BEAST INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Animation workshop gives children the opportunity to create their first own film!

As part of the Visegrad Film Hub programme, the workshop looks at the basic principles of stop motion animation focusing on cut-out and relief animation. Kids will prepare their story, create the characters and background for the shooting. Working with materials such as paper, plasticine, textile, wood, etc., participants will work in small teams, having all the necessary equipment and technology at disposal in OKNa – Espaço Cultural ready to launch their debut creations.

Recommended age of participants is from 8 to 12. 

Date: September 24 & 25
Time: 11:00–16:00 with lunch break (lunch is not provided by organizers)
Location: OKNa – Espaço Cultural (Rua Igreja de Cedofeita 27, Porto)
Free entry

REGISTER HERE

Schedule:

Sat.24. 09. 2022
11:00–13:00 | Session 1
13:00–14:30 | Lunch break
14:30–16:00 | Session 2

Sun. 25. 09. 2022
11:00–13:00 | Session 3
13:00–14:30 | Lunch break
14:30–16:00 | Session 4

The workshop is a collaboration between three visual artists, Leander Meresaar (Estonian animation director), Alla Dmitrievna (Ukrainian animation director) and Martyna Formella (Polish visual artist) and it builds on skills that the group feel comfortable with such as storytelling, set and puppet making and it introduces key animation concepts such as timing and movement. Workshop is going to be held in English with Portuguese translation.

The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund – www.visegradfund.org. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

Video mapping and Augmented Reality are part of the evolution of visual art – they indicate a manifestation of technology to create an optical illusion while playing with light. As a conclusion, ordinary objects are changed into awesome magical creations. Artists can simply apply their majestic sketches to any 3D materials, for example buildings. 

Within Visegrad Film Hub 2022, in cooperation with  TRAKT from Slovakia and Photon Foundation from Poland, the Video Mapping + Augmented Reality Workshop intends to give the participants an overview of the different possibilities to create a live installation wrapping projected virtual content around a real world object.

The first editions of the workshop (2019/2021) were a great success, with over 200 people applying for participation. Its third edition will return in a more complex and open source format, for participants and festival audience to interact. It will cover various options of how to create content (both pre-produced and in real time) and how to apply it on an object using various mapping methods. 

Furthermore, the visitors will get a comprehensive insight on what kind of content works best, based on the nature of the individual, illuminated objects. The educational event invites the participants to discover the space of projection in volume and the production line of the video mapping with a contemporary approach. This was tailored to build on the strengths of the new emerging talents, and equip them with a full understanding of both the workflow, and the technical skills required to create interactive projection mapped installations.

Throughout the workshop, general public will get the opportunity to enjoy the V4 Expanded: VR CORNER – interactive exhibition of several virtual reality projects from emerging studios in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Czechia. This experience is a novelty brought by BEAST IFF in collaboration with its V4 partners and Supported by International Visegrad Fund.

INFO

V4 ACADEMY | Video Mapping Workshop (Event–Public), Porto, PT
PARTNERS: TRAKT.SK (Slovakia) / PHOTON FOUNDATION (Poland)
DATES: 21 – 25 09. 2022, OKNA Cultural Centre

Guidelines and Registration HERE

/ VISEGRAD / FILM / HUB / is organised by BEAST International Film Festival with the support of International Visegrad Fund – visegradfund.org, providing support for the audiovisual works from the V4 region (Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) through activation of networks and educational events. 

As the fifth edition of BEAST IFF comes closer, it’s time for you to join our team! Being a volunteer means being part of an international team, meeting a lot of like-minded cinema passionate people, discovering Eastern European culture, learning and sharing your skills for the common goal: 5 great festival days in Porto. We need you, so we can build an unforgettable experience for everyone!

Take a look at the sections of Volunteering that you can sign up for and choose the ones that fit you best (you can choose more than one area that interests you and we will do our best to assign you the tasks that fit your expectations). You can also specify when you can be involved, so please remember to check and let us know your availability. 

All volunteers will receive a festival pass allowing them to participate in the BEAST screenings and special events in their free time.

Let’s do great stuff together!  SIGN UP HERE

Marketing and Set Dressing – help with the distribution of BEAST programmes to various locations in Porto to let the whole city know the festival is starting soon! Participate in branding and decorating the venues to bring the Eastern European spirit to cinemas and our partner spots, creating the festival atmosphere everywhere. // The tasks in this department begin on Sep 10th already and may require some physical effort (carrying stuff around). 

