20 juillet 2009

Seeking World Film Bloggers Desperately

The majority of film bloggers on the English-speaking blogosphere come from the USA essentially, or the UK, and Europe more generally. This is evident on the maps of tracking counters placed on various English film blogs. Very few visitors are outside Europe and North America (which owns the most part of the worldwide internet bandwidth anyway). I suppose this is particular to the English language of course (though it should be the most popular internationally). The situation in France is even worse, French blogs are only visited by people from France (or Belgium and Switzerland).
But I would like to expand the circle of cinephiles to most places on Earth, in order to communicate with local audience, who watch the foreign films we love in their original language, or even films from our countries. Just to establish a contact worldwide beyond language barriers.

I dream of a blogosphere we could navigate to meet film lovers from any imaginable country, and be able to read their thoughts on cinema, in their own language, or translated (one way or the other). I talked about this project for a long time now (here for example), without being able to discover new blogs out there on my own, so I hope to find some help in a collective effort for everyone interested in this endeavour. All help is welcome if you share this concern to meet foreign film bloggers.

If you are a film lover, a film writer, a film critic, a film student, a film scholar, a filmmaker from non-English speaking nations or if you know someone, if you know places where to find them, if you can read these local languages, please join in on this quest to connect cinephiles around the world and gather around the same table.

The area of interest of your blog should be focused on "art-films" of course (I'm less worried about connecting the fans of Hollywood blockbusters), which means the major festival line-ups, local indie films, documentaries and experimental cinema.

To start, in a first phase -urgent priority - the main countries (either because they host the best contemporary masters or because they have a massive movie-going demographic) should be considered in priority on the radar :
But there are many other under-represented places in the world of cinema, like Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, Egypt, Singapore, Israel, Palestine, Georgia, Armenia, Cuba...

And even in Europe, outside of France and the UK, I would like to know where to find the most passionate film bloggers from the underexposed European countries (on the English blogosphere) : Romania, Ukraine, Czech Rep., Iceland, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, Estonia, Lithuania, Hungary, Switzerland, Greece and to a lesser extant Spain, Italy, Germany...


In a next post (go here), I'll keep updated a list of the links found in every country, by continent. And we'll have 3 categories :
  1. local/foreign blogs in English by local people (for direct international communication), or bloggers speaking English as well
  2. local blogs in local language or non-English foreign languages (requiring proxy translation, which could be worked out eventually with the help of the community or Google Translate)
  3. And if there is no personal contact to be found, a local film journal accessible online would be also precious.
Contact me via email (see my profile) or in the comments below. Volunteers to help coordinate, investigate, scout the web, translate are welcome. Use your own blogs, contacts, Twitter, Facebook... to relay the announcement of this research and spread the word around.

20 commentaires:

Catherine Grant a dit…

Harry, Great idea. I follow the following blog feed which has excellent links:
http://globalvoicesonline.org/-/topics/film/

Adrian Mendizabal a dit…

WOW HARRY! count me in!

nitesh a dit…

Count me in too..

gadjo a dit…

you can count me in too... best,

Doug a dit…

Harry, you'll definitely want to add Argentine Roger Koza's Spanish blog, here:

http://ojosabiertos.wordpress.com

Ahmet Gürata a dit…

Harry, great project. Here is some suggestions from Turkey:

1 Local/foreign blogs in English by local people (for direct international communication), or bloggers speaking English as well:

I guess Ali Arikan posts from Istanbul (Cerebral Mastication):
http://cerebralmastication.blogspot.com/
Gadjo has two excellent blogs:
Kino Eye (English)
http://sinegoz.blogspot.com/
Sinema vs.
http://sinerama.blogspot.com/
My own blog is in Turkish:
http://karsiaci.blogspot.com/

