On August 2009 Cinetrain will get back on tracks from Moscow to Astana, through Russia,
Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. To fill up the train compartment, we need 24 young filmmakers who
would love Central Asia, developing their professional skills, making new professional contacts,
and shooting altogether 8 short documentary films.

The theme of 2009 Cinetrain is “Cultural Neighboring”. 20 years after the disintegration of
the Soviet Union, new identity and cultural questions arise in those new independent republics.
They were once collaborators who were building an ideal together; they now became “just
neighbors”.

The train will stop in 7 cities with very different identities and cultural background: Moscow

(Heart of the “Russian empire”), Samara (Russian provincial city), Orenburg (sang by Alexander
Pushkin), Bukhara (an ancient Muslim town), Tashkent (modern Uzbekistan capital-city), Almaty
(business and cultural center of Kazakhstan), Astana (Kazakhstan capital).

3 COUNTRIES, 7 CITIES, 8000 KM, 25 DAYS, 8 FILMS, 24 TALENTS… WANT TO APPLY?
Before applying for Cinetrain project please read ATTENTIVELY following information:

The 8 short films made during the workshop will compose a full-length documentary which will be
premiered during “Eurasia” film festival in Astana.

Participants must be professional filmmakers or film school alumnies under 30 years old. You can
apply as director, cinematographer, sound director or editor.

Food, accommodation and transportation from Moscow to Astana and back are provided by MiruMir
Studio.

Participants will be required to pay their own travel costs (planes and visas) from their home country
to Moscow and back.

There will also be a participation fee of 150 euros per participant.

The deadline for application is the 25th of April 2009.

Download application form from www.cinetrain.ru

Our friends (Nisi Masa, Moviement) launched a very interesting project indeed. If you are fancy to make a documentary on and about the Russian railways, apply to CineTrain workshop, and cross this enormous country with your camera!

Organising an itinerant cinema event; NISI MASA old-timers have been nurturing this crazy idea ever since the origins of the network. It took the arrival of the Russian association Moviement, for the dream to become reality. Our enthusiastic Moscow-based colleagues intend to bring up-to-date a unique working method, invented by Russian documentary filmmakers in the 1930s. It was called the ‘Cine-Train’.

Film crews, under the guidance of Aleksandr Medvedkin, used to travel through the Soviet Union in specially equipped wagons. Although they were filming the industrial achievements of the regime, the underlying goal was to give the power of speech to people who didn’t normally have the opportunity to get their voices heard.

In 2008, the international workshop will hopefully ensure the legacy of this spirit, but will focus its interest on the notion of borders. “Did we just cross the European border?” 18 young filmmakers will constantly ask themselves along the 9 302 km of the mythic Trans-Siberian railroad track. Where does Europe ‘end’? What concrete expressions or feelings of this border can be found? From Moscow to Vladivostok, NISI MASA and Moviement want to offer the participants (rallied into 6 shooting crews) the possibility to answer these questions in a stimulating atmosphere, supported with professional tutors, far away from clichés and preconceived ideas.

A three-week adventure, this Euro-Asian workshop planned for September 2008 certainly is an ambitious project, supported by the European Cultural Foundation and the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the 6th Vladivostok International Film Festival.

CineTrain is going to be held from 1th September to 21th September.
Application deadline: 31th of March

Preparatory films should be uploaded onto Daazo!

For further infos visit:

http://www.moviement.livejournal.com/

http://www.nisimasa.com