The Doors Art Foundation is pleased to present the inaugural Croatian Film Festival NYC, a multimedia event which will take place September 13th through September 16th, 2007 at the Museum of the Moving Image and the Tribeca Cinemas. The festival will present 18 Croatian films and will also include a panel discussion on Croatian film with Croatian critic, author and curator Jurica Pavicic and directors Arsen A. Ostojic and Dalibor Matanic. Video exhibit Up Close and Personal, a compilation of video art from The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka, Croatia, selected and introduced by Museum's director Branko Franceschi, will be screened at the Museum of the Moving Image on September 16th. Special appearance by Croatian rock band Svadbas will take place at the Knitting Factory on Thursday, September 13th at 8 pm.

 

The festival opens with director Arsen A. Ostojic introducing his film A Wonderful Night in Split (Ta divna Splitska noc), three intertwined love stories set on a New Year’s Eve within the ancient medieval walls of Split. Other featured films include Ognjen Svilicic’s Armin (Armin), a family drama about a father and son on their way to Zagreb for a film audition and Sorry for Kung Fu (Oprosti za Kung Fu), a low-key comedy about a women who unmarried and pregnant with Asian child returns to Croatia to face her old-fashioned parents; Slow Days (Ajde dan prodi) by Matija Klukovic, an experimental drama featuring a kaleidoscope of characters fantasizing about going abroad and leaving their homeland behind; and Melon Route (Put lubenica), a story about human trafficking inspired by the true story of twelve illegal immigrants who drowned in the river Sava on the border of Croatia and Bosnia. Dalibor Matanic will introduce his film I Love You (Volim te), about a young man who gets infected with AIDS on Saturday, September 16 at the Museum of the Moving Image at 6 pm.

The film festival concludes Sunday, September 16, with Tomislav Radic's What Iva Recorded on October 21, 2003 (Sto je Iva snimila 21.listopada, 2003), a family drama about girl Iva, who gets video camera for her fourteen birthday and starts filming everything around her, followed by Up Close and Personal, a 50-minute compilation of video art from The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Croatia. Closing party of the festival will take place at the Museum of the Moving Image on Sunday, September 16th at 6 pm.

Other films screening as part of the festival include a selection of short films, animated films, and feature documentaries. A complete schedule of films and events is online at www.cffnyc.com.

 

Tickets are available online at www.cffnyc.com  and at www.movingimage.us.

 

The first annual Croatian Film Festival NYC has been possible through the generous support of; The Croatian Ministry of Culture, City of Zagreb, City of Split, City of Rijeka, De Bona Consulting, Face Croatia, PressCut, Cyril and Methodius and St. Raphael's Croatian Catholic Church, STA Zagreb and by media sponsors; The Croatian Radio and Television, Nova TV, Voice of America, Vecernji List, Croatian Chronicle, Net.hr, and Cineaste Magazine.