HALFWAY TO GOEAST - FILM PROGRAMME AND FORUM IN THE FRAME OF THE PETERSBURGER DIALOG

Since its launch in 2001, goEast has been attempting to show the variety of the multifaceted Russian film landscape, and in recent years no small number of premier festival awards have gone to talented young Russian directors and producers. The importance goEast attaches to intensive dialogue and interchange with Russia has been demonstrated by the focal themes of festival standards such as the Symposium section.

To celebrate the halfway point to the next goEast, the Festival is presenting in the Caligari FilmBühne a “New Russian Cinema” series that ties in with the Petersburg Dialogue taking place concurrently. A roundtable dedicated to “German-Russian Coproductions” will meet on 12 October 2007. Organized on the initiative of goEast, the forum plans to prepare the activities of the AG Kultur (“study group for culture”), and provides an opportunity to stock-take the present situation of joint German-Russian productions. What projects were pursued in the past? What projects are coming into being? Where does potential lie for future coproductions, what difficulties are these likely to encounter? Producers, directors, journalists and other representatives of the industry from Germany and Russia have been invited to discuss these questions and further issues. The forum is open to everyone else who is interested in the topics.

With the kind support of the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography in Moscow, the Russian Producers’ Guild, the Fund for Social and Economic Support of Russian Cinematography, the German Federal Film Board, the State of Hessen, the Wintershall Holding AG, Skoda Auto Germany and Spielbank Wiesbaden.