackle the topic of "Communist nostalgia," but that's the intention of this bittersweet drama about the generation gap that contrasts Romanian national identity before and after the '89 Revolution. The film features yet another subtle performance from the impressive Lumini?a Gheorghiu (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Child's Pose).
Friday, December 5, 6:00pm, WRT (Introduction by and Q&A with director Stere Gulea & actress Ana Ularu)
Sunday, December 7, 1:00pm, WRT (Introduction by and Q&A with director Stere Gulea & actress Ana Ularu)

Quod Erat Demonstrandum
Andrei Gruzsniczki, Romania, 2013, 107m
In 1984, a brilliant mathematician, his best friend's wife, and the secret police agent who's tracking them both are drawn together in this tense story of paranoia and betrayal. The palette is black and white, but the issues explored are anything but. A New Directors/New Films 2014 selection.
Friday, December 5, 8:30pm, WRT (Introduction by and Q&A with Florin Piersic Jr. and producer Velvet Moraru)

New York Premiere!
Roxanne
Valentin Hotea, Romania/Hungary, 2013, 98m
The Police's signature song makes a special and significant appearance in this story of a decent but immature guy in his late thirties who finds out from his secret police file that he might have fathered a son. But this is just the first blast from a complicated past that perhaps should have been left buried...
Saturday, December 6, 5:15pm, WRT
Sunday, December 7, 5:30pm, WRT

The Second Game / Al doilea joc
Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania, 2013, 97m
The acclaimed director of Police, Adjective watches a 25-year-old historic soccer match with his father, who was the referee-but behind the archival images and the funny parallels between soccer and cinema is a look at the ways in which we relate to our troubled national past. An Art of the Real 2014 selection.
Sunday, December 7, 3:30pm, WRT

North American Premiere!
Where Are You Bucharest? / Bucure?ti, unde esti?
Vlad Petri, Romania, 2014, 80m
You don't need to be especially familiar with contemporary Romanian politics to connect with this frantic and mordantly funny documentary about the street protests-at times energetic, chaotic, enthusiastic, and hysterical-that took over Bucharest 23 years after the Revolution.
Saturday, December 6, 7:30pm, WRT (Introduction by and Q&A with director Vlad Petri)
Monday, December 8, 4:30 pm, WRT (Introduction by and Q&A with director Vlad Petri)

Free screening!
NEW ROMANIAN SHORTS, VARIOUS, 134m
Inspired by the biggest hit of one of Romania's greatest pop singers, Angela Similea, the dark and crazily inventive musical Dying from a Wound of Love leads this eclectic bunch of shorts that also includes a tribute to Tarantino's snappy dialogue in Kowalski and the Fassbinder-eque The Walk. Complete list below.
Saturday, December 6, 7:00pm, AMP (Introduction by and Q&A with Horsepower director Daniel Sandu)
Sunday, December 7, 6:30pm, AMP (Introduction by and Q&A with Horsepower director Daniel Sandu)

Horsepower / Cai putere, 2014, d. Daniel Sandu
Ela, Panda and Madam / Ela, Panda ?i Madam, 2013, d. Andrei ?tefan R?u?u
Our Father / Tat?l nostru, 2013, d. Sergiu Lup?e
The Walk / Plimbare, 2013, d. Mihaela Popescu
Kowalski, 2014, d. Andrei Cre?ulescu
Dying from a Wound of Love / S? mori de dragoste r?nit?, 2014, d. Iulia Rugin?
It Can Pass Through THE WALL / Trece ?i prin perete, 2014, d. Radu Jude

Photo Credit: Facebook

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