FESTIVAL: Bloc Party; Karlovy Vary Kicks It Back
BY MATTHEW ROSS
Excerpt from indieWIRE: 07.18.02

Standout documentaries included Deborah Dickson's "Ruthie & Connie: Every Room in the House," Lucy Walker's "Devil's Playground" and Christian Frei's "War Photographer." The sidebar section devoted to the work of late Dutch documentarian Johan van der Keuken was fantastic. In addition to his feature-length work, the retrospective also included several of the director's shorts from the early '60s.

By all accounts, the real draw for industry attendees at Karlovy Vary is that the frenzy and social mongering that characterize most major festivals is conspicuously absent here. Along with the lack of major sales activity, Karlovy Vary offers mild weather, unbelievably cheap eats (complete dinners average around $12), and many peculiar, often amusing reminders of the vast expanse of European cultural sensibility.

By far the most obvious example of the cultural divide between East and West is this year's festival theme group, a trio of wise-cracking Czech musicians in shiny brown zoot suits. Along with gracing the cover of the festival program guide, the guys and their peculiar brand of music and Czech humor were on display in trailers that screened before every film in the program. (The spots can be viewed on the web at www.iff.kv.cz.)

"What I love about this festival is that it's really laid back," said festival veteran and filmmaker Deborah Dickson, who made her first trip to Karlovy Vary with sales rep Lynda Hansen to present "Ruthie & Connie: Every Room in the House." The film, which tells the story of two nice married Jewish girls from Brooklyn who fall in love with each other and stay together, has been tearing up the U.S. gay and lesbian festival circuit since its premiere at Berlin earlier this year. "Karlovy Vary epitomizes what many people would consider great about going to certain film festivals. It's a terrific town, and there's enough of a film industry here so that you can connect with your colleagues," she said. "You have time to talk and hang out with people, which you usually don't have time to do at the large festivals that pull in the entire industry. It's got a lot of great films, but not a whole lot of new films. I consider it catch-up time, getting a chance to see films that I didn't catch this year at some of the other major festivals."