Necktie Youth trailer from Halal on Vimeo.

The Winner of the World Cinema Amsterdam festival is the remarkable South African film Necktie Youth from Sibs Shongwe-La Mer. And a Special Mention for Deniz Gmaze Erguven's Mustang. See for more information and the programme the site of World Cinema Amsterdam festival. Below the jury report of this years edition of the festival. 

Jury Report

by Patricia Pisters, Carlos M. Quintela & Felix de Rooy

The sixth World Cinema Amsterdam festival has presented a global avalanche of images and sounds that conjure up emotion and insight about the state of humanity through the eyes of talented filmmakers from all over the world. In that sense the value of this festival and of all the films presented in the program cannot be underestimated. The nine films in competition were all very strong, transporting us to different countries and regions; they moved us for many different reasons. We were struck by the political and emancipatory urgency and the empowering forms of resistance in many of the films. Migration between countries and within cultures between urban environments and countryside, as well as all kinds of social injustice are important recurring themes; many films show a younger generation that kicks against the status quo established by previous generations; with varying degrees of success. The jury was also impressed by the quality and variety of the cinematography of all the films in competition. Whether shot in bright colors, strong black and white, poetic light, static framing or fluid camera movements, all films were of remarkable quality and widened our scope of cultural differences and transnational and universal values.

Special Mention

Before announcing the winner, the jury would like to take the opportunity to highlight one of the other films in the competition program, which is a film about the untamable longing for freedom. 

Where Do We Go Now? Arab Women Behind the Camera. A very interesting film programme about women directors in the Arab World. From 5 - 21 June 2015 in EYE. Here's an overview of the films. Read also Sacha Gertsik's article in De Filmkrant (in Dutch). 

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds great performance in the Royal Albert Hall London 3 May 2015.. A cool event in a legendary place. 

CINEMAGOGIC ECHOES? from Catherine Grant on Vimeo.

A real-time comparison, for scolarly and solidarity purposes, of Len Lye's 1958 experimental animation Free Radicals and the opening minutes of Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino's Hour of the Furnaces of 1968. This video was produced by Catherine Grant on teh morning of February 18. 2013, using readily available materials for quotation. It was made and distributed as part of a teach-in that day. Staff and students of media and cultural studies, working in a deeply personal, activist capacity, gave short presentation on their research and thinking about ideas of resistance, occupation and neoliberalism. For more information please visit the website Filmstudies For Free.

TRAILER: The Pervert's Guide to Ideology from Blinder Films on Vimeo.

In The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (Sophie Fiennes, 2012) Slovene philosopher and psychoanalyst Slavoj Žižek re-enacts himself in films ranging from Taxi Driver to Sound of Music and from A Clock Work Orange to Titanic (and many more) to guide us in a razor sharp and hilarious cinematic journey into the heart of ideology: showing the psychological mechanisms of (any) ideology, revealing why it hurts to step out of it and how we are responsible for our dreams.    

“Never forget that every revolution is not only directed towards the future but also redeems the past failed revolutions.”Walter Benjamin quoted by Slavoj Žižek in The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology

For some introductory words about The Pervert’s Guide To Ideology:

An important book by Joris Luyendijk who spend two years in The City in London to report about the financial world for The Guardian. He published his finding in the book Onder Bankiers: Dit Kan Niet Waar Zijn (Atlas/Contact, 2015) See also VPRO Tegenlicht 'Bankgeheimen'  In Dutch.