November 29-December 2, 2007

Tribeca Cinemas

54 Varick Street (at Laight Street), NYC, NY 10013

(SUBWAY: 1, 9, A, C, E, trains to Canal St.)

ADMISSION: Regular Adult – $10.00; Student/Senior – $7.00

Purchase tickets online at www.tribecacinemas.com

All screenings in Romanian with English subtitles, and followed by Q&A with directors, actors and film critics.
 

NEW YORK, November 16, 2007 – The second edition of the Romanian Film Festival in New York, Romanian Cinema: The Golden Age, will take place at Tribeca Cinemas from November 29 to December 2. It will showcase the Romanian premieres of 2007 (among which the two major winners at Cannes Film Festival), documentary films, shorts by upcoming filmmakers and some classics of the Romanian cinema. The screenings will be followed by Q&A with the film directors and actors and will be introduced by Romanian and American film critics. The festival is an initiative of RCINY in collaboration with Transilvania International Film Festival and Tribeca Film Festival.

Romanian Cinema: The Golden Age is meant to offer the movie aficionados the rare opportunity to see where the much praised Romanian cinematic revolution came from and where it may be heading. 

Why “The Golden Age”? Even in the worst of times of the communist regime in Romania, the propaganda insisted on proclaiming Ceauşescu’s dictatorship years “The Golden Age”. The new wave of Romanian cinema is very much concerned with this recent past, with the historical accident an entire nation had lived through for half a century. The Golden Age left a deep scar, and now it’s the time to talk about the real gold in it. Furthermore, the Romanian cinema is going through its own, authentic Golden Age, this being the first time it receives such a widespread attention.

Cristian Mungiu’s film 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (Palme D’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival, 2007) will be presented together with a selection of his earlier short films (Zapping, The Firemen’s Choir, Nothing by Chance and Turkey Girl), as well as his first feature Occident (2002).

Cristian Nemescu’s film California Dreamin’ (Endless) (winner of Un Certain Regard Prize, Cannes Film Festival, 2007) is co-presented with Tribeca Film Festival and will be accompanied by the presence of the two leading actors: Răzvan Vasilescu and Armand Assante.

You don’t want to miss the most recent film by Nae Caranfil, The Rest Is Silence (2007), about the making of the first Romanian feature, The War for Independence (d. Aristide Demetriade, Grigore Brezeanu,  1912), also presented in a special screening with a live soundtrack by the incredible Bogman. Another must is The Reenactment (d. Lucian Pintilie, 1968 but banned ‘till 1990), considered by many as the best film of the classic Romanian cinema, as well as Short History by Ion Popescu Gopo, which won the Palme D’Or for Short Film at the Cannes Festival in 1957.

A fortunate encounter. The Romanian Film Festival is an initiative of the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, organized in close collaboration with Transilvania International Film Festival and Tribeca Film Fesival. A prominent venue on New York’s map, Tribeca Cinemas responded with great enthusiasm to our proposal. TIFF became in a very short time the most important film festival in Romania through the bold programming and management of its coordinators. It is why we invited Mihai Chirilov (the main programmer of TIFF) to also curate the Romanian Film Festival in New York:

The Rest may be silence according to Nae Caranfil's eponymous latest epic, but the New Romanian Cinema is out loud. It may leave you speechless, as it's the case with the supremely awarded 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, but then again, passionate debate will take over. Come to the 2nd edition of our festival and test the best from the past and the present of the Romanian Cinema. The Rest is... up to you, to fill in the blanks! – Mihai Chirilov, festival curator

For those of you who really love independent low budget movies of great value, the second edition of the Romanian Film Festival in New York will be a delight.

 

See below the festival program in brief. For details on all presented films, directors, images, for press access and other information, please contact:

Cristian NEAGOE
Communications Coordinator, RCINY
Tel: 212-687-0180
Fax: 212-687-0181
Cell: 917-656-4296
E-mail: cristian@icrny.org

Romanian Cinema: THE GOLDEN AGE

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days / 4 luni, 3 săptămîni şi 2 zile (2007, 113 min), d. Cristian Mungiu
Thu, Nov 29, 7 pm

Reenactment / Reconstituirea (1968, 100 min), d. Lucian Pintilie
Sun, Dec 2, 7:30 pm

Preceded by

Short History / Scurtă istorie (1956, 10 min), d. Ion Popescu Gopo

The first and, until this year, the only Romanian film to have won the Palme D’Or in Cannes – for Best Short Film in 1957

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Opening night - see above

Occident (2002, 105 min), d. Cristian Mungiu
Sun, Dec 2, 1 pm

The Short Films of Cristian Mungiu
Nothing by Chance / Nici o întîmplare (1999, 14 min)
Zapping (2000, 14 min)
The Firemen’s Choir / Corul Pompierilor (2000, 30 min)
Turkey Girl (episode from “Lost and found”) (2005, 20 min)
Fri, Nov 30, 6 pm & Sat, Dec 1, 8:00 pm