21/02/2008

The first edition of the OffScreen Festival organised by Cinema Nova is being held from February 21-March 9 in the alternative movie theatre in Brussels and the Film Museum.

During three long weekends, the Nova Cinema will screen offbeat genre films, cult classics, unusual unreleased films and other politically incorrect gems, enabling audiences to discover and try out an alternative form of cinema.

The aim of the non-competitive festival is not to hand out prizes but to introduce viewers to highly original titles, far removed from conventional cinematic fare, and in keeping with the spirit of the movie theatre whose line-up for the most part avoids current box office hits.

Structured around several thematic sections, a selection of avant-premieres, approximately 30 features, documentaries and shorts will give viewers the chance to discover a variety of films inspired by the “freak” movement. These films combine the bizarre, the grotesque and the perverse in a desire to show – without artifice – deformity and disfigurement as a form of “being different”.

The Film Museum will host a retrospective of the work of Tod Browning, including his magnificent Freaks.

Another section entitled “Manimals” will present films that look at the relationship between humans and animals – shocking films at the limits of accepted morality.

Audiences will have a chance to enjoy the first 3D films and a homage to one of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite directors, Jack Hill, a figurehead of the “blackploitation” genre, who will be there to present Foxy Brown and Spider Baby.

Finally, a whole section of the festival will be devoted to films unreleased in Belgium, such as Dolina by Hungarian director Zoltán Kamondi and Mompelaar by Marc Roels & Wim Reygaert, which was in official competition in the shorts section at the recent Berlin Film Festival.

(Translated from French)