2 Local blogs in local language or non-English foreign languages.
Here is a list of blogs which I visit frequently:
Avrupa Sinemasi (European Cinema)
http:/avrupasinemasi.blogspot.com/
Aydan Izlenimler (Impressions from the Moon)
http://aydanizlenimler.blogspot.com/
CineMuslim (partly English)
http://www.sinemuslim.com/
Eskiden Beri
http://eskidenberi.com/
Filmatine
http://funkster.blogcu.com/
Kafa Ayari
http://www.kafaayari.com/
Pachydermata
http://pachydermata.blogspot.com/
Radyo Bemba
http://radyobemba.blogspot.com/
Sinema Dedigin
http://sinemadedigin.blogspot.com/
Sinema Defteri
http://www.sinemadefteri.com/
Sinema ve Edebiyat Uzerine
http://moroccom.blogspot.com/
Sineofrenik
http://sineofrenik.blogspot.com/
Ters Ninja
http://www.tersninja.com/
Yurttas Kane
http://yurttaskane.azbuz.com/index.jsp

3 For local contacts see also:
Turkish Film Critics Association:
http://www.siyad.org/
Association of Documentary Filmmakers
http://www.bsb.org.tr/english.html
Mithat Alam Film Center
http://www.filmcenter.boun.edu.tr/
Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audio-visual Culture
http://www.tursak.org.tr/main.htm

Anonyme a dit…

Count me in:

Here is Nagarjunan's Tamil blog.

And the English blog of Konangal (Angles) film society...


All the best!

Anonyme a dit…

Reza Tayebi's Farsi blog

HarryTuttle a dit…

Thanks a lot everyone for the help. It lights up some candles in the darkness. We'll see if the rhyzomatic network of the virtual interweb function on the planet cinema.

I've added links to automatic translation in native language by Google online translator. If you can read them, let me know if they look correct. I know for a fact that the French one sounds funny. I might post a French version myself. If you want to translate this post, I'll link to your post.

Marco González Ambriz a dit…

From Mexico you might want to check out the following, which aren't focused exclusively on art films but cover enough documentaries, indie productions and experimental stuff to qualify:

Paxton @ The Movies
http://paxtonmovies.blogspot.com/

Cine Vertigo
http://cinevertigo.blogspot.com/

Cine Azteca
http://cineazteca.blogspot.com/

Cine, por Ahora
http://yo-ahora.blogspot.com/

El Perro Café
http://elperrocafe.com/

Revista Cinefagia (this one I edit)
http://www.revistacinefagia.com

Also, from Peru:
La Tetona de Fellini
http://tetonadefellini.blogspot.com

And from Chile:
Vidas en 35 Milímetros
http://vidaen35mm.blogspot.com/

All of these sites are in Spanish. Being a polyglot, and something of a jerk, I'm going to recommend that you forget about translation and learn new languages instead. Disregard the advice of anyone who tells you that only children are able to learn foreign languages, that it will take years or that you must take classes to do it. Check out these two sites:
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/
and also http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/

Anonyme a dit…

Great idea - here's a link to a Brazilian blog:
http://estranhoencontro.blogspot.com/ - which, in turn will hopefully link onwards and outwards.

Anonyme a dit…

Here are some more Brazilian blogs:

http://amorlouco.wordpress.com/
http://www.canalfofao.blogspot.com/
http://cinemacuspido.blogspot.com/
http://cinepucbrasil.blogspot.com/
http://cinediario.blogspot.com/
http://filmesparadoidos.blogspot.com/
http://www.filmespolvo.com.br/site/
http://filmesquesoeuvi.blogspot.com/
http://www.impressoescinefilas.blogger.com.br/
http://kinocrazy.blogspot.com/
http://www.violaosardinhaepao.blogspot.com/

Middento a dit…

What a great project! I regularly follow a series of Peruvian blogs. In addition to the aforementioned "La tetona de Fellini," here are some Peruvian film blogs, all in Spanish:

