Short is sweet for Gearr, Cork's newest film festival
Peter Zemek and Ayşegül Yüzel of Gearr Short Film Festival in Cork.
When Peter Zemek, director of the inaugural Gearr Short Film Festival, came to Cork 19 years ago at the suggestion of a friend who said there were great opportunities in the city (this was just before the financial crash), his plan was to stay for a few months. But the Slovakian cinephile has been here ever since and with his Slovakian wife (whom he met in Cork), has recently bought a house in Macroom.
Zemek studied law in Slovakia and has a diploma in art history from UCC. Before he completed his law degree, he spent time in New York, working in construction and cleaning houses (including the apartment of musician Lenny Kravitz). He also worked in Florida in a cinema, among other jobs. Always interested in film, Zemek says he never expected to work “in culture” until that became possible in Cork.
Initially, Zemek missed what he was used to in Bratislava. “We had cine clubs at secondary school with cheap tickets for all the movies. I went to see films by the Polish director Krzysztof Kieszlowski who isn’t as famous as he should be. I discovered the films of Ingmar Bergman and Jim Jarmusch. This was all new to me. It was very different from what we’d normally see in the cinema where it was Jurassic Park and all the mainstream films. I discovered the French new wave and Czech new wave. It was a passion.”
Zemek got a job at Camden Palace Arts Centre (now the Moxy Hotel) when he gave the centre a proposal to run a cinema club called Deja Vu. “I screened old films and a lot of films from my own country. Audiences responded positively. I created an Eastern European festival called Visegrad Film Festival showing films from Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. When I was asked to join Indie Cork [the now defunct independent film festival], it absorbed the Visegrad Film Festival, becoming a small element of Indie Cork where I worked for ten years. I was disappointed when that festival ended and it is one of the reasons why I decided to start Gearr.”
But with the Cork International Film Festival taking place in November, just weeks after Zemek’s festival, is there really a need for another festival? “I think there is a need for a space for young filmmakers to present their films. In many of the film festivals in Ireland, they do features. There is a space for short films. I really like the short film so I thought it would be a shame not to continue the space Indie Cork provided. Also, we’re bringing international shorts to the festival. I know that the Cork International Film Festival, which is very good, also does shorts. But in many cities around the world where there is a big film festival, there is also a festival for shorts.”
Blacknight Solutions is the main sponsor of Gearr Short Film Festival, which used to support Indie Cork. The screenings are at the Arc Cinema.
Zemek, whose day job is as front office manager at the Imperial Hotel, notes that Cork is a “very vibrant” city for films.
“We have two programmes for Made in Cork films, showing twenty-one films between the two. The quality is at a very high level. Even before I joined festivals, I always found that Irish shorts are very strong. There are people with ideas to make Cork more of a film hub."
In all, Zemek and the festival producer, Aysegul Yuzel (a Cork-based Turkish producer) received 200 submissions, including international short films, which were whittled down. In all, there will be thirteen screenings. One of the films, described by Zemek as very strong, was made by a fourteen-year old. “The films are by a cross section of all ages from different regions.
“We have secured a really interesting workshop that is European Union-funded and will be coming to Cork as a free workshop for young aspiring filmmakers. It’s called Kino Workshop. Also, a London-based filmmaker, Maeve Murphy, is doing a master class called Geography of Violence. She has done a trilogy of shorts about sexual violence.”
Zemek is very happy living in Cork whose small size he likes. “I don’t want to bash my own country but after the change from communism to capitalism, there is a lot of materialism in that society. Everyone is talking about what car they have. Here, it’s more about meeting friends and family. I fell in love with the culture here – and I never left.”
- Gearr Short Film Festival is at the Arc from October 8-11. See www.gearrshortfilmfestival.com
