Pururambo wins in Montreal
Pururambo
photo: K2
SLOVAK filmmaker Pavol Barbáš' documentary Pururambo won in the ADVENTURA - Man and Environment category at the fifth annual International Festival of Adventure Film in Montreal, Canada, held between October 26 and 28.
The festival featured recent works by professional and amateur filmmakers. Pururambo was recognised by an international, five-member jury. It is the 15th award the film has garnered.
Pururambo details an expedition by Czech traveller Rudo Svaříček to Papua New Guinea, where he visited tribes living high in the trees, in primitive conditions that have changed little since the Stone Age. The tribes had not yet come in contact with white people or any aspect of modern civilisation. The journey presented some danger, as, according to missionaries, the tribes practice cannibalism.
The festival's categories included mountaineering, water sports, the environment, cycling, speleology, the animal kingdom and extreme sports.
Vilikovský won Anasoft Litera Award
Pavel Vilikovský.
photo: Sme - Cibulková
MAGIC Parrot and Other Hack-Works earned author Pavel Vilikovský the Anasoft Litera Award for best work of fiction of 2005 during the Ars Litera festival on November 9. Along with the prize, the writer received a check for Sk200,000.
This was the Litera Award's debut year. It is the largest in Slovakia for works of fiction.
The jury short-listed ten books in the first round, including some by Balla, Jaroslava Blažková, Etela Farkašová, Karol Horváth, Ján Johanides, Daniela Kapitáňová, Márius Kopcsay, Dušan Mitana and Milan Zelinka.
Katarína Kucbelová, who heads the Ars Litera project, told the SITA news wire that the jury chose Vilikovský's collection of short stories for its taut writing style and innovative use of language. The fact that Vilikovský approached his theme with courage played a certain role in the decision as well.
Tennis player Kučera records debut album
Former tennis player Karol Kučera has exchanged his racket for a guitar and microphone. As of September, he has been working with his band Exit 40 on producing his debut album, I'll protect you from a bad day, which will contain 12 songs.
Working on his first CD gives him great pleasure. "It will be a piece of good music and I will be pleased if people listen to it," Kučera told the TASR news wire. The songs lyrics are diverse. "I tried to write positive lyrics, with a good influence on people, that beam positive energy," the former tennis player said.
Flamenco to heat up Bratislava
Flamenco is rooted in traditional Spanish romance and visual art.
photo: Flamenco Festival
FLAMENCO, the hot-blooded dance style from Spain's Andalusia region, will be the main feature of the 8th Flamenco Festival between November 21 and 25. Other, less traditional forms of the dance will also be shown, such as flamenco mixed with jazz, Irish step dancing or Latin American music.
Guitarists Martin Kellner, Morenito de Triana and Vlado Ondrejčák will open the festival in the Austrian Culture Forum at Ventúrska 10 on November 21 at 19:00.
Over the next two days, jazz-flamenco formation Remedios and actors Stano Dančiak, Ivan Vojtek and Miro Noga will narrate the story of Don Quixote in a new flamenco musical in Teatro Wüstenrot at the Dom Odborov, Trnavské mýto 1. On November 24, the Slovak and Czech Flamenco Scene concert taking place in Teatro Wüstenrot will feature Flamenquitos, Remedios, the Flamenco clan and Lucia Čellárová from Slovakia and La Chiri, Petr Vít and El Aire nuevo from the the Czech Republic. On the festival's final day, a gala concert will be held in the Dom Odborov featuring That Way - a fusion of Irish step dance, starring the Semilla group, with dancers Elena Martin and Pilar Ortega, a rising flamenco star from Seville.
For dance lovers, the organizers have also prepared workshops. For more information, visit www.flamenco.sk.
By Jana Liptáková
