The Playlist has worked our passports hard this year, booking time at festivals around the world including: Sundance, Berlin, SXSW, Tribeca, Goteburg, Karlovy Vary, Los Angeles, Telluride, Toronto, New York, London, Festival Du Nouveau Cinema, Savannah, Fantastic Fest and more. Believe it or not we got another coming up: Marrakech. In addition to the films, the festival is has unveiled an excellent slate of masterclasses set to be headed up by Bruno Dumont, James Gray, Abbas Kiarostami, Nicolas Winding Refn and Régis Debray.
The 13th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival takes place from November 29th to December 7th. The jury will be comprised of Martin Scorsese, Faith Akin, Patricia Clarkson, Marion Cotillard, Amat Escalante, Golshifteh Farahani, Anurag Kashyap, Narjiss Nejjar, Park Chan-wook and Paolo Sorrentino. Full press release below.
Marrakech International Film Festival Announces the 2013 Masterclasses
MASTERCLASSES
Introduced in 2007, the masterclasses have become an essential part of the Marrakech International Film Festival. In 2012, directors Darren Aronofsky, Jonathan Demme, Matteo Garrone and Brillante Mendoza honored the festival with their masterclasses, following in the footsteps of Martin Scorsese, Jim Jarmusch, Emir Kusturica, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and Francis Ford Coppola, to name but a few. Once again this year, several of the world’s greatest directors and a philosopher will be sharing some exceptional moments with movie-lovers during the festival.
Bruno Dumont
James Gray
Abbas Kiarostami
Nicolas Winding Refn
Régis Debray
Bruno Dumont
Director & screenwriter (France)
Masterclass on Sunday 1st December
© 3B Productions – Roger Arpajou
Bruno Dumont was born in 1958 in Bailleul, in the Nord department of France. Located in Flanders, between Lille and Dunkirk, Bailleul provided the location for Dumont’s first two films, THE LIFE OF JESUS (1997) and HUMANITÉ (1999). Both pictures won awards at Cannes – the Caméra d’Or Special Mention for the former, and the Jury Prize and Best Actor and Best Actress for the latter – marking Dumont out as a unique filmmaker who goes against the grain of contemporary French production. To him, cinema is another approach – a more fun one, perhaps – to philosophy which he studied in depth at university (history of religion and cinema aesthetics) and went on to teach. In 2003, he left the north of France behind and headed for California with TWENTYNINE PALMS, a road movie combining violence and sexuality. The filmmaker returned to his northern roots with FLANDERS (2006), which he described as “a film of desire and war”, and which won him another Jury Prize at the Festival de Cannes. Bruno Dumont furthered his examination of religious mysticism and fanatical behavior in HADEWIJCH (2009). Three years later and in the same spirit, the filmmaker made OUTSIDE SATAN, which was screened in the Un Certain Regard sidebar of the 64th Festival de Cannes. In 2013, he has led Juliette Binoche into the most shady corners of Camille Claudel’s esprit in CAMILLE CLAUDEL 1915. This first collaboration with a professional actress screened in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Bruno Dumont is currently finishing “P’tit Quinquin”, a police mini-series of four episodes for the Franco-German channel Arte.
FILMOGRAPHY
2013 CAMILLE CLAUDEL 1915
2011 OUTSIDE SATAN
2009 HADEWIJCH
2006 FLANDERS
2003 TWENTYNINE PALMS
1999 HUMANITÉ
1997 THE LIFE OF JESUS
1994 MARIE ET FREDDY – short 1993 PARIS – short
James Gray
Director, screenwriter & producer (USA)
Masterclass on Monday 2nd December
© DR
Born in New York in 1969, James Gray grew up in Queens and began his directorial career at the age of 25 with LITTLE ODESSA. This first feature-length film was met with critical acclaim, as was its lead actor, Tim Roth. He won the Critics’ Prize at the Deauville American Film Festival and a Silver Lion at Venice. Six years later, in 2000, James Gray wrote and directed his second feature, THE YARDS, in which he directed Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron and James Caan. This film noir screened in competition at the Festival de Cannes and marked the start of a long collaboration with actor Joaquin Phoenix, whom Gray made his hero and his alter ego in his subsequent movies. After a long dispute with Miramax over the final cut of THE YARDS, Gray made WE OWN THE NIGHT, a dark work in which he returned to one of his favorite themes – family – and once again, the world of the Russian mafia. The film screened in competition at Cannes and was met with international success, turning James Gray into the great hope for the future of American cinema. Shot in under 40 days and edited right after, TWO LOVERS was the surprise of the Festival de Cannes a year later where it screened in competition. While he revisited a few themes from his detective trilogy – such as the Russian Jewish community in Brooklyn and family ties – James Gray broke with film noir and made a realistic romantic drama shot through with melancholy and darkness. In 2012, the Marrakech International Film Festival welcomed James Gray as a member of its Feature Film Jury. This year, after THE IMMIGRANT – a first historic film inspired by classic American melodramas from the 1930s and 1940s, which screened in competition at the last Festival de Cannes – James Gray is returning to Marrakesh to share his passion for cinema in a masterclass.
