By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
Scandinavia Visits Tribeca Tonight as Package Deals Series Resumes
The Reeler got a chance Tuesday to catch up with CMJ FilmFest director Deirdre Corley, whose moonlighting gig as curator of the Package Deals film series yields its latest bounty of foreign animation tonight in Tribeca. After launching the series a while back with a pair of Icelandic film programs, Corley and co-conspirator Kelly Shindler are currently set to import a collection of 17 shorts and music videos from Sweden. The “Daydream Nation” program screens at 7:30 p.m. at The Tank (279 Church St.); tickets are $7.
So why Sweden? “When we did Iceland, we found that Scandinavia was really welcoming and they had lots of cool stuff going on,” Corley told me. “There is lots of overlap–a lot of Icelandic artists are in Sweden too. So it was sort of finding out about the Swedish artists in the process of researching it. We found so much cool stuff, and there are so many good bands coming out of there that it was really easy to find music videos that were really great. So it was just sort of a natural progression.”
Among the artists with videos screening tonight are The Knife, Jose Gonzalez and El Perro Del Mar, with short films by Cecilia Lundqvist (Smile), Jonas Odell (Never Like the First Time) and Bjorn Renner (The Horse’s Sanity) rounding out the program. A party follows, sponsored by Svedka Vodka and featuring Malmö-based DJ Anja Degerholm. At least they are consistent. At any rate, after tonight, the program will join its Icelandic cousin on a US tour, and Corley and Shindler are presently working out a North American counterpart to send over to Scandinavia.
“We’re swamped,” Corley said. “We haven’t picked our next yet, but we want to do two or three of these per year.”
Meanwhile, Corley hinted at big FilmFest programming news on the way from CMJ, scheduled this year from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4. I will pass it along as soon as I have it. Presently, though, Sweden beckons.