Jay Rosenblatt is this years honors guest at Dok Leipzig and juror for the Next Masters Competition. Since 1980 he has been making films, which he doesn’t want to fit into a genre. He places his films somewhere between documentary and essay. He made some time for us, aside from all his other appointments.
Impression from the cinema:
We are sitting in the Passage cinema. While we slither through the rows, I see two seats at the side which are reserved. I ask myself, if Jay Rosenblatt will be here himself. A Q&A would be nice, I guess there is a lot to say to the films he made. I find my seat and look around. Some guests in front of us, speak in English quietly. Two or three seem to belong to a film class of a Spanish university. He talk excitedly about the films and state that they are huge fans of Jay Rosenblatt and that their next film project should go in the same direction. Indeed, does Jay Rosenblatt enter the cinema and stands next to the festival director Leena Pasanen on stage. Both talk about the Q&A which shall follow. A bit later Jay Rosenblatt then introduces the order and length of his films.
Then the curtain opens in the small cinema and the films begin. Some guests are silent others laugh loud. However, they are always interested and attentive. The screening goes by very quickly and Leena Pasanen and Jay Rosenblatt are on stage again. He himself asks Leena a few questions, the audience anxiously waits until he starts answering questions himself. Even though people leave, they continue discussing the films quietly.