Ilinca Calugareanu
Directing
Biography
Ilinca Calugareanu a London-based Romanian filmmaker, studied documentary filmmaking at Manchester’s Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology. Her short films have been screened in festivals around the world. Calugareanu’s credits include The Writing on the Wall (2006, Romania) and Endgames (2008, UK). She has also worked as an editor on fiction and documentary shorts and features for the past five years. She has a background in anthropology with a focus on communist and post-communist Romania, which gives her a unique perspective on the story of the VHS phenomenon.
Known For
In late eighties, in Ceausescu's Romania, a black market VHS bootlegger and a courageous female translator brought the magic of Western films to the Romanian people and sowed the seeds of a revolution.
Chuck Norris vs Communism
Counterpart follows Alex, a young estate agent who lives in a flat with his girlfriend, Lily, a former stripper. They spend most of their time sunbathing or having sex. But someone is watching them from a home across the street. The voyeur is a disabled man who helps the young couple make a life changing discovery
Counterpart
16-year-old Yuguo, who has a passion for Eastern European romantic poetry, makes a pilgrimage from his home in China to the foothills of Romania’s Carpathian Mountains.
The Joys and Sorrows of Young Yuguo
In the 1980s, Corey Pegues found himself embroiled in a life of crime as a member of New York’s City’s infamous Supreme Team gang. After an incident forces Pegues away from the streets, he unexpectedly emerges as a rising star in the NYPD, his past unknown to his fellow officers. A decorated 21-year police career is threatened when his political stances and revelations about his former life cause strife within the police community.
A Cops and Robbers Story
A filmmaker starts following the story of a man who is fighting a lone, harrowing battle against a Kafkaesque system that refuses to recognize he is alive. As her camera rolls and days turn into weeks, she becomes dangerously enmeshed in his journey. But the story behind the story is much darker and sadder than she could have imagined.
A Cautionary Tale
A projected image, a video, a glimpse on a small screen, a window to another world or to a better life. Five different parts of the world, five staggering stories of courage and wonder, show us how movies can change us and sometimes, the world.
Celluloid Dreams
Erica is 23. She has a beautiful, neutral face and speaks with a synthesized voice. She has a degree of autonomy – but can’t move her hands yet. Hiroshi Ishiguro is her ‘father’ and the bad boy of Japanese robotics. Together they will redefine what it means to be human and reveal that the future is closer than we might think.