Social media, photo & video, website – create attention-grabbing content and memorable photo/video coverage of the festival. Prepare reels and stories for social media, document each festival day and put your creativity and editing skills to real-life test. Help the communication team with publishing news on the BEAST website to keep everyone updated on what’s going each festival day. // The festival provides all the necessary gear but your own camera, phone or/and computer would be a plus. 

Guests – meet the festival Guests and help them have a great experience in Porto. Become a guide involved in pick-ups, drop-offs, accommodation arrangements, making sure they know their agendas and find their way to all the venues. Do some international networking and practice your hospitality skills. // English language at communicative level required.

Info Points, Venues & Events – become the first contact person to BEAST audiences. Provide the information about the festival programme, make sure everybody got their accreditation, tickets and merchandise, help with the setup of special events, workshops and parties, get hands-on experience in festival production. // Please note that some screenings and parties require staying out late!

The fifth edition of BEAST IFF will take place between 21 – 25, with a program designed to nurture and champion the art of creative filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe.

BEAST IFF is much more than a film festival and it assumes a relevant role in the stimulation and dissemination of Central and Eastern European film culture in Portugal, opening it to new audiences. Besides the series of film events, the festival expands its activity to masterclasses, parties, exhibitions, conversations, or workshops. 

The Official Competition of the festival, a space that promotes new works by promising filmmakers from the East, presents a diverse and attentive selection of the best works produced in the region. With room for fiction works, in the East Wave section, documentaries, in East Doc, or experimental works, in the ExperimentalEast program, the official selection of the fifth edition of BEAST IFF includes 28 films from 13 countries.

This year, the festival dedicates a focus to Montenegro, presenting a total of 18 works by several Montenegrin directors. With a selection divided into four sections, this program is a rare opportunity to learn more about the film production of a country that only gained independence in 2006, promoting the new and refreshing facet of Montenegrin cinema.

Included in this focus is the festival’s opening film, The Elegy of Laurel (2021) by Dusan Kasalica. The Montenegrin filmmaker’s first feature, making its national premiere at BEAST IFF, is a challenging and innovative drama that suddenly turns dark, fantastic and mysterious – a direct connection to the energy of the festival, standing with the slogan “Wild WIld East.

Focus Montenegro comes in partnership with the Montenegrin Film Center, Montenegrin Cinematheque, and is supported by the Honorary Consulate of Montenegro in Porto.

With an expanded programme, BEAST IFF also announces a special program that honours Ukraine. Highlight Ukraine! features six talented and emerging Ukrainian filmmakers, including a unique selection from the Kyiv International Short Film Festival, the coming-of-age feature Stop Zemlia (2021) by filmmaker Kateryna Gornostai, premiered and awarded at the Berlin Film Festival – Generations. Through The  Highlight Ukraine!, the festival wants to spread and convey a message of hope and support to all Ukrainian people, artists, friends, partners, and their families.

Organized by OKNA – Cultural Association in partnership with the City Council of Porto, the 5th BEAST – International Film Festival will take place in the city of Porto, from September 21st to 25th. The complete program will be announced on September 6th.

Entering its 5th edition, BEAST International Film Festival is returning to Porto between 21 – 25 of September 2022.

BEAST IFF 5.0 is looking for short and medium-lenght films to join its Official Competition Programme – productions from Central & Eastern Europe or by filmmakers of Eastern European descent worldwide irrespective of theme, as well as films by international filmmakers with a focus on the CEE region.

During the 7 festival days, BEAST IFF will turn Porto into the center of Central & Eastern European cinema culture through screenings, masterclasses, workshops and several industry related events.

Since its first edition (2017), BEAST IFF brought the community together in celebration of the best cinema from Central & Eastern Europe. Through its public screenings, BEAST IFF premieres a highly curated programme including feature films, documentaries, short films and animation. The post-screenings Q&A create a space for connecting filmmakers, pioneers ,opinion-makers, and the wider audience.

Submit your film and give it the chance to be seen on the big screens of Porto’s cinemas.

BEAST IFF aims to provide a platform for emerging CEE filmmakers and Portuguese directors working abroad. Until now, BEAST IFF screened over 500 films, representing over 21 countries from the region. The Official Competition presents three categories: EAST WAVE (fiction film) EAST DOC (documentary film), and experimentalEAST (experimental film), screening short and medium-length films released in the last two year.

