2007. The New Year is here already and in less than 2 weeks the IFFR 2007 will start. The office is buzzing like a beehive and it seems that there is no time to rest. Some people are actually working now 7 days a week and are staying in the office until midnight on a daily basis. They are actually eating breakfast, lunch and dinner here. No time to take it easyJ there is very little time left.

But I will take it easy here. Because there is something I would like to tell you. Every year the IFFR is offering so many films and programs to watch. By talking to my friends I realized that although everybody seems to be happy with the great number of films and with the diversity of the program, many people get pretty confused. When I asked my friends which films they plan on watching this year during the IFFR they had no idea what to tell me. They said that because the final program is only released a few days before the beginning of the festival and the selection of films is so wide, they get a bit stressed from time to time trying to decide what to watch and what to do. They said that they usually just open a newspaper and look for recommendations. Now, I thought that since I work in the film festival I can offer them so much information about which film is worth watching and which venue is worth visiting. And if I can do it for my friends, I can do it for you too.

When I started writing for antenna I already kind of had an idea in mind of what I am going to write about in every article. I planned on telling you more about what is going here, what are the new developments and which problems are we encountering  but instead of telling you all of this I decided to tell you something about the festival itself. I thought that you might be interested in some recommendation from someone that knows about what is happening. So I would like to tell you about something I find very interesting and which most people do not know about.

For 8 days during the festival, a program called Hot Spots will be taking place in the RO Theater. This is a relatively new program (3^rd time only in the IFFR 2007) and therefore it is also relatively unknown by the public. The reason that I chose to mention Hot Spots here is because I think that Hot Spots is offering the public something they can not find anywhere else.  Hot Spots focus every year on 2 special cities. This year the focus will be on Bucharest (Romania) and Tehran (Iran). The thing that makes Hot Spots so special is that it manages to present many artistic aspects in one condense program. And what do I mean by that? The aim of Hot Spots is to present the cities in focus in a different light. Besides feature films, short films and documentaries that are originated from the 2 cities, the program is also offering a variety of other things to enjoy. An average day at Hot Spots consists of films, lectures and musical and visual performances.

For example, on January 27^th the program will consist of a film (The Way I Spent the End of the World, which after watching it I can definitely say that it is one of the better films in the festival!), A lecture about the underground scene in Romania, and at the end of the evening everybody will be able to enjoy a musical performance of deep electronic music combined with electro beats, mixed by YVAT (known from festivals such as Sonar and Transmediale) which will be accompanied by visual arts created by a professional VJ. 

The reason I think Hot Spots is so interesting is because in addition to all the films, it gives the people the chance to enjoy musical performances, visual arts and lectures given by interesting people with interesting stories to tell.

Many people think that the film festival is just about the films. Well, the film festival is definitely all about the films, but not only about the films. It also allows the visitors a chance to experience different cultures and worlds, not only through the screen, but also through music, art, songs, visuals and conversations.

In order to watch the performances and live shows (DJ’s, VJ’s, Singers and bands) all one has to do is present a ticket that was used to watch one of the films in the festival. So if you are already going to watch a film, why wouldn’t you want to enjoy some exciting music and fascinating shows, if you don’t have to pay anything extra for it ?!

So this is why I would recommend everybody to visit Hot Spots. Not because I want to do PR for the festival, but because I truly believe that this program can offer people something that a regular film can not. It offers interaction with the real people. It offers a peek into another world. Combinations of gypsy and electronic music, Rock and Jazz performances with a taste of traditional Iranian music and acid jazz are just a few of the musical genres that will be presented during Hot Spots. Add to all of that the lectures about the Romanian art scene, Bucharest underground scene and graphic design with Iranian influences, and you get a combination of sounds and images that is hard to beat.

Although I will be very busy doing many different things during the festival, I plan on making the time to visit Hot Spots myself. I will always be able to watch the films later, but to see the real people, listen to their words, to their music and enjoy their art. Well… I don’t think I will ever get the chance to do that again.