Inspire

Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2009 Summary and My Top 10 Movies

The last 10 days I have seen around 40 movies at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2009. It was a good year (a little better than last year) with many interesting new movies. Especially the new Turkish cinema was fascinating to me with movies like Autumn, Journey to the Sun, Pandora's Box and Innocence. I liked the style, the pace, the metaphors and symbolism and the sharp conversations.

My personal favorite by far was Troubled Water, highly recommended. Cinema is about elevation in my view and this movie blew all my senses from the start, especially the outstanding and deeply moving musical scenes. Combined with a powerful and original story about love, transparency, honesty, redemption, forgiveness, sorrow and reconnection.

1. Troubled Water
   
2. Teza
3. 35 Rhums
4. Fixer
5. Pandora's Box
6. Tokyo Sonata
7. Historias Extraordinarias
8. Frozen River
9. Rachel Getting Married
10. Slumdog Millionaire

Hope to see you all next year. It was a blast!

My Top 10 Movies of 2008

Ever year I share my favorite movies of the year with my readers. Here are the years 2007, 2006 and 2005. What strikes me is that the years 2007 and 2006 seem to resonate more with me relative to 2008. I am wondering if my readers have experienced the same of something different. Here goes for top10 favorite movies of the year 2008:

1. Il y a longtemps que je t'aime
2. Secret Sunshine
3. Cloud Nine
4. The Dark Knight
5. No Country for Old Men
6. I'm not there
7. Die Stille Vor Bach
8. Auf Der Anderen Seite
9. Waltz with Bashir
10. Persepolis

Some movies didn't make my top10 list but are IMO still very interesting to watch:

• Into The Wild
• Entre Les Murs 
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Soon the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009 will start at January 21th, 2009. 10 days of exploring all kinds of new movies. Always a great adventure to me, a way of traveling with your own mind and heart. This will be my 14th year in a row to experience this highly interesting film festival. I will blog the highlights again like every year since 2005.

Neal Stephenson Presentation on Media, Science Fiction and Genres

Neal Stephenson - author of Snow Crash and one of the inspirators for the web, Metaverse and Multiverse - shows us his views on (inner) geeks, science fiction, different genres, tv, cinema, books and taking your audience more seriously on an intellectual level to boost identification. Hurray for all the geeks ! 

Film: Auf Der Andere Seite

Just saw a great movie called Auf Der Andere Seite. Nominated for the European Film Award in 2007. Topics included are: politics (immigration/integration, EU) pain, redemption, coincidence or synchronicity, symmetry, rules/bureaucracy, love, purpose and acceptance. Beautiful and touching.

IFFR Highlight Part 4: I'm Not There (Bob Dylan)

My favorite movie of the IFFR 2008 festival is definitely I'm Not There. Hypnotizing. Outstanding performance by Cate Blanchett. Highly recommended !

IFFR Highlight Part 3: Darjeeling Limited

Just saw another great movie called The Darjeeling Limited. India, friendship, brotherhood, trust, openness, spirituality, good music and a great story.

IFFR Highlight Part 2: Persepolis

Politics, beautiful music, history, psychology and animation...all in an original, touching and award-winning movie called Persepolis

Die Stille Vor Bach : One Highlight from IFFR 2008

Yesterday I saw a highly original, engaging and rewarding movie called Die Stille Vor Bach. If you like creativity, art, classical music and/or Bach, this one is not to be missed. It just blew my mind. Visually stunning, good conversations about the meaning and role of music in life, musical masterpieces and different references to the history of art.

Recap and My Top 12 Movies of 2007

After a very hectic working period I am back with some reviews of the year 2007 and some predictions.  I will jumpstart with my top 12 favorite movies for this year.

But first a recap and a necessary explanation for my readers. In November, there was among others the third Mobile Monday Amsterdam event (again successful with 220 attendants), my presentation on Nijenrode University on digital marketing within the Metaverse (this link on SlideShare for the whole presentation), my whole-day workshop at HRO on the Metaverse, different columns for Emerce, Reclameweek, Marketingfacts, Energize, ICSB as well as FEM Business ranging from marketing, communications, trends, web 2.0 and the best books for managers on digital media. Furthermore, my Twitter life didn't stop due to its incredible richness and innovativeness (last night was special due to the spontaneous OLPC campaign (One Laptop Per Child) resulting in 17 free laptops for the poorest in our world). Furthermore, I have visited Valencia in Spain (great city, architecture, food and atmosphere outstanding Felipe Science Museum, especially on genetics) and Paris (LeWeb3 event with some fantastic speeches by Nokia (their OVI release is a key milestone on the evolution of the mobile internet relative to Google and Apple), Doc Searls, Joi Ito, Hans Rosling, Jason Calacanis, Friis, Dave Winer, Ragmaswami). Here can see all the videos / presentations from LeWeb3, recommended viewing. On top of that was my 'normal freelance 40-hour work week' at Direct Wonen doing my digital marketing and redesign tricks, so you can probably imagine why there was no time left for me to blog :-)

And now...my top 12 movies of the year 2007:

1. Das Leben der Anderen / The Lives of Others
2. Pan's Labyrinth
3. The Prestige
4. Atonement
5. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
6. Sound of Sand
7. Transe
8. Last King of Scotland
9. Becoming Jane
10. Control
11. Sketches of Frank Gehry
12. Eastern Promises

So what are your favorites of the year ?

The War Tapes : Impressive, Real and User Generated Videos from the Iraq War

Just saw a new video on TED on The War Tapes, a powerful and courageous documentary with user generated videos shot by soldiers themselves during the Iraq-US war. Impressive stuff, especially the emotional degradation illuminated in the trailer as well as the speech itself by Deborah Scranton. Watch for the last 4 minutes.