Venice, 16th July 2008
Three outstanding personalities have been selected for the International Jury for the Corto Cortissimo section of the 65th Venice Film Festival (27 August - 6 September 2008), directed by Marco Müller and organised by La Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta.
The President of the Jury of Corto Cortissimo, the international short film competition curated by Stefano Martina, will be Amos Poe, the cult director of American Indie film (among the founders of the No Wave Cinema movement) and protagonist in Venice last year with Empire II, an experimental underground documentary, inspired by Andy Warhol’s Empire.
The other members of the jury are: Gianni Rondolino, film critic, and author of numerous important studies of the history of cinema, and Joana Vincente, the Portuguese producer of more than 30 films made by some of the most interesting and original directors on the international scene, including Redacted by De Palma (2007), Bubble by Soderbergh (2005), Coffee and Cigarettes by Jim Jarmusch (2003).
The Corto Cortissimo Jury will award three prizes: the Corto Cortissimo Lion for best short film, the Premio UIP Venezia for best European short film and a Special Mention. In the past four years, the winners of the Corto Cortissimo section have been: Signe d’appartenance by Kamel Cherif (2004), Xiaozhan by Lin Chien-ping (2005), Comment on freine dans une descente? by Alix Delaporte (2006), and Dog Altogether by Paddy Considine (2007).
Biographical notes
Amos Poe – President of the Jury – (Tel Aviv, Israel, 1950), director, producer and screenwriter, one of the founders of the No Wave Cinema movement (in parallel with punk music between 1975 and 1985) along with Jim Jarmusch, Eric Mitchell, James Nares, John Lurie, and Richard Kern. He soon embraced B-movies, the avant-garde and the Nouvelle Vague, creating an innovative and vibrant style of cinema. After moving to America in 1968 he was expelled from the University of Ohio and began to produce Super8 films and music videos for various recording studios. Considered the father of American indie cinema, he made his debut in 1975 directing Night Lunch with Ivan Kral. The same year he produced, edited and shot The Blank Generation (1976), regarded as the definitive manifesto of punk film, chronicling the seminal performances of Patti Smith, Blondie, Ramones, Talking Heads, Heartbreakers and many others. His next work, Unmade Beds (1976), which he wrote, produced and directed, was his debut feature-length film, a tribute to the French Nouvelle Vague and Godard’s A bout de souffle (1960).
In 1977, using a $5,000 car loan, Poe wrote, produced and directed The Foreigner (1978), considered one of his most influential works. After five years of black and white, his first foray into color was with Subway Riders (1981), which completed his underground trilogy, a series of bohemian-style films interpreted by artists, musicians and poets from downtown New York. During that period Poe also directed the weekly cult TV show Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party. In 1983-84, Poe co-wrote and directed Alphabet City, his first 35mm film, and directed many music videos (Run DMC, Animotion, Anthrax, Juice Newton, etc.). Subsequently he wrote Rocket Gibraltar (1988) directed by Daniel Petrie and in the late Eighties he worked on several screenplays.