APPLY HERE

After wrapping up its on-site edition in Porto, BEAST IFF brings part of its 2021 program to Lisbon.

To close its 2021 program, BEAST IFF, in partnership with Cineclube Aparição, is now promoting a pocket edition of the festival at the renowned Galeria Zé dos Bois, in Lisbon.

Called BEAST IFF: ON-TOUR, this short edition proposes to bring the highlights of the online and on-site program to Lisbon audiences, while promoting the best of the New East cinema.

The cycle of sessions starts on June 7th, taking place weekly on Mondays at 9 pm. Admission will cost €3 and tickets are already available online at Galeria Zé dos Bois’s website (CLICK HERE).

PROGRAM

June 7th:
Shorts from Mirages of Freedom

Kyiv Frescos (Sergei Parajanov, Ukrainian SSR, 1966)
Asphaltotronic (UPV Art Group and Viacheslav Buhaevskyi, Ukrainian SSR, 1967)
Water Supply (Ada Kviraia, Ukrainian SSR, 1987)
The End of Vacation (Serhii Lysenko, Ukrainian SSR, 1985)

June 14th:
As Far As I Know (Nándo Lõrincz and Bálint Nagy, Hungary/Romania, 2020)

June 21rst:
The Distance Between Me and Me (Mona Nicoară, Dana Bunescu, Romania/USA [Idea: Ada Solomon], 2018)

June 28th:
Shorts from The ExperimentalEast

Today Is 11th June 1993 (Clarissa Thieme, Bosnia and Herzegovina / 13’ / Winner BEAST IFF 2018)
Maternity (Nataliya Ilchuk, Ukraine, 17′, 2019)
The Close River (Marta Hryniuk, Poland, 27′, Winner BEAST IFF 2021)

BEAST International Film Festival implemented this year’s program in different stages, in order to aim for the safety and health of the public due to COVID-19.

Presented by Associação Cultural OKNA in co-production with Porto City Council and with the support of local and international cultural institutes, BEAST International Film Festival has been operating since 2017 as a complex channel of contemporary culture from Central and Eastern Europe to the Portuguese public.

Thus, BEAST IFF held in March this year a successful online edition, which surpassed the ten thousand views mark and presented more than 60 short, medium and feature films, with part of its program also being made available through the streaming platform Filmin Portugal. In addition, more than 20 special activities were broadcast throughout the edition, such as performances, interviews with directors, lectures, and discussions with members of the film industry, such as producers Ada Solomon and Monica Lăzurean Gorgan.

Within the online edition, the Official BEAST IFF 2021 Competition was also promoted. This year, the following films were awarded by the jury team: SH_T HAPPENS (EAST WAVE Award, Michaela Mihalyi and David Štumpf, Czech Republic); Pure Art (EAST DOC Award, Maksim Shved, Poland and Belarus) and The Close River (experimentalEAST Award, Marta Hryniuk, Poland). The program ended up opening a cultural umbrella that covered 20 countries, with a unique focus on diversity.

Given the positive response from the public to the online program and the new measures easing lockdown restrictions by the Directorate-General of Health, BEAST IFF decided to once again extend its program to the traditional cinemas of Porto, which have always welcomed it. This second cycle of the festival in 2021, called on-site, took place from April 29th to June 3rd and promoted 15 on-site cinema sessions in the city of Porto.

Among short films, documentary and fiction features, 16mm projections and educational activities, 38 films were screened in five different cultural spaces in Porto: Cinema Passos Manuel, Casa das Artes, Maus Hábitos Espaço de Intervenção Cultural, Livraria Térmita and OKNA Espaço Cultural.

The performance of all the activities mentioned above is due to the support and fundamental participation of cultural institutions such as the Câmara Municipal do Porto, Ágora, the International Visegrad Fund, the Instituto Cultural Romeno Lisboa, the Hungarian Embassy in Lisbon, the Slovak Embassy in Portugal, the Polish Embassy in Lisbon and the Romanian Embassy in Portugal.

Having walked with us in the production of this year’s edition, the public and the festival’s partners allowed BEAST to foster the Portuguese cultural scene even in the face of such an adverse period for the world and for the creative sectors.

On June 3rd, the award-winning Romanian feature film “Acasă, My Home”, will be shown at Cinema Passos Manuel.