- Cinencuentro - http://www.cinencuentro.com/
- La Cinefilia no es patriota - http://lacinefilianoespatriota.blogspot.com/ (Mario is one of the more interesting young critics out there)
- Páginas del diario de Satán - http://paginasdeldiariodesatan.blogspot.com/ (The blog of the establishment guard of critics -- also always interesting)
- También los cinerastas empazaron pequeños - http://cinerastas.com/
- BUTACA en linea - http://butacaenlinea.blogspot.com/

HarryTuttle a dit…

Thanks again everyone for all the new links! The index page is up with all the blogs now (here)

Unknown a dit…

Here comes a new-born local film magazine from TURKEY created by a group of film students in Istanbul:

http://www.filmxxi.com

Unknown a dit…

dear harry,
four more tips from TURKEY:

1. Öteki Sinema (Midnight Movies)http://www.otekisinema.com/ blog in Turkish

2. Sadi Bey http://www.sadibey.com/ blog in Turkish

3. Tersninja http://www.tersninja.com/ blog in Turkish

4. Bağımsız Sinema http://www.bagimsizsinema.com/ blog in Turkish

...and a small research about BULGARIA:

1. BG Filmite
http://bgfilmite.wordpress.com/ blog in Bulgarian

2. BG Movies
http://www.bgmovies.info/ a database on Bulgarian Cinema in Bulgarian & English

3. Cineaste http://cineaste.blogspot.com/ a blog in Bulgarian

4. Cinematografia http://cinematografia.wordpress.com/ a blog in Bulgarian

5. Lucky Number 7 http://moviemasterpieces.blogspot.com/ a blog in Bulgarian

6. Union of Bulgarian Actors
http://www.professionalactors.bg/index.php official website of Proffesional Bulgarian Actors in Bulgarian & English

7. The Movie Blog http://minerva-themovieblog.blogspot.com/ a blog in Bulgarian

8. Bezkraen Praznik http://powx.wordpress.com/ a blog in Bulgarian

9. Sofia Film Fest Otblizo http://sofiaiff.wordpress.com/ a blog about Sofia Film Festival in Bulgarian

10. cinemaXP http://cinemaxp.com/ a blog in Bulgarian

11. Cinema.bg http://www.cinema.bg/ a website about Bulgarian Cinema in Bulgarian

12. Kino http://www.filmmakersbg.org/kino-issue-new-bg.htm a magazine in Bulgarian & English (partly)

best,

Metin Cavus
FilmXXI editor

HarryTuttle a dit…

Thanks a lot for your help Metin.
Some of the links are more mainstream than artfilm, but thanks for posting then, especially for the translations of the titles.

Unknown a dit…

two more blogs from RUSSIA:

1. OkInO http://inoekino.ru/blogs/444444444/ in Russian

2. Na net i kinanet!'s Journal http://kinanet.livejournal.com/ in Russian

Metin Cavus
FilmXXI

Unknown a dit…

dear harry,

i should say that the discussion about art-house cinema in RUSSIA is mostly based in the forums of some websites which i visit from time to time.

here you can find some of them plus links for some institutions:

1. Arthouse http://www.arthouse.ru/ a website about Art-house cinema in Russian

2.Iskustvo Kino http://www.kinoart.ru/ website of magazine Iskustvo Kino (kinoart) in Russian

3. Drugoe Kino http://www.drugoekino.ru/ a website mostly about art-house cinema in Russian

4. Vertov: Portal Rossiyskovo Dokumentalnovo Kino http://www.vertov.ru/ portal of Russian Documentary cinema in Russian

5. Musei Kino http://www.museikino.ru/ official site of Film Museum

6. Sinemateka http://www.cinematheque.ru/ a website mostly about art-house cinema in Russian


best,
Metin

The Celluloid Vision a dit…

Thanks a lot for this opportunity!

I am a sort-of informal film critic and a full-time cinephile. I write on http://thecelluloidvision.blogspot.com/.

Although you wont find art-films reviewed here (due to priorities like blog traffic etc.), I do have a keen interest in them. I understand Hindi and Marathi thoroughly.

I am currently a student of Sociology in India and aspire to do my Masters in Film Studies from the US next year.

Please do count me in..