March-April 2009:

Screening of both Potosi, the Journey and Fragments – Jerusalem in China:

• in Kunming, Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival (Yunfest), 20-27 March 2009
• in Guangzhou, Screen-out Film Exhibition and Sun Yat-sen University, 28-31 March
• in Beijing, CIFA (Chinese Independent Film Archive) Film Festival, Iberia Center for Contemporary Art and Beijing Film Academy, 1-6 April 2009

May 2008

Potosi, the Journey was released in art cinema halls in Poland

January 2008

Potosi, the Journey was broadcasted on ARTE (France and Germany).
Film 1 on Sunday, 20 January 2008, around midnight
Film 2 on Sunday, 27 January 2008, around midnight

November 2007

An original Spanish version of the film has been completed on Digital BETA, under the patronage of the Casa Sefarad-Israel, Madrid, Spain. The narration is in Spanish (with Ron Havilio's voice) and the Hebrew dialogue is subtitled in Spanish. The Spanish title of the film is: Potosi, el tiempo del viaje.

10 October 2007

Potosi, the Journey won the Runner-up Prize in the international competition of the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan. The main screening of the film was in a filled up auditorium of 500 seats.

Jury members: Hasumi Shigehiko (President, Japan), Pedro Costa (Portugal), Alanis Obomsawin (Canada), Kidlat Tahimik (the Philippines), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand)

Jury comments:

This film not only reveals complex family dynamics but also reframes the responsibility of documentarists toward their subjects. The process of preserving memory in images becomes a process of preserving the family.

The prize is in fact the third prize. The Grand Prize went to the Chinese film of Wang Bing, "Fengming a Chinese Memoir". The Mayor's Prize was given to a Portuguese film "Encouters" by the French filmmaker Pierre-Marie Goulet. There were 2 more prizes in the international competition which were given to an Argentinian film called "M" and to a film by Naomi Kawase.

29 July 2007

Potosi the Journey won the Grand Prix in the Era New Horizons International Film Festival, Wroclaw, Poland. 18 films were included in the international competition, most of them fiction films, carefully selected among the last year and half world production. Included were films by Naomi Kawase, Tsai Ming-liang, Ulrich Seidl, Bahman Ghobadi, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Roy Andersson, Carlos Reygadas, etc...

The public (about 600 spectators in 3 screenings) gave the highest rate to Potosi, the Journey - an average of 4.95 on a scale of 6 - followed by the Iranian film Half Moon with an average of 4.68. I was astonished to find so many young people queuing for the film, with a commitment to sit and watch a 4 hour work. Although the public belonged mainly to the young Polish elite (students and liberal professions), I believe it says something on the dynamism of Poland today.

The reward for the prize is a distribution of the film in Poland. A 35 mm print will be made with Polish subtitles.

The strong support to the film from the festival staff explains in part this non-conventional choice of the public. Roman Gutek, the festival Director, wrote a strong recommendation to go and watch the film, and the young public followed:

"This film is a very personal account of a journey across South America, during which the director and his wife visit places, which they photographed 30 years ago. It is not only a road movie, but also a journey in time - to the time of their youth and their youthful emotions and dreams. It's a very wise and deep film. I didn't feel that it was four hours long and once it finished I didn't feel like watching any feature films, which, in comparison with this film seemed meaningless."

4 April 2007

Potosi, the Journey won the Humanitarian Award for Outstanding Documentary, in the main international competition, Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Jury members: Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing, Wong Ain-ling, research officer of the Hong Kong Film Archive, and Japanese producer and director of the Tokyo FilMex, Ichiyama Shozo.

Jury comments:

"Potosi, the Journey" is a poetic film. From the black and white still images of 1970 to the colour filmic documentation of 1999, the filmmaker is not only writing his personal diary with his camera-stylo, but above all filming the silent passage of time while trying to understand the Andes history from the point of view of an honest and modest intellectual."

February 2007

World premiere screening of Potosi, the Journey in the Berlin International Film Festival, International Forum for New Cinema.

Festivals

• Jerusalem International Film Festival, July 2006 - work in progress (Film 1 only)



• Berlin Film Festival, International Forum for New Cinema. World premiere screening, February 2007



• Hong Kong International Film Festival, March 2007. Humanitarian Award for Outstanding Documentary, in the main international competition.



• Jeon-Ju International Film Festival, Korea. April 2007



• Cines del Sur, Festival de Granada, Spain. June 2007



• La Rochelle International Film Festival, France. June-July 2007



• Festival Paris Cinema, France. July 2007



• Era New Horizons International Film Festival, Wroclaw, Poland. Grand Prix. in the international competition, July 2007



• Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Japan. Runner-up Prize in the International competition, October 2007



• Flanders International Film Festival, Ghent, Belgium. October 2007



• Sao Paulo International Film Festival, Brazil. October 2007



• Rencontres internationales du documentaire, Montreal, Canada. November 2007



• Kerala International Film Festival, Thiruvananthapuram, India. 7-14 December 2007



• Jakarta Film Festival Dokumenter, Indonesia. 10-14 December 2007



• Prague International Film Festival (Febiofest), Czech Republic 27 March - 4 April 2008
  Screening of both Potosi, the Journey and Fragments - Jerusalem



• Taipei Film Festival, Taiwan, 20 June - 6 July 2008
  Screening of both Potosi, the Journey and Fragments - Jerusalem
  And an exhibition of photographs taken by Ron Havilio in 1968-1974



• Bogota Documentary Film Festival, Colombia, 1-9 October 2008



• South Taiwan Film Festival, November 2008