Lübeck, 19. June 2013 –NORDIC FILM DAYS LÜBECK presents its 55. festival edition from 30. October to 3. November 2013, with innovative and expressive filmmaking from Scandinavia, the Baltic States and Northern Germany as Europe’s biggest festival for Nordic Film outside of Scandinavia.
A press conference provided insight into the first highlights and innovations of the upcoming programme, presented by Annette Borns, Senator for Cultural Affairs of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, and the main directors of NORDIC FILM DAYS LÜBECK, Linde Fröhlich (Artistic Direction), Christian Modersbach (Festival Manager) and Jörg Schöning (Head of the Retrospective).
Lübeck’s Senator for Cultural Affairs, Annette Borns, began the press conference by announcing full support on behalf of the Hanseatic City for the upcoming festival and beyond. She pointed out that Nordic Film Days have been constituting a major part of Lübeck’s cultural identity for many years. Recent festival editions had brought about major changes, but now the festival is geared to security and continuity. Thanks to contemporary positive innovations and ideas, strong partners and committed news coverage through NDR and Lübecker Nachrichten, Nordic Film Days Lübeck is now firmly anchored in the consciousness of citizens in Lübeck and throughout the country – as a constant rise in audience numbers goes to prove. According to Annette Borns, “Lübeck is unchallenged as “the” festival for films from Northern Europe, currently Europe’s most important film region.”
As of 30. October 2013, this year’s Retrospective presents “Films Headed Northwards: Spitsbergen and the Path to the Pole”, examining a geographical region of increasing ecological and economic significance for Europe due to the melting of the ice caps. “The foreseeable all-year use of the Northeast Passage will make a “dream of mankind” come true that the arctic explorers of the past have repeatedly wrestled in vain. Spitsbergen (Svalbard) often served as a last staging post on the journey into the Polar Sea,” says Jörg Schöning, Head of the Retrospective. The Retrospective presents several feature and documentary films, some of which depict the efforts of polar expeditions to the North Pole, such as the ones by Roald Amundsen (1926), Salomon August Andrée (1897), Herbert Schröder-Stranz (1912-1913) and Arved Fuchs (2007). The film series is augmented with lectures by film historians and explorers. The complete programme will be announced in autumn 2013.
The “KoKi” Kommunales Kino in Lübeck has been won over as a new festival cinema alongside the CineStar and the Kolosseum. It has already served as an industry screening venue at the “Lübeck Meetings” and for special events at previous festival editions; with the start of the coming Film Days, it will present a selection of films from the current festival programme.
The “Lübeck Complaints Choir” has been created as a new participatory performance project at the coming Nordic Film Days. It is put into practice by students of the Lübeck Academy of Music under the direction of Prof. Franz Danksagmüller and Anne Michael, Head of the Choir, after an idea by the German-Finnish artist couple Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen. The documentary film “Complaints Choir” (director: Ada Bligaard Søby), about corresponding choir projects in Chicago and Singapore, is being shown in the festival’s documentary film section. The festival has launched an appeal that invites interested parties to send in all manner of general complaints for the “complaints choir” project, e.g. by e-mail to beschwerde@filmtage.luebeck.de, and to register for participation, if so inclined, in the complaints choir. The data sheet containing all the required information is available for downloading at the festival’s website.
This year sees the second realization of the “Young Video Journalists” project. With its central focus set “In The Spirit of Willy Brandt –Willy 100”, it pays homage to the social democrat Willy Brandt, who would have celebrated his 100. birthday this year, and was born in Lübeck on 18. December 1913. This year’s collaborating partner on the project by Nordic Film Days is the renowned Norwegian film festival in Haugesund. In August, five adolescents from each country will be instructed in the development of own video projects by experienced, international filmmakers in Norway. Then they will realize their own documentary films during the festival in Lübeck, which they will present to the public on the closing day of the festival. The project is once again supported by the Norwegian-German Willy-Brandt-Stiftung (Berlin) and Landesverband Jugend und Film Schleswig-Holstein.
The interactive Festival-BOX will also be reinstalled at the 55. Nordic Film Days Lübeck, after it was so well received in the previous year. Once again, the cooperation partner is conegge Film! The film box is situated at various locations throughout Lübeck during the festival days, and is available to all festival guests and citizens of Lübeck. It can be used to take snapshots of oneself (and others) that can be printed, presented on the festival website, or sent in private messages. The box also serves as backdrop and shooting location for the Festival Trailer 2013.
Festival Manager Christian Modersbach has announced that the financing of Nordic Film Days Lübeck is on solid ground. Supported with financial means from the EU MEDIA Programme, the Land of Schleswig-Holstein and financial support from the main sponsors and partners, the Film Days can continue to operate the festival as hitherto. In the name of the festival, Christian Modersbach would particularly like to thank the partners Possehl-Stiftung, the Radisson Blu Senator Hotel, CineStar and all sponsors, supporters, donors and Freundeskreis der NORDISCHEN FILMTAGE LÜBECK for their active, long-standing commitment: “This year, we are particularly happy to present a secured festival – and our thanks go to all supporters, sponsors and donors who made this possible and are thus providing the citizens of Lübeck with five days of extraordinary cinema from Northern Europe.”
NORDIC FILM DAYS LÜBECK’s committed media partners are Norddeutscher Rundfunk and Lübecker Nachrichten.
The complete programme of the 55. NORDIC FILM DAYS LÜBECK will be presented at a press conference on 8. October 2013. The screening venues are CineStar Filmpalast Stadthalle, Kolosseum and Kommunales Kino Lübeck.
Please find further information on NORDIC FILM DAYS LÜBECK at www.filmtage.luebeck.de and on the facebook page: facebook.com/NordicFilmDays – Accreditations can be issued in the course of September 2013.
Contact:
Silke Lehmann
NORDIC FILM DAYS LÜBECK
Head of Press and Publicity
Schildstr.12, 23539 Lübeck
Tel.: +49 (0)451-122-1454
Fax: +49 (0)451-122-17 99
silke.lehmann@filmtage.luebeck.de
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