Today, on April 29, 2014, the press conference of VIII Andrey Tarkovsky International Film Festival Zerkalo (“The Mirror”) was conducted. The festival will take place in Ivanovo, in Plyos, and in other cities of the Ivanovo Region on June 10-15, 2014. This year the Festival’s program will include the international contest, “Tarkovsky Context”, and “Euphoria” prepared by the program director Andrey Plakhov; there will also be Documentary Film Program (coordinated by Vitaly Mansky), Russian Сinema Program and Short Film Program (coordinated by Elena Slatina) and Animation Film Program (coordinated by Larisa Malyukova).
The program will have a few introductions, one of them is the VideoArt program prepared with the MMoMA (Moscow Museum of Modern Art) (coordinated by Liliya Kovirshina and Aleksey Maslyaev) and the retrospective show of Aidan Salahova’s works. “Presenting the VideoArt program called “This story has a lot of/no contradictions” we want the guests of the Festival to acquire a new vision of Andrey Tarkovsky’s works. The vision that can be inspired by the cinematic heritage and modern video-art on the one hand and by new means of visuality on the other hand. We should widen the horizon of our emotions”, said the executive director of MMoMA Vasily Tseretely.
Another introduction this year will be a Poetry Program consisting of performances by Vera Polozkova and young authors Lev Oborin and Dana Sideros and final concert with poets and guests of the Festival. “Andrey Tarkovsky’s father was a very famous Russian poet Arseniy Tarkovsky. Andrey Tarkovsky studied in VGIK (the Russian State University of Cinematography) together with other outstanding authors including Gennady Shpalikov and Vasily Kitaisky; the everyday life of the 1960s was penetrated with poetry, most people wrote some poetry, and almost everyone remembered verses by heart and cited them; poetry easily became part of the films (Walking the Streets of Moscow by Georgy Daneliya, I am 20 by Marlen Khutsiev, The Clean Ponds by Aleksey Sakharov). Poetry grew into plays staged at the Taganka Theatre and turned into well-known songs; poetry was an integral part of life. Andrey Tarkovsky used his fathers’ poetry in the famous Zerkalo (“The Mirror”) in 1974, and often constructed a film as a poetic text, using verse meter, methaphorics and imagery.
We believe that poetry of the 2010s is very cinematic and, like half a century ago, it explains the time we live in. We chose two young modern poets to see how contemporary poetry reflects the reality. Both Dana and Lev are poets whose world-view was formed by the cinematography; in their texts they reconsider many popular movie plots, cite key scenes and create their own “cinema reality”. We are sure that the guests at the Andrey Tarkovsky Festival will be interested to learn what kind of poetry is created today, what images it arouses in the imagination of the audience. And may be in the nearest future the modern video art will take back the poetry as the most expressing, short-spoken and exact formula of the time” – said Vera Polozkova.
The archival materials were brought back to Tarkovsky’s motherland last year. They were purchased at a Sotheby’s auction by the Government of Ivanovo Region. This event thrilled historians and film experts, that is why the purchased materials will be displayed during the Festival this year: photos and documents from the private archive of Irma Raush (Tarkovskaya), Andrey Tarkovsky’s first wife and the actress in “Ivan’s Childhood” and “Andrey Rublev”; books and manuscripts of Andrey Tarkovsky’s professor, director Michael Romm; a photo and sketch collection made by artist Pavel Safonov who was a trick photographer of “Andrey Rublev”. The coordinator of the exhibition is The Cinema Art Library named after Sergei Eisenstein in Moscow.
The guests will see the sensational Aleksey German’s work “Hard to be a God” based on the Strugatsky brothers’ novel of the same name. The film is to be presented by Svetlana Karmalita.
Apart from the money prizes, there are going to be a number of special prizes. The award for the outstanding contribution to cinematography will be handed to director and scriptwriter Konstantin Lopushansky. Konstantin Lopushansky is rightly considered to be Tarkovsky’s pupil, in his works he uses spiritual and aesthetic values of his teacher. Konstantin Lopushansky’s works will be screened within the frame of “Takovsky Context” program.
The Seance magazine will present Sergey Dobrotvorsky Award, he was one of the most important film experts of the ‘90s.
Lecture Club “418” will present Intellectual Cinema Award.
The Management of the VIII IFF “Zerkalo” (The Mirror):
Festival President – Pavel Lungin
Festival Organizing committee chairman – the Governor of Ivanovo Region Pavel Konkov
Festival Program Director – Andrey Plahov
Festival General Producer – Andrey Bokov
PR manager – Elena Slatina
The Festival Board of Guardians:
Michael Men
Ralph Fiennes
Andrey Konchalovsky
Aleksey Kudrin
Evgeny Mironov
Jury of the VIII IFF “Zerkalo” (The Mirror):
Actress Fanny Ardant
Actress Isabel Ruth
Sitora Alieva – the “Kinotavr” Film Festival Program Director
Actress and producer Heidi Jo Markel
Film director Mira Fornay
Special events of the Festival:
-The Seance Magazine will present Sergey Dobrotvosky Award
- The «VARIETY» Magazine will present Sergey Urusevsky Award
- Special Organization Committee Award for the outstanding contribution to cinematography will be handed to director and scriptwriter Konstantin Lopushansky
- The retrospective show of Aidan Salahova’s works
