CONVENTO (film)

DINOSAURS VS ROBOTS!! Dear Earthling, My childhood dream of coexisiting with dinosaurs and robots has finally come true. CONVENTO has been invited to the American Museum of Natural History to be a part of the 35th Margaret Mead Film Festival.  Friday November 11th at 8pm the film will screen at the Linder theatre, followed by an after party in the museum. We will then launch a full attack on the prehistoric giants in the great halls, when Christiaan Zwanikken’s roboskeletal beasts will come alive and take over the museum.  Please join our army, we need you. Here is our FB event page

DINOSAURS VS ROBOTS!!

Dear Earthling,

My childhood dream of coexisiting with dinosaurs and robots has finally come true.

CONVENTO has been invited to the American Museum of Natural History to be a part of the 35th Margaret Mead Film Festival.  Friday November 11th at 8pm the film will screen at the Linder theatre, followed by an after party in the museum.

We will then launch a full attack on the prehistoric giants in the great halls, when Christiaan Zwanikken’s roboskeletal beasts will come alive and take over the museum.  Please join our army, we need you. Here is our FB event page

Friday, November 4th at 6pm CONVENTO will screen at Leeds Town Hall, Leeds UK. CONVENTO is part of the ‘Cinema Versa’ program, a collection of films inspired by “the underground festival aesthetic.. films that push the boundary of the conventional documentatry format” For more information visit Leeds International Film Festival

Friday, November 4th at 6pm CONVENTO will screen at Leeds Town Hall, Leeds UK. CONVENTO is part of the ‘Cinema Versa’ program, a collection of films inspired by “the underground festival aesthetic.. films that push the boundary of the conventional documentatry format”

For more information visit Leeds International Film Festival

CONVENTO REVIEW- Ain’t it cool News

‘CONVENTO’ has been described as Documentary..Art..Cine-Poem.. but Horror??!!!

We are huge fans of Ain’t it Cool News, so its an honor to be reviewed; even if we are sandwiched between “Caesar & Otto’s Summer Camp Nightmare” and “Inbred”.

Check out the review here: CONVENTO Review - Ain’t it Cool News

And ‘CONVENTO’ will be the closing night film at CIFF at the end of the month- if you are in Maine or traveling to the festival here are the details.  

Michael Tully from Hammer to Nail gives Convento, “Pick of the week”, featured in Filmmaker Magazine. Read the full review here The NY Premiere is this Saturday, July 16th 8pm at Rooftop films Purchase Tickets Here For one night only there is a pop-up exhibition of kinetic artist, Christiaan Zwanikken, who flew all the way from Portugal with his robo-beasts.  

Michael Tully from Hammer to Nail gives Convento, “Pick of the week”, featured in

Filmmaker Magazine. Read the full review here

The NY Premiere is this Saturday, July 16th 8pm at Rooftop films Purchase Tickets Here For one night only there is a pop-up exhibition of kinetic artist, Christiaan Zwanikken, who flew all the way from Portugal with his robo-beasts.  

I spoke with Mark Asch from the L Magazine, about the process of making of ‘Convento’. Click on Picture to read article or Click Here Our NY Premiere is this Saturday, July 16th 8pm, at Rooftop Films/ The Old American Can Factory, Brooklyn.  After the film we will have a solo exhibition of Christiaan Zwanikken- a range of psychotronic skeletal parts and reanimated deceased wild life from Portugal. Purchase Tickets Here

I spoke with Mark Asch from the L Magazine, about the process of making of ‘Convento’. Click on Picture to read article or Click Here

Our NY Premiere is this Saturday, July 16th 8pm, at Rooftop Films/ The Old American Can Factory, Brooklyn.  After the film we will have a solo exhibition of Christiaan Zwanikken- a range of psychotronic skeletal parts and reanimated deceased wild life from Portugal. Purchase Tickets Here

Finally a proper interview with cursing and humility (over a few drinks). My interview with The List at EIFF

 Portrait of Dutch artist family and kinetic sculpture

 “The List” June 25th 2011 by Sean Welsh

Jarred Alterman, director of the documentary Convento, takes me round the tie-in exhibition at Teviot Row House, full of the kinetic sculptures by Christiaan Zwanikken that populate Alterman’s dreamlike film. Passing a gang of creepy, animated and ululating palm leaves, we head upstairs to a cyborg hare that shares its perspective on art (a response to Joseph Beuys’ How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare). Elsewhere in the room, Zwanikken is setting up for an improvised musical performance to follow the UK premiere, which Altermann later claims will feature ‘a local snake charmer’ playing the musical saw. Two goat skulls atop an odd contraption butt heads and a small mechanical man wrestles enigmatically with