The ATA Film & Video Festival will receive a grant from the Trust for Mutual Understanding to present the ATA Film and Video Festival at the CINE FANTOM CLUB
in Moscow, participate in the Renowned Discussions that CINE FANTOM
hosts with authors and audiences, and to conduct a professional
exchange through a series of inter-organizational meetings in
partnership with CINE FANTOM.

The Trust for Mutual Understanding is an
American foundation supporting cultural and environmental exchange
between the United States, Russia, and Eastern and Central Europe. This
exchange aims to facilitate the cooperative presentation, appreciation,
and production of Experimental Cinema in Russia and in the United
States.

The screening in Moscow is part of an on-going
exchange between CINE FANTOM and ATA. In June 2007, ATA screened a
program of films from CINE FANTOM, "CINE FANTOM: Experimental Russian Film,"
which included the work of filmmakers Olga Chernysheva, Olga
Stolpovskaya, Dmitriy Troitskiy, Grigoriy Dikkert, Lenka Kabankova,
Igor & Gleb Aleinikov, Alexander Doulerain, and Jamie Bradshaw .
Many Russians living in the Bay Area visited ATA, many for the first
time. They, and others, saw personal and idiosyncratic visions of
Russia that they would have seen and heard nowhere else in the world,
except through CINE FANTOM. The audience was amazed to see artistic
points of view seldom if ever represented in any media, especially in
the US.

CINE FANTOM's mission is to bring film
professionals, artists, and others together to experience, and learn
about the practice and relevance of Experimental Cinema. The name and
the history of the club comes from samizdat, an originally handwritten
magazine by Igor Aleinikov issued by CINE FANTOM since 1985, dedicated
to history and theory of cinema. CINE FANTOM was associated with the
Soviet underground cinema, Parallel Cinema (Parallelnoe Kino), and
became known for its leading role in media openness during Glasnost.
CINE FANTOM believes that discussion is an integral part of the
presentation and enjoyment of Experimental Cinema.

The screening of a selection of short films from
the 2nd ATA Film & Video Festival will take place at CINE FANTOM
Club in the FITIL Movie Theater on June 11th. ATA's 5 primary
participants — filmmakers Sylvia Scheldebauer and Paul Clipson, ATA
Film & Video Festival directors Shae Green and Isabel Fondevila,
and ATA's Programming Director Fara Akrami — will be present and will
also be part of the Renowned Discussions that will follow the
screening. According to CINE FANTOM, "The aim of these weekly sessions
is to help create a new criticism capable of understanding new film
language." A transcript of the discussion will be published online as
well as included in the book CINE FANTOM: Selected Discussions, to be
published in 2008/2009.

The program includes:

Window (Lukas Lukasik); 1,2,3 Solution (Tommy
Becker); Candy Apple (K.Laitala's S.F.A.I. Optical Techniques class);
Echo Park (Paul Clipson); The Apollos (Nick Parker & Jazmin Jones);
I Am The Eggman (Sam Barnett); False Friends (Sylvia Schedelbauer);
Pursuant To The Subsection (Gordon Winiemko); I, A Director (Rachel
Manera); 5 Cents A Peek (Vanessa Woods); To Watch After The White House
Press Briefing, Or With The Apathetic (Mack McFarland); Sissy Boy Slap
Party (Guy Maddin); Phantom Canyon (Stacey Steers); Flight Home
(Tadashi Moriyama); Paradise Drift (Martin Hansen).

During their stay in Moscow, the 5 primary
project participants will also conduct inter-organizational meetings
with CINE FANTOM, members of their affiliate organizations, and
affiliate artists. The meetings will concern the incubation, expansion,
and production of Russian and American experimental film and video. The
results of the project will be evaluated and disseminated in several
ways, including an experimental documentary and experimental film night
about our experience that will be held at ATA in August 2008. In the
spirit of CINE FANTOM, the screening will be followed by a discussion,
and the discussion published online at atasite.org.