by Noel Vera

I first encountered Lav Diaz’s rather unique sensibility in Joey Gosengfiao and Lily Monteverde’s Good Harvest Film Festival, in 1998. The film was Serafin Geronimo: Kriminal ng Baryo Concepcion, starring Raymond Bagatsing, a minor Filipino-Indian actor (his surname is derived from “Baghat-Singh”) who plays Geronimo as a kind of Raskolnikov figure, haunted by guilt for his part in a kidnapping gone horribly wrong. » read more

Open-air Cinema Isola is constructed during the festival in Izola’s main square by the Dutch professionals of Openlucht Bioscoop. This year’s open-air will host five films of the Harvest section, competing for the audience award and distribution across Slovenian cinemas. Among the selected films are once again those from Iran and Argentina, Tunisia will represent the colours of Northern Africa, Burkina Faso those of black Africa, and for the first time Brazil is joining the circle of visitors to the Island. » read more

Isola Cinema 2006 film festival is drawing nearer and nearer. Between May 26th and May 30th Izola will become a movie island once again. People of Izola will be the first to get the news about (some of) the secrets of the forthcoming festival edition. On Saturday, May 6th at 7 pm, a press conference will be held at Art Kino Odeon in the center of Izola. The conference will focus on the programme and the guests of the 2006 festival edition. And if you decide to come to Izola, you also get a special treat: the very first screening of one of the films from this years programme. » read more