Magnificent7 There is an Audience…
… indeed there is, at the new venue of Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade at a new time of the year, in June, where it previously was in January/February. The cinema Kombank Hall, before it was Dom Sindikata, totally renovated, has an atmosphere of openness, you feel welcomed, and sitting with around 1000 spectators watching a documentary on a big screen… what else can you ask for being part of a festival that is in its 14 edition and has always attracted the clever Belgrade audience. The image and the sound, no complaints from my side and the reception of festival director Zoran Popovic (Photo), when he goes on stage to introduce the film and the director/filmmaker present is second to none. The audience adores him!
There are still two of the seven films to be screened: Scott Barley’s “Sleep Has Her House” and Virpi Suutari’s “Entrepreneur”. Barley is here as is Sanna Salmenkallio, the composer of the Finnish film. Two extraordinary films to be enjoyed by the Belgrade audience inside – outside the cinema the temperature has luckily dropped from the 32 degrees yesterday.
More reports will follow but let me give you a quote brought to Belgrade by Georgian Stefan Tolz, artist Andy Goldsworthy about filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer: “Why are Thomas’ films so special?”, “I think it’s the fact that he does very little directing or asking me to anything in particular. He’s a hunter like I am. He’s always waiting for opportunities to occur”.
