Amsterdam,1 March, 2010

DOKU.ARTS 2010
Fifth edition international festival for films on art

Focus: visual arts

Opening film: Women Without Men by Shirin Neshat

EYE Film Institute Netherlands and the Dutch Cultural Media Fund present the international festival DOKU.ARTS from 9 to 13 June. This year sees a special focus on the visual arts as well as Iranian documentaries. The programme features the world premiere of The Making of Women Without Men, a documentary about Iranian artist Shirin Neshat’s film debut. The festival opens with the screening of Women Without Men, which won a Silver Lion award at the Venice Film Festival last year.

DOKU.ARTS, 9 to 13 June 2010, EYE, Vondelpark 3, Amsterdam.

The fifth edition of DOKU.ARTS focuses on the visual arts and the relationship between museums and cinema. Over the past few years, galleries and museums of modern and contemporary art have shown an increased interest in film and film history, with the Hermitage, the Louvre and Musée d’Orsay even co-producing complete feature-length films. For modern artists, film is also increasingly becoming a preferred form for self-expression. Shirin Neshat for example, employed a number of her video installations in her first film. Museums are also playing an increasingly important role: Golden Palm winner Abbas Kiarostami made a name for himself as the director of Taste of Cherry (1997) and The Wind Will Carry Us (1999). His current work, which does away with traditional narrative techniques, would be entirely at home in a quiet museum setting, say the critics. One of his more recent works, Shirin (2008), will be shown during DOKU.ARTS. Other Iranian documentaries in the festival programme include: The Treasure Cave (2009, Bahman Kiarostami), Reza Haeri’s All Restrictions End (2009) and Mokarrameh (1999) by Ebrahim Mokhtari.

Opening film with Shirin Neshat

The festival opens on 9 June with Women Without Men (2009), the film debut by Iranian- American photographer and video artist Shirin Neshat, who gained global recognition for the photo series Women of Allah (1993-1997). Women Without Men, an allegorical tale of four women and their journey to independence in Persia in 1953, scooped up a Silver Lion award, the UNICEF award and a nomination for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Shirin Neshat will attend the festival screening along with the film’s co-director Shoja Azari and art director Shahram Karimi.

Programme: The Making of Women Without Men

During DOKU.ARTS, The Making of Women Without Men by Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari will see its world premiere. In this documentary, its makers explore the political and social background of the original film. The definitive DOKU.ARTS programme will be revealed at the end of April.

Seminar

During DOKU.ARTS, the Dutch Cultural Media Fund is organising a seminar for professionals in the film industry. The latest developments in the field are on the agenda, including how museums are now creating their own internet channels while also acting as independent film producers and distributors. What does this mean for independent producers and broadcasters? Conservators and staff of Centre Pompidou, Tate Media, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam share their experiences.

About DOKU.ARTS

To reveal the innovative nature of the art documentary genre in all its diversity, filmmaker and festival director Andreas Lewin founded DOKU.ARTS in 2006. After two editions in Berlin, the festival moved to the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam (now EYE Film Institute Netherlands) in 2008. DOKU.ARTS is not a platform for artists’ portraits (biopics) in the traditional sense, focusing rather on art documentaries, film essays, compilations and hommages which stand out because of an unusual form or content. All of the directors of the selected films are invited to attend. The extensive discussions by the filmmakers and the public are an important part of the festival programme, which also features highlights from the EYE collection.

Partners

DOKU.ARTS is a collaboration between EYE Film Institute Netherlands, the Dutch Cultural Media Fund and Andreas Lewin Filmproduktion, Berlin.

About EYE

As of January 1, 2010 the Netherlands Filmmuseum, the Dutch Institute for Film Education, De Filmbank and Holland Film merged into EYE Film Institute Netherlands.