Meetings with makers and artists of the films screened at the International Young Audience Film Festival Ale Kino! are the festival’s tradition. After selected shows, young viewers are welcome to talk to film directors and actors. Many artists from Poland and abroad have confirmed their participation in the festival. The festival will host foreign directors: Hayo Freitag from Germany (The Three Robbers), Francis Leclerc from Canada (A No-Hit No-Run Summer), Ari Kristinsson from Iceland (No Network) and Gun Jacobson (Tales for Tiny Tots), but also Polish artists: Anna Kaszuba-Dębska (10 Felicjanek Str.), Jacek Adamczak (The King of Ravens), Robert Turło (Chaos in Outer Space: Where is the Moon?), Wojtek Wawszczyk (Splinter), Michał Socha (Walking Stick), as well as Zofia Ołdak and Witold Giersz. Moreover, festival visitors will have a chance to meet a lot of young actors. The following actors will come to the shows of their films and after-the-show meetings: Otto Gustavsson, who plays the role of young Nikolas in the Finnish film Christmas Story, Theo Frilet, the lead in the French film School’s out, Piotr Jagiełło, one of the main characters in Somers Town from the UK, Mia Saarinen, the lead in the Swedish Kid Svensk, and Cristina do Lago, the lead in the Brazilian movie Another Love Story.
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On Sunday, 14 December, after the screening of The Three Robbers, (12.00 noon at Multikino 51 cinema) it will be possible to talk to Hayo Freitag, the director of this film. Freitag was born in Wilhelmshaven in 1950. He studied history of art and philosophy in Hamburg. He worked as an illustrator of comic books as well as political and historical texts. Having made his first amateur animation Rauschhaften Erlebnis, he switched to filmmaking. He has written screenplays, produced and arranged a number of animated shorts such as Mein Bruder, which has won a few prizes, including the 1986 German Short Film Award (Deutschen Kurzfilmpreis). The Three Robbers is an amusing animated movie about smart Tiffany, who uses a ruse to sneak into the robbers’ life. With a childish lie, she convinces them that she is an Indian princess worth heaps of precious stones. The second meeting with the director will take place on Monday, 15 December, after the show at 12.30 pm (Multikino 51).
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On Sunday, 14 December, another meeting will be held with a child actor who plays little Nikolas in the film Christmas Story. The film transports you to a village in Lapland, where the main character loses his family in an accident. The villagers decide to take care of the orphaned boy together. At the end of each year, on Christmas Day, Nikolas has to move to a new home. To show his gratitude to the villagers, Nikolas carves toys for the children of the families who took him in. Otto Gustavsson will surely share a lot of film set tidbits with young cinemagoers. The second meeting with the actor will be held on Wednesday, 17 December (after the show at 10.00 am, Multikino 51).
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Another festival guest, the director of No Network, will come from Iceland. Ari Kristinsson is a director, screenwriter, cinematographer and producer. He debuted with the television film Enginn venjulegur drengur (The Football Kid) in 1987. Later he directed, among other pictures, the acclaimed and awarded children’s film Stikkfrí (Count Me Out). The main character of No Network is Kalli, a boy who is brought up by a single mother in the suburbs of Reykjavik. He thrives in the world of imaginary characters. He gets most of his life experiences through movies, television shows and computers. Christmas is coming and he is to spend it at a farm with his father and his new family. Isolated from his usual lifestyle, Kalli decides to run away, in the middle of the severe winter weather. He finds himself lost in a blizzard with no connection on his mobile phone and even has an encounter with a polar bear. The countryside is not only filled with physical reality; it also hosts imaginary and fictional creatures. Kalli will need to face both.
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The meeting with the director of A No-Hit No-Run Summer will definitely be a great attraction. Francis Leclerc, a Canadian film artist, will visit the festival with his teenage son. The film is about baseball dreams of 12-year-old Martin. Leclerc has created and directed numerous music videos, commercial spots and feature television productions. He won two Félix Awards in the Music Video of the Year category in 1996 and 1998. His first feature film, Girl at the Window released in 2001, was presented in the competition at the Montréal International Film Festival. Three years later he directed Mémoires affectives (Looking for Alexander). A No-Hit No-Run Summer is his third feature film. He is also a director of TV series. The meeting will be held on Thursday, 18 December, after the show at 12.30 pm (Multikino 51).
Meetings with film artists:
Polish animation artists:
Ale Kino! for the Youngest Young
Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow. Sixty years of children’s animation in Poland
Platinum Goats
The meetings programme is not closed yet. We will keep you informed about other meetings with the guests of the Ale Kino! Festival.