ACFNY SUPPORTED | ULRICH SEIDL: SAFARI
The Austrian Cultural Forum is proud to be part of the 2017 edition of the Panorama Europe Film Festival. Now in its 9th year, this year’s festival features seventeen vibrant works—including witty comedies, gritty thrillers, and timely documentaries—representing some of the finest and most riveting films coming out of Europe today. The Festival will be filled with New York premieres, with opening and closing night events featuring special guests in person. This is a great opportunity to discover some of the most exciting new international filmmakers. Screenings will take place at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens and at the Bohemian National Hall in Manhattan.
A highlight of this year’s festival is the NY premiere of SAFARI by Ulrich Seidl, Austria’s master of unsettling provocation, whose films include Import, Export, Dog Days, and The Paradise Trilogy. Seidl returns with one of his most incendiary statements yet: Training his characteristically impassive camera on a group of European hunters on holiday in Namibia, he records, with disquieting detachment, as they stalk and kill zebras, giraffes, and other big game for sport. By turns, disturbing and mesmerizing, this impossible-to-shake (and not-for-the-squeamish) documentary raises serious questions about colonialism’s legacy, the ethics of killing for recreation, and the nature of humans.
The Austrian Cultural Forum New York is a member of EUNIC New York, the founder of Panorama Film Festival.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ulrich Maria Seidl is an Austrian film director, writer and producer. In 2005 he was a member of the jury at the 27th Moscow International Film Festival. His film Dog Days was shot over three years during the hottest days of summer. Among other awards, it won the Grand Jury Prize at Venice in 2001. His 2012 film Paradise: Love competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. The sequel Paradise: Faith won the Special Jury Prize at the 69th Venice International Film Festival. The final part of the trilogy, Paradise: Hope, premiered in competition at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. While Ulrich does not consider himself a documentary filmmaker, several of his films, some set in his home country Austria, are an interesting blend of fiction and non-fiction.
VENUE
Museum of the Moving Image
36-01 35th Ave, Queens, NY 11106