Czechoslovak New Wave

The Czechoslovak New Wave (also Czech New Wave) is a term used for the 1960s films of Czech directors Miloš Forman, František Vláčil, Věra Chytilová, Ivan Passer, Pavel Juráček, Jaroslav Papoušek, Jiří Menzel, Jan Němec, Jaromil Jireš, Vojtěch Jasný, Evald Schorm and Slovak directors Dušan Hanák, Juraj Herz, Juraj Jakubisko, Štefan Uher, Ján Kadár, Elo Havetta and others. The quality and openness of the films led the genre to be called the Czechoslovak film miracle.

Overview

The Czechoslovak New Wave was an artistic movement in cinema which evolved out of the earlier Devětsil movement of the thirties. Disgruntled with the communist regime that had taken over in Czechoslovakia in 1948, students of the Film and TV School of The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (also known as FAMU) became the dissenters of their time. Their objective in making films was "to make the Czech people collectively aware that they were participants in a system of oppression and incompetence which had brutalized them all."

New wave music

New wave music is a musical genre of pop/rock created in the late 1970s to mid-1980s with ties to 1970s punk rock. The wide range of bands categorized under this term has been a source of much confusion and controversy. The new wave sound of the late 1970s moved away from the smooth blues and rock & roll sounds to create music with a twitchy, agitated feel, choppy rhythm guitars and fast tempos. Initially—as with the later post-punk—new wave was broadly analogous to punk rock before branching as a distinctly identified genre, incorporating electronic/experimental music, mod, disco and pop. It subsequently engendered subgenres and fusions, including synthpop, college rock and gothic rock.

New wave differs from other movements with ties to first-wave punk as it displays characteristics common to pop music, rather than the more "arty" post-punk, though it incorporates much of the original punk rock sound and ethos while arguably exhibiting greater complexity in both music and lyrics. Common characteristics of new wave music, aside from its punk influences, include the use of synthesizers and electronic productions, the importance of styling and the arts, as well as a great amount of diversity.

New Wave 2012

11th International contest of young performers «New wave» which was held from 24 to 29 July 2012 in the concert hall Dzintari in Jūrmala, Latvia.

Participants

Day 1–25 July

Day 2–26 July

Day 3–28 July

Results

Presenters

The contest program

New Generation (Malayalam film movement)

New generation films (2010–present) is a Malayalam film movement developed in the early 2010s, characterized by fresh and unusual themes and new narrative techniques. Films of the new wave differ from conventional themes of the past two decades (1990s and 2000s) and introduced several new trends to the Malayalam industry. While the new generation formats and styles are deeply influenced by global and Indian trends, their thematics are firmly rooted in Malayalee life and mindscapes.

The new generation also helped to revive the Malayalam film industry in the early 2010s. New generation film producers like Listin Stephen who produced Traffic, Sadanandan Rangorath who produced Salt N' Pepper, Sandra Thomas who produced Friday are the producers who believed in this concept and took the initiative to make this movement in the industry.

Characteristics of films

Erosion of the so-called "superstar" system in popular Malayalam films coincided with rise of the new wave where screenplay got rooted-to-reality, closer-to-life and lead characters became ordinary men and women. Influx of new actors, the absence of superstars, rise of metro-centric/urban and middle-class themes and different story-lines were also noted in the wave. While formats and styles of the new directors are deeply influenced by the global and Indian trends, their thematics were firmly rooted in Malayali life and mind-scape. A recurrent trope in these new narratives is accidents, coincidences, casual encounters and chance meetings that set in motion an unexpected chain of events affecting the lives of the characters drifting in the urban flotsam. The frequent use of Malayalam influenced by English is also noted in the films.