Within the scope of the festival, the Focus Country section acted this year as a window into Romanian culture through the attentive and sensitive look of its filmmakers. ​This special program aimed to highlight the power of storytelling based on real facts, as well as the talent and creativity of the region’s directors.

Included in the section is the documentary feature film “Acasă, My Home”, which premieres on the big screens of Portugal with the support of Instituto Cultural Romeno Lisboa. The film also wraps up the <on-site> cycle of BEAST IFF 2021 in the city of Porto.

Location: Cinema Passos Manuel

Date: June 3rd (THU), 8:30 PM

Ticketing: 5€, while the student ticket and the ticket for Tripass cardholders are 3.5€.

Program

Acasă, My Home (Radu Ciorniciuc, Romania/Finland/Germany, 85′, DOC., SUB. ENG)

A patch of idyllic nature right next to the metropolis of Bucharest. In this area of overgrown reed and criss-crossing waterways there’s an eleven-strong family living under basic circumstances. 

When the territory is designated as a nature reserve the family has to yield: they are forcefully resettled into a small city apartment, in the heart of Bucharest.

On June 2nd, the feature film “The Soviet Garden”, co-produced between Romania and Moldova, will be shown at Maus Hábitos Espaço Cultural.

Within the scope of the festival, the Focus Country section acted this year as a window into Romanian culture through the attentive and sensitive look of its filmmakers. ​This special program aimed to highlight the power of storytelling based on real facts, as well as the talent and creativity of the region’s directors.

Included in the section is the documentary feature film “The Soviet Garden”, which premieres on the big screens of Portugal with the support of the Instituto Cultural Romeno Lisboa.

Location: Maus Hábitos – Espaço de Intervenção Cultural

Date: June 2nd (WED), 8:30 PM

Ticketing: Free entry*
*Pre-reservations can be made by purchasing a snack pack at the Maus Hábitos store.

Program

The Soviet Garden (Dragos Turea, Romania/Moldova, 76′, DOC., SUB. ENG)

Stimulated by his grandmother’s lethal illness and her memories of some mysterious agricultural experiments in the past, Moldavian filmmaker Dragoș decides to investigate why cancer rate has increased in his home country lately and whether there is some connection between the fatal statistics and these secret scientific endeavors. 

This very personal documentary digs into rare found footage in order to portray the industrial shock imposed on Moldova by the Soviet State while unveiling the secret plan of Nikita Khrushchev to transform Moldova into the Soviet Garden.

BEAST IFF will be hosting, under the Visegrad Film Hub project, one workshop meant to cultivate the youth, specifically teenagers (14-18 yrs).

Built to train youngsters with an interest in the art of storytelling, whether they had experience in audiovisual and creative writing or are new to the field, this workshop aims to help each participant develop abilities in the context of storytelling.

The class will begin by learning and experimenting through practical techniques and games that help thinking in stories and characters, based on (re)mixing visual and sound associations. This involves the basics of sketching and character creation, leading to construction and reconstruction of storyline variations from the random association of characters, objects, and sounds.

The participants develop their skills while fulfilling individual and group activities over the course of two meetings, exploring types of cinematography camera shots, play with collage, montage, and remix while identifying tricks and tips for creating storyboards and moodboards.

Entry Requirements: The Youth Audiovisual Storytelling Workshop course is open enrolment and there are no entry requirements. However, in order to get the most out of the course, you should be able to both speak and write in English to a reasonable standard.

WORKSHOP TRAINER: Livia Barts

Lívia Barts is a visual facilitator and a graphic designer, and also a PhD student at the Institute for Art Theory and Media Studies (ELTE, Budapest), where she also teaches courses as a visiting lecturer. She has a degree in English Literature (ELTE, 2010) and in Graphic Design (MOME, 2012). Currently she lives in Vila Nova de Gaia and is enrolled in the post-graduate programme of Curating, Urban Culture and Spatial Practices at ESAP. Her graphic work is mainly focused on visual knowledge communication: from graphic notes and visual summaries to explanatory animations. She researches visual thinking in learning, modern history of visual communication, pictorial abstraction, diagrammatic and non-linear knowledge management techniques, and visualizations.

Location: OKNA Espaço Cultural (R. Igreja de Cedofeita 27, Porto)

Language: English

Duration: 2 Sessions (2h/session)

Free entry with mandatory registration.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

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The workshop is held within VISEGRAD FILM HUB, organized by BEAST International Film Festival with the support of International Visegrad Fund providing support for the audiovisual works from the V4 region (Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia).