What would a syllabus for a seminar on nonhuman perspectives in contemporary cinema look like? There are any number of recent documentary and fiction films about animal lives that one could put on there, including Jerzy Skolimowski’s E.O., Andrea Arnold’s Cow, and Elsa Kremer and Levin Peter’s Space Dogs. Of course, all these share the limitation that, though they transgress human/animal boundaries, they’re still at least tenuously tied to reality. Not a single one of them dares to question what it would look like if a group of Bigfoots pissed and shat all over a forest roadway in raging anger and confusion over its mere existence.
Enter David and Nathan Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset, a comedy that takes an unsparing guess at what the brutal, cruel, and short lives of our mythical, hirsute cousins would be like. It opens with a cheeky restaging of...
Enter David and Nathan Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset, a comedy that takes an unsparing guess at what the brutal, cruel, and short lives of our mythical, hirsute cousins would be like. It opens with a cheeky restaging of...
- 2/21/2024
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
The six-month programme kicks off with a workshop in May.
The TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has unveiled the 10 projects at an advanced stage by first or second-time international directors selected for this year’s FeatureLab.
The prestigious six-month programme kicks off with a workshop in May – held online due to the pandemic - and will be followed by second one in September to be held physically in Austria, if possible. The Austrian Film Institute and the Comunidad de Madrid and Ayuntamiento de Madrid are partnering on this iteration of the Lab.
Scroll down for the list of projects
The FeatureLab is led...
The TorinoFilmLab (Tfl) has unveiled the 10 projects at an advanced stage by first or second-time international directors selected for this year’s FeatureLab.
The prestigious six-month programme kicks off with a workshop in May – held online due to the pandemic - and will be followed by second one in September to be held physically in Austria, if possible. The Austrian Film Institute and the Comunidad de Madrid and Ayuntamiento de Madrid are partnering on this iteration of the Lab.
Scroll down for the list of projects
The FeatureLab is led...
- 5/6/2021
- by Gabriele Niola
- ScreenDaily
Cinemas are looking to bounce back from a week of bad news.
France, opening Wednesday September 23
UFO Distribution and Potemkine Films joined forces this week for a rare general release of a medium-length film to launch Gaspar Noé’s 51-minute work Lux Æterna on 47 prints. Co-starring Beatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a director and actress locked in a hellish shoot, the work debuted Out of Competition in Cannes in 2019.
Noé’s cult status at home ensured plenty of press and according to France’s Cbo Box Office the picture came in fifth out of 15 new releases on its first day in cinemas,...
France, opening Wednesday September 23
UFO Distribution and Potemkine Films joined forces this week for a rare general release of a medium-length film to launch Gaspar Noé’s 51-minute work Lux Æterna on 47 prints. Co-starring Beatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a director and actress locked in a hellish shoot, the work debuted Out of Competition in Cannes in 2019.
Noé’s cult status at home ensured plenty of press and according to France’s Cbo Box Office the picture came in fifth out of 15 new releases on its first day in cinemas,...
- 9/25/2020
- by Ben Dalton¬Martin Blaney¬Melanie Goodfellow¬Gabriele Niola
- ScreenDaily
In 1957, Soviet scientists sent an 11-pound mongrel into space. The dog’s name was Laika, and she survived less than seven hours; once the capsule overheated, her lifeless body kept revolving around the Earth, while her spirit, legend has it, returned to the streets of Moscow where she’d been found. Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter’s Space Dogs begins where the legend ends, conjuring an intimate and immersive look at Laika’s successors, the stray dogs roaming the outskirts of Moscow. It singles out two mutts and follows them around the city, the lens just a few inches away from their noses. And yet, even as it narrows the gap between humans and animals to an almost disturbing extent, Space Dogs never threatens to humanize its four-legged heroes. Instead, it chooses to subvert the anthropocentric gaze of so many “animal movies” before it, trailing behind its subjects in a...
- 9/15/2020
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
We all know the story of Laika... don't we? She was the first dog in space. For a long time the story was that she had returned to Earth in good health, and it's curious how many people still believe that. Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter's documentary will disabuse you of that notion straight away. All that returned, it contends, was her ghost - and with it the notion that nothing is as tough and courageous as a Moscow street dog.
Who are these dogs? Much of the film is dedicated to finding out. Where other documentaries have waxed lyrical about Laika's heroism, this one concerns itself with painting a more realistic portrait of the kind of life she would have led before being selected for her groundbreaking mission. It's not easy viewing. In early scenes, the dogs we follow seem much like any others, if a little thinner.
Who are these dogs? Much of the film is dedicated to finding out. Where other documentaries have waxed lyrical about Laika's heroism, this one concerns itself with painting a more realistic portrait of the kind of life she would have led before being selected for her groundbreaking mission. It's not easy viewing. In early scenes, the dogs we follow seem much like any others, if a little thinner.
- 9/13/2020
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Every Dog Will Have Her Day: Kremser & Peter Create a Canine Ghost Story in Moody Doc
One mustn’t love dogs, per se, to enjoy the strangely hypnotic documentary Space Dogs from co-directing duo Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, but it might dictate the film’s power to captivate and transfix. At the same time, one mustn’t need be entirely familiar with the point of entry, which is explained in a haunting omniscient narration the story of Laika, the Moscow born stray dog abandoned to the heavens and gain distinction as the first creature to orbit the Earth courtesy of a Soviet Space mission in 1957.…...
One mustn’t love dogs, per se, to enjoy the strangely hypnotic documentary Space Dogs from co-directing duo Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, but it might dictate the film’s power to captivate and transfix. At the same time, one mustn’t need be entirely familiar with the point of entry, which is explained in a haunting omniscient narration the story of Laika, the Moscow born stray dog abandoned to the heavens and gain distinction as the first creature to orbit the Earth courtesy of a Soviet Space mission in 1957.…...
- 9/10/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Legend has it that when Laika died on November 3, 1957, following a 5-hour journey that turned the dog into the first living creature to orbit the Earth, her spirit returned to Moscow, roaming the streets where Soviet scientists had plucked her. Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter’s entrancing Space Dogs begins where the legend ends, and hangs in that same mystic region all through its hour and a half. It’s an odyssey that keeps seesawing between the terrestrial and the astral, trailing behind a couple of Muscovite mongrels to connect their earthly meanderings with a larger question about the ways in which humans have colonized space, and recruited other species as martyrs in the pursuit.
For Laika and her fellow non-human cosmonauts entered the Space Race under the double guise of lab animals and heroes – and the dialectic serves as Space Dogs’ cornerstone. Competition for the Soviet canine space program was fierce,...
For Laika and her fellow non-human cosmonauts entered the Space Race under the double guise of lab animals and heroes – and the dialectic serves as Space Dogs’ cornerstone. Competition for the Soviet canine space program was fierce,...
- 9/9/2020
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
A film whose take on the early months of the Space Race has surely never occurred to another filmmaker, Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter’s Space Dogs introduces itself as a look at the present-day reincarnations of Laika, the canine astronaut whose life was sacrificed by the Soviet space program in 1957.
Excellently photographed and occasionally helped by a sober, evocative voiceover, the film proves something of a ruse — using its space-faring conceit mostly as an excuse to spend most of an hour and a half following a pack of indifferent street mutts around silently. Dog-lovers are the obvious target ...
Excellently photographed and occasionally helped by a sober, evocative voiceover, the film proves something of a ruse — using its space-faring conceit mostly as an excuse to spend most of an hour and a half following a pack of indifferent street mutts around silently. Dog-lovers are the obvious target ...
A film whose take on the early months of the Space Race has surely never occurred to another filmmaker, Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter’s Space Dogs introduces itself as a look at the present-day reincarnations of Laika, the canine astronaut whose life was sacrificed by the Soviet space program in 1957.
Excellently photographed and occasionally helped by a sober, evocative voiceover, the film proves something of a ruse — using its space-faring conceit mostly as an excuse to spend most of an hour and a half following a pack of indifferent street mutts around silently. Dog-lovers are the obvious target ...
Excellently photographed and occasionally helped by a sober, evocative voiceover, the film proves something of a ruse — using its space-faring conceit mostly as an excuse to spend most of an hour and a half following a pack of indifferent street mutts around silently. Dog-lovers are the obvious target ...
Elsa Kremser & Levin Peter's Space Dogs is is exclusively playing on Mubi in most countries starting September 10, 2020 in Mubi's Undiscovered series.It was a Moscow street dog that was the first living being to orbit the Earth some millions of years after our planet's creation. And it is this absurd moment in human history that moved us from the very beginning. We knew that this narrative had not yet reached its conclusion. What happened when Laika's dead body burnt up on re-entering the Earth's atmosphere?As we watched archive footage of a dog in space looking into the camera for minutes, the central question of the film arose: what do dogs see in us humans? This question finally led us to today's Moscow, where we met Laika's descendants and continued their story through them. During the six months we spent with the dogs on the streets of Moscow, we...
- 9/3/2020
- MUBI
With the title of Space Dogs, I don’t know what possibly else I would need to say to sell you on seeing this movie. However, there is much more to say as Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter’s latest work is not your run-of-mill, dime-a-dozen film about canines in outerspace. Their project is inspired by Laika, a stray dog picked up by the Soviet space program on the streets of Moscow, who became the first living being to orbit the earth when she was launched into space on Sputnik 2.
While Laika (sad spoilers incoming!) did not survive the journey, her memory and legacy is the basis for the journey, imagining if this Moscow street dog had become a ghost.” Featuring a mix of on-the-ground footage in modern Moscow as to replicate a dog’s point of view as well as archival footage of the Soviet space program, the film...
While Laika (sad spoilers incoming!) did not survive the journey, her memory and legacy is the basis for the journey, imagining if this Moscow street dog had become a ghost.” Featuring a mix of on-the-ground footage in modern Moscow as to replicate a dog’s point of view as well as archival footage of the Soviet space program, the film...
- 8/5/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
In 2018, Victor Kossakovsky set out to shoot Aquarela, a survey-symphony that took the Russian documentarian around the world to capture glaciers, waterfalls, frozen lakes, oceans, and storms. Water, art-speak waffle as it may sound, served as Aquarela’s only protagonist: in that hyper-high-definition blue canvas, human faces seldom popped up, and voices were seldom heard, as Kossakovsky’s focus centered squarely on his liquid star alone.
A mystifying follow-up working again to question and depart from an anthropocentric perspective, here comes Gunda, a black-and-white, dialogue-free documentary chronicling a few months in the lives of the animals stranded in a Norwegian farm. Writer-director Kossakovsky and co-scribe Ainara Vera patch together a collage of farm life that hops from one animal to the other: there’s the eponymous Gunda, a sow raising a dozen piglets to which the film dedicates the largest screen time; a few caged chickens gingerly tiptoeing on grass...
A mystifying follow-up working again to question and depart from an anthropocentric perspective, here comes Gunda, a black-and-white, dialogue-free documentary chronicling a few months in the lives of the animals stranded in a Norwegian farm. Writer-director Kossakovsky and co-scribe Ainara Vera patch together a collage of farm life that hops from one animal to the other: there’s the eponymous Gunda, a sow raising a dozen piglets to which the film dedicates the largest screen time; a few caged chickens gingerly tiptoeing on grass...
- 3/3/2020
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Penelope and Dimitris are professional pet cremators. They roam the sprawling periphery of an industrial Greek town, retrieve defunct animals from their owners, burn them, and return their ashes. There’s a sense of urgency to their mission: kala azar, the infectious disease Janis Rafa’s singular debut feature is named after, is decimating hordes of canines all across Southern Europe, and the epidemic is threatening humans, too. But the couple’s pilgrimage also crackles with a certain compassion, an empathy that blurs their distance from the carcasses and complicates their role as undertakers. “You can include some of your pet’s favorite things,” Penelope tells a grieving woman before folding a handkerchief over her dead goldfish, rehearsing new condolences on her way to the next mourner: “We understand this must be a difficult time for you and your family…”
Truth be told, Rafa’s taciturn leads should only be...
Truth be told, Rafa’s taciturn leads should only be...
- 2/2/2020
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
The film by the Austrian filmmaking duo is set to world-premiere in the Filmmakers of the Present Competition at the Locarno Film Festival. Laika, a stray dog, was the first living being to be sent into space, and thus to a certain death. A legend says that she returned to Earth as a ghost and still roams the streets of Moscow. This is the synopsis for Space Dogs, the film by Austrian filmmaking duo Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, set to world-premiere in the Filmmakers of the Present Competition at the 72nd Locarno Film Festival. Produced by Raumzeitfilm Produktion Og and It works! Medien GmbH, the film is sold internationally by Deckert Distribution . Check out our exclusive trailer and clip below: [vid 376233] [vid 376253]...
Celebrating its 72nd edition this year, the Locarno Film Festival has been the birthplace for the finest in international arthouse cinema and this year’s lineup looks to continue the tradition. Ahead of the festival, running August 7-17, the full slate has been announced.
