35 documentary films, 7 special programs, and 5 modern venues: from May 25 to June 4 Moscow is hosting the Beat Film Festival, a significant event for fans and connoisseurs of documentary films about music and a new culture. Among others, it will present a film about the radicals of the 21st century, Keith Blanchett in thirteen different images and a documentary on the last years of David Bowie.
If you like thoughtful films that make you think and if you can appreciate works that raise uncomfortable questions and point at comprehensive answers you are most welcome to the Beat Film Festival.
One of the largest film festivals in Russia, it is a large-scale cultural event that introduces viewers to high-profile documentary films about current events in the world of music, contemporary art, media, street culture, sports and new technologies. The mission of the festival is to generate a cultural agenda for the residents of Moscow and beyond it and introduce the public to the documentary film as a new genre of pastime.
Beat Film Festival means dozens of full-length and short-length documentaries as well as tens of thousands viewers every year, film screenings at the central Moscow venues, and joint programs with curators and cultural institutions. In addition to Russian premieres of international documentary festival hits, the Beat Film Festival program holds a national contest aimed at supporting aspiring Russian directors, as well as meet-the-director events, discussions and parties.
The Beat Film Festival was founded by Kirill Sorokin and Alena Bocharova in 2010 and has been held annually in Moscow since then. Traditionally it takes place in late May - early June.
The festival films will be shown in five venues: at the cinema Karo October 11, the Documentary Film Center, the Strelka Institute, the Garage Museum of Modern Art and the Multimedia Art Museum.
The festival will present 7 themed programs. In the block Artist behind the Scenes viewers will see the film "Manifesto" with inimitable Cate Blanchett, who will read the texts of the main artistic manifestos of the 20th century as thirteen different characters, and peep at entertainments of young Arab aristocrats. The Night Animals section will tell about the origins of the Russian rave and the nightlife of Germany, all in an academic format. The Music program will feature Iggy Pop, Michel Welbeck and David Bowie.
The festival will be opened with the documentary All These Sleepless Nights, which shows the night life of Warsaw through the eyes of the carefree 20-year-olds. It hit the headlines of the Sundance Festival.

PROGRAMS AND FILMS

NATIONAL COMPETITION
Paper Stars (2016), director Inna Omelchenko from Russia
Through (2017), director Olga Privolnova from Russia
2 or 3 Things I Know About Rostov-on-Don (2017), director Aleksei Zakhar from Russia
The Observatory (2017), director Aleksandr Hudokon from Russia ARTEMIEV: Interview (2017), director Margarita Zaharova from Russia
I am Gagarin (2017), director Olga Darfy from Russia
TETRAGRAMMATON (2017), director Klim Kozinskyi, co-production of Ukraine, Israel, Russia
Never-ending Conversation. Mamleev (2016), directors Valentina Antonova and Dmitry Mamuliya from Russia.

SETTING
Rem (2016), director Tomas Koolhaas from the USA
Stockholm My Love (2016), director Mark Cousins, Sweden and UK
Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (2016), director Matt Tyrnauer from the USA
 
ARTIST BEHIND THE SCENE
Manifesto (2015), director Julian Rosefeldt, coproduction of Australia and Germany
The Challenge (2017), director Yuri Ancarini, Italy, coproduction of France and Switzerland | 69 min.
Liberation Day (2016), directors Morten Traavik, Ugis Olte, coproduction of Latvia, Norway, Slovenia | 100 min.
Somniloquies (2017), directors Verena Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor from France

NIGHT ANIMALS
IF I THINK OF GERMANY AT NIGHT (2017), director Romuald Karmakar from Germany
Give Me Future: Major Lazer in Cuba (2017), director of Austin Peters, coproduction of the USA and Cuba
Raving Iran (2016), director Susanne Regina Meures from Switzerland
NORTHERN DISCO LIGHTS (2016), director Ben Davis from the UK
I am Gagarin (2017), director Olga Darfy from Russia

TRIPS TO THE COUNTRY
Bird on a Wire (2010), director Tony Palmer from the UK
Liberation Day (2016), directors Morten Traavik and Ugis Olte, coproduction of Latvia, Norway, and Slovenia
Letters from Baghdad (2016), directors Sabine Kraenbühl, Zeva Oelbaum, coproduction of the USA, the UK, and France
Patience: After Sebald (2012), director Grant Gee from the UK
 
IMPLICATIONS OF MEDIA
American Anarchist (2016), directed by Charlie Siskel from the USA
Tickled (2016), directors David Farrier and Dylan Reeve from New Zealand
City of Ghosts (18+) (2017), director Matthew Heineman from the USA
The New Radical (2016), director Adam Bhala Lough, coproduction of the USA, the UK, and France
MUSIC
SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock (2016), director Barnaby Clay, coproduction of the USA, the UK, and France
Hype! (1996), director Doug Pray from the USA
TO STAY ALIVE - A METHOD (2016), director Erik Lieshout from the Netherlands
David Bowi E-The Last Five Years (2017), director Francis Whately, the UK

BRAVE NEW WORLD
Shapeshifters (2017), director Sophie Vukovic from Sweden
Brexitannia (2017), director Timothy George Kelly, coproduction of the UK and Russia
The New Radical (2016), director Adam Bhala Lough, coproduction of the USA, the UK, and France

SPECIAL EVENTS
All These Sleepless Nights (2016), director Michal Marczak, coproduction of Poland and the UK
David Bowie - The Last Five Years (2017), director Francis Whately from the UK
In the Robot Skies (2016), director Liam Young from the UK

Find more information about the films and schedule on the official website of the Beat Film Festival