Editor

— Kinofest NYC is pleased to announce the dates of its 2011 film festival, which will take place in New York City from Wednesday, March 16th to Sunday, March 20th, 2011. This is the second annual Kinofest NYC festival. It has grown this year from one to two locations and expanded the number of screening sessions from six to twelve. The screening venues are two East Village landmarks: The Ukrainian Museum, which is sponsoring eight of the film screenings, and the Millennium Film Workshop.

2011 Program Highlights

Georg Misch's I am From Nowhere, a documentary about the village of Mikova, Slovakia, the ancestral home of the family of Andy Warhol. The film investigates the fuss the media has made of Warhol’s relatives who still live there, on media fame, and on Warhol’s legendary '15 minutes of fame. '

Pavla Fleischer's The Pied Piper of Hutzovina, details a road trip made through Ukraine by the filmmaker and Eugene Hutz, the lead singer of New York's gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello. The filmmaker's aim is to rediscover a forgotten romance; Hutz's purpose is to rediscover his gypsy roots. The result is a story of two people traveling together on two very different courses.

Jaak Kilmi's Disco and Atomic War is a tongue-in-cheek documentary about growing up in the Estonian capital of Tallinn during the waning days of the Cold War. The filmmaker comically recounts how Estonians had discovered the American series Dallas via television transmissions from Helsinki, and how the Communist leadership haplessly attempted to 'protect' their citizens from the corrupting influence of televised capitalist decadence.

Klaudia Kovacs' Torn From the Flag, a historical documentary-thriller about the international decline of communism and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, composed of both archival footage and interviews conducted in the US, Hungary, Russia and Italy.

Dziga Vertov's Man With the Movie Camera, the groundbreaking Soviet classic, completed in 1929 at VUFKU, the All-Ukrainian Photo-Cinema-Directorate. This film will be presented by Dr. Yuri Shevchuk of Columbia University, who will discuss its significance within the context of a Ukrainian filmmaking narrative.

A series of film shorts, including Murat Mamedov's Adam and Eve, describing the hardships of living as a coal miner in eastern Ukraine, Maxym Vasyanovych's Mom Died On Saturday in the Kitchen, a personal story of love and loss, and Tatiana Korol's Akbulak, a story of immigration and return, set in Kazakhstan

For complete program listings by venue, please refer to the KinofestNYC.com website.

Kinofest NYC is New York's only film festival showcasing emerging Ukrainian and post-Soviet cinema. The inaugural Kinofest NYC film festival, which as an unqualified success, took place in early 2010 at The Ukrainian Museum. Films representing Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Georgia and the USA were shown over six screening sessions. The event attracted sizable audiences and brought together a variety of guest presenters, films and enthusiasts.

"This year we have expanded the festival to two screening locations – The Ukrainian Museum and the Millenium Film Workshop – both of which are established East Village cultural institutions and the perfect outlets for our selection of films," said festival director Andrew Kotliar. "With a larger and increasingly experienced organizing team, we were able to widen our scope and increase our offerings."

Program director Damian Kolodiy has finalized the festival program and is excited about the growth in the festival’s presentations. "We've got a good mix of films, short documentaries and narratives, some really innovative and creative work that has never been seen in the United States before," said Kolodiy.

Hanya Krill, the Museum’s film program director, feels strongly that the festival as a forum for presenting the cinematic arts plays an essential role in meeting the Museum’s mission. Although the Museum has screened films on occasion in the past, “instituting the film program in 2008 was a signal that film is an art form that deserves special attention,” said Ms. Krill. The Kinofest NYC film festival, which is a magnet for new and inspired films from Ukraine and beyond, “dovetails perfectly with the Museum’s presentation of film within the context of Ukrainian culture.”

Festival Sponsors
Kinofest NYC sponsors provide essential financial and material support, and their involvement is crucial to helping the festival fulfill its mission. This year's festival is being produced in part with the cooperation of The Ukrainian Museum in New York under the auspices of its film program. (The Museum’s film program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council). Major sponsors of the festival include Self Reliance (NY) Federal Credit Union and Veselka restaurant. Media sponsors include Russian Film Week, Nova Hazeta, Open Night Film Festival (Ukraine), CinemaHall (Ukraine) and others.

About the Festival
Founded in 2009, Kinofest NYC is a festival committed to celebrating the art of independent cinema. Kinofest NYC seeks to educate and entertain its participants and to provide opportunities for its public to watch independent film from Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries. The festival also serves as a forum to introduce new filmmakers from these countries to American audiences and industry professionals. All films are in English or their original language with English subtitles.