Top highlights include the world premieres of Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela (pictured above), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Ben Rivers & Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Krabi, 2562, Ben Russell’s Color-blind, Denis Côté’s Wilcox, Fabrice Du Welz’s Adoration, as well as a new 12-minute short film from Yorgos Lanthimos titled Nimic and starring Matt Dillon. Other titles that have caught out eye are Echo, from Sparrows director Rúnar Rúnarsson, and A Girl Missing, from Harmonium director Koji Fukada.
The festival will also kick off with some star power as Patrick Vollrath’s 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, will premiere. Check out the lineup below,...
Top highlights include the world premieres of Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela (pictured above), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth, Ben Rivers & Anocha Suwichakornpong’s Krabi, 2562, Ben Russell’s Color-blind, Denis Côté’s Wilcox, Fabrice Du Welz’s Adoration, as well as a new 12-minute short film from Yorgos Lanthimos titled Nimic and starring Matt Dillon. Other titles that have caught out eye are Echo, from Sparrows director Rúnar Rúnarsson, and A Girl Missing, from Harmonium director Koji Fukada.
The festival will also kick off with some star power as Patrick Vollrath’s 7500, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, will premiere. Check out the lineup below,...
- 7/17/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Festival to honour David Bowie, Alan Rickman and Ettore Scola through special screenings; security to be tightened.
Actors Clive Owen, Alba Rohrwacher and Lars Eidinger are to join Meryl Streep in the International Jury of this year’s Berlinale (Feb 11-21) which kicks off next week with the international premiere of the Coen brothers’ Hail Caesar.
The seven-person jury deciding on the Bears, revealed this morning at a press conference in Berlin, also includes the UK film critic Nick James, French photographer Brigitte Lacombe and the Polish film director Malgorzata Szumowska whose last film Body won a Silver Bear for Best Direction at last year’s Berlinale.
Owen is no stranger to Berlin as he was in town and at Studio Babelsberg in 2008 for the shoot of Tom Tykwer’s The International which opened the Berlinale in 2009, while Eidinger is well known to Berlin theatre-goers as part of the Schaubühne ensemble as well as his film and...
Actors Clive Owen, Alba Rohrwacher and Lars Eidinger are to join Meryl Streep in the International Jury of this year’s Berlinale (Feb 11-21) which kicks off next week with the international premiere of the Coen brothers’ Hail Caesar.
The seven-person jury deciding on the Bears, revealed this morning at a press conference in Berlin, also includes the UK film critic Nick James, French photographer Brigitte Lacombe and the Polish film director Malgorzata Szumowska whose last film Body won a Silver Bear for Best Direction at last year’s Berlinale.
Owen is no stranger to Berlin as he was in town and at Studio Babelsberg in 2008 for the shoot of Tom Tykwer’s The International which opened the Berlinale in 2009, while Eidinger is well known to Berlin theatre-goers as part of the Schaubühne ensemble as well as his film and...
- 2/2/2016
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Festival to honour David Bowie, Alan Rickman and Ettore Scola through special screenings; security to be tightened.
Actors Clive Owen, Alba Rohrwacher and Lars Eidinger are to join Meryl Streep in the International Jury of this year’s Berlinale (Feb 11-21) which kicks off next week with the international premiere of the Coen brothers’ Hail Caesar.
The seven-person jury deciding on the Bears, revealed this morning at a press conference in Berlin, also includes the UK film critic Nick James, French photographer Brigitte Lacombe and the Polish film director Malgorzata Szumowska whose last film Body won a Silver Bear for Best Direction at last year’s Berlinale.
Owen is no stranger to Berlin as he was in town and at Studio Babelsberg in 2008 for the shoot of Tom Tykwer’s The International which opened the Berlinale in 2009, while Eidinger is well known to Berlin theatre-goers as part of the Schaubühne ensemble as well as his film and...
Actors Clive Owen, Alba Rohrwacher and Lars Eidinger are to join Meryl Streep in the International Jury of this year’s Berlinale (Feb 11-21) which kicks off next week with the international premiere of the Coen brothers’ Hail Caesar.
The seven-person jury deciding on the Bears, revealed this morning at a press conference in Berlin, also includes the UK film critic Nick James, French photographer Brigitte Lacombe and the Polish film director Malgorzata Szumowska whose last film Body won a Silver Bear for Best Direction at last year’s Berlinale.
Owen is no stranger to Berlin as he was in town and at Studio Babelsberg in 2008 for the shoot of Tom Tykwer’s The International which opened the Berlinale in 2009, while Eidinger is well known to Berlin theatre-goers as part of the Schaubühne ensemble as well as his film and...
- 2/2/2016
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
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