FILMOGRAPHY
*also producer /**also writer
Director & screenwriter
2013 THE IMMIGRANT*
2008 TWO LOVERS*
2007 WE OWN THE NIGHT
2000 THE YARDS
1994 LITTLE ODESSA
Producer
2013 BLOOD TIES by Guillaume Canet**
Abbas Kiarostami
Director & screenwriter (Iran)
Masterclass on Tuesday 3rd December
© DR
Born in 1940 in Iran, Abbas Kiarostami attented Teheran University Art College and started his cinematographic career designing credits and directing advertisements. In 1969, he founded the Cinematographic Department of the Institute for Children and Young Adults Intellectual Development that, in the course of the years, has produced a relevant number of high quality Iranian movies, by directors such as: Amir Naderi, Bahram Beysaï, Dariush Mehrjui, Ebrahim Forouzesh and Sohab Shahid Saless. Abbas Kiarostami also directed numerous short films, including BREAD AND ALLEY. In 1974, he wrote and directed his first feature film THE TRAVELER about one of his favourite subjects: the child. Then he directed REPORT (1977) and the documentary film FIRST GRADERS (1984), followed by WHERE IS THE FRIEND’S HOME ? (1987) and AND LIFE GOES ON (1992). In 1992, Abbas Kiarostami obtained international recognition by receiving the Roberto Rossellini Prize at the Cannes Festival for his career. Then he directed THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES (1994) and TASTE OF CHERRY (1996), which obtained the Palme d’Or at the 1997 Cannes Festival. The same year, Unesco bestowed upon him the Fellini medal. In 1999, his seventh feature film THE WIND WILL CARRY US won the Grand Jury Prize of the Venice Festival. In 2002, his first collection of poem “Walking With The Wind” was published. Next year, Abbas Kiarostami was appointed “Officier des Arts et des Lettres”, for outstanding achievements in the arts, by France’s Culture Secretary. In 2009, he directed Juliette Binoche in CERTIFIED COPY. LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE, his tenth feature film, was selected in competition at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY * also writer
2012 LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE*
2009 CERTIFIED COPY*
2008 SHIRIN*
2002 TEN*
1999 THE WIND WILL CARRY US*
1996 TASTE OF CHERRY*
1994 THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES*
1992 AND LIFE GOES ON…*
1987 WHERE IS THE FRIEND’S HOME ?*
1977 REPORT*
1974 THE TRAVELER*
Nicolas Winding Refn
Director, screenwriter & producer (Denmark)
Masterclass on Wednesday 4th December
© Jonas Bie
Born in 1970 in Copenhagen, Nicolas Winding Refn – the son of Lars von Trier’s regular editor Andres Refn – is recognized today for his modern and innovative style. In 1996, his first film, PUSHER, which featured the young actor Mads Mikkelsen, won him immediate critical acclaim. Since then, all his films have been welcomed by the world’s most prestigious festivals: PUSHER II : WITH BLOOD IN MY HANDS (2004) and PUSHER III : THE ANGEL OF DEATH (2005) – the second and third parts of the Pusher trilogy – were presented at Toronto; BLEEDER and VALHALLA RISING screened in Venice in 1999 and 2009 respectively; and FEAR X and BRONSON screened at Sundance in 2003 and 2009. His film DRIVE won him Best Director in Cannes in 2011 and went on to become his biggest critical and commercial success to date. ONLY GOD FORGIVES, Nicolas Winding Refn’s second collaboration with Ryan Gosling, star of DRIVE, also screened in competition at the Festival de Cannes in 2013. Influenced by filmmakers like Kenneth Anger, and Alejandro Jodorowsky to whom he dedicated his last film, Nicolas Winding Refn is currently working on his latest project, I WALK WITH THE DEAD, coproduced by Wild Bunch and Gaumont. In parallel, he is working with Gaumont on developing the BARBARELLA project for television, an adaptation of the comic book of the same name.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
*also producer/**also screenwriter
2013 ONLY GOD FORGIVES**
2011 DRIVE
2009 VALHALLA RISING**
2008 BRONSON**
2005 PUSHER III: I’M THE ANGEL OF DEATH**
2004 PUSHER II: WITH BLOOD ON MY HANDS*/**
2003 FEAR X**
1999 BLEEDER*/**
1996 PUSHER**
Régis Debray on Cinema
Masterclass on Friday 6th December
© DR
In 2012, the sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher Edgar Morin introduced the festival’s first philosophical forum on cinema, the art form that “allows us to be more inclusive with each other and to understand and accept human complexity.” Given the event’s success, the festival has decided to invite an intellectual this year to give his vision of cinema during a unique debate with festival attendees. For the 13th edition of the Festival, writer and philosopher Régis Debray will be our special guest.
Régis Debray was born on 2 September 1940 in Paris. The son of a top Parisian lawyer and a former member of the Resistance, he entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1960 and received his teaching qualification five years later. The same year, he moved to Cuba and followed Che Guevara to Bolivia before being captured in 1967 by Bolivian governmental forces. After his trial, he was condemned to death, a sentence transformed to a 30-year jail term after an international campaign led by Jean-Paul Sartre. After four years, he was released and settled in Chili before returning to France in 1973. Between 1981 and 1985, he was François Mitterrand’s representative for international relations. In 1993, wrote is PhD thesis entitled “Life and death of the image. A history of the gaze in the West”. His analysis of the impact of media and communication led him to create Les Cahiers de médiologie (Gallimard) in 1996. In 1998, he became program director at the International College of Philosophy, as well as president of the scientific council at the École Nationale Supérieure des Sciences de l’Information et des Bibliothèques (ENSSIB). In 2002, he was behind the creation of the European Institute of Religious Sciences (IESR), of which he became president. In 2005, he created the Médium, Transmettre pour innover review and became honorary president of the European Institute of Religious Sciences. He was elected member of the Académie Goncourt in 2011, replacing Michel Tournier.
