The Kino Notes will keep track of all happenings in the world of the Kino Movement that currently spans four continents, but has been known to reach to a fifth. If you are yet to encounter 'Kino', let me offer you a brief introduction, though do keep in mind Kino is something that cannot be fully explained until you have done it yourself.
Kino is a short filmmakers' movement that sprang up in 1999. The word 'short' here applies to the length of the films that are being produced. It started in Montreal in the Quebec region of Canada and I will relate the origins story as I have been told but is mostly likely a myth - French-speaking Canadian filmmakers banned together in 1999 in fear that the world was going to end as the clock ticked into 2000. With a rising level of dread, the filmmakers decided that they should make short films for every month until the end of the world.
Much to their relief/disappointment, the world did not end but these monthly screenings continued. Not only did they continue but they spread to other parts of the world in the form of individual cells, eaching following the monthly screening format. Cells were across North America, in Europe, Africa and Australia. It has even been reported of a short term cell in Peru, and if the rumoured Kino cell in Istanbul goes ahead, that will mean, depending on which side of the city it is based, a cell in Asia.
The nature of the movement believed in collaboration, providing a space to screen films without worries of pre-selection and competitiveness. Anyone could be a filmmaker and everyone would work together to complete films and get them screened. This is nowhere more ture than during Kino Kabarets.
Kino Kabarets is an annual event done by each cell, in which the host cell brings local filmmakers (and often international guests) together to work to produce content for a screening in forty eight hours. Often with 3-4 consecutive forty-eight hour sessionsn and screenings.
The newest cell, and one of which I am a founder, is Kino London.
If this was a poor introduction, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kino_(movement)
or: http://www.kino00.com
