8th Russian Anthropological Film Festival and the “Multinational Russia” Forum

Dear film-makers, film-viewers and other participants of the Russian Anthropological Film Festival!

RFAF was organized as biennale and during its 20 years history was comfortable with this rhythm. The attempt to make it annual encountered several yet unsolved financial and organizational problems. That's why the RFAF team has made a reverse decision to keep the previous format of biennale and to hold the next VIII RFAF in the spring of 2013.

All films sent for selection will be considered by the festival committee for participation in the RFAF–2013 program. The dates scheduled in regulations for RFAF–2012 are prolonged for a year. The deadline for submission of the films is 14.01.2013. The date of the announcement of the content of the festival program is March 1, 2013.

We appreciate your understanding.
We look forward to seeing you in 2013 at the VIII RFAF.

Sincerely yours,
Ivan Golovnev, RFAF program-director

Anthropological films are the films about peoples and cultures, religions and rituals, friends and enemies; about the meaning of ‘I’ and ‘we’; about the national character and the cultural heritage. This means in addition to accounts of trips to exotic countries also the anthropology of a street, the anthropology of a metropolis, or the anthropology of power expressed via the language of cinematography. This is the intellectual cinema where the very simple and the most complex themes intertwine in their real-life human intricacy.  This is the cinematographic study of Man in his awareness of himself. The anthropological film is the combination of the magic of cinematographic expression and the scientific knowledge.

· RAFF is the only full scale competitive anthropological film festival in Russia.

· RAFF is an open, i.e. international film festival where film directors from all over the world are represented.

· RAFF is the festival of the young, because it is organized by the Ural Federal University.

· RAFF is a bridge between art and science, as the film festival is accompanied by an academic forum.

· RAFF is a dialogue between cultures and peoples, the forum of interethnic and inter-confessional communication, the festival of beauty and dignity.

· RAFF is an experimental platform for the search of new cinematographic forms, a synthetic language of image-word-sound.

The festival organized by the Ural Federal University and the Ethnographic Bureau with the support of the Institute of History and Archeology of the UrB RAS and the Ural branch of the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation brings together the directors of anthropological films, the television, radio and other mass media professionals, the researchers (anthropologists, ethnographers, historians, philologists, art historians, experts in folklore and cinematography), representatives of ethnic and religious communities, the intellectuals and the undergraduate students around the key formula of the festival-forum: “Art + Science”.

The agenda of the festival-forum covers the presentation and discussion of films with the participation of the authors, the audience award voting, press-clubs at the TV-studios with the participation of film directors, script writers, producers, film critics, journalists and viewers, as well as the organization of open lectures by the renowned researchers and cinematographers, exhibitions and topical discussions.

The program of the festival will include the documentaries (competitive program), fiction and animation (non-competitive program) films on anthropological subjects by both Russian and foreign authors made in 2010-2013.

The decisions on the Festival Awards will be made by a professional jury, the sponsors and the audience of the festival.

The format of the Forum will be slightly changed this time – in the spring of 2013 it will become the forum of projects and not of papers as before.  We invite for participation in the Forum all authors/managers of ethnic projects in the fields of fine arts, media, music, fashion, design, brands, tourism, public initiatives, and politics. A project may be presented at the Forum by a team of project developers/participants.

The deadline for the submission of applications for participation in the anthropological films competition and the research forum is January 14, 2013.

We invite everybody willing to participate in the creative agenda or act as sponsors of the festival to contact us at the RAFF Organizing Committee:

35/а-47, Gagarin Str., Ekaterinburg, 620062

е-mail: ethnobs@mail.ru, web site: www.rfaf.ru

President of RAFF

Member of RAS, Doctor of History, Film Director                             Andrei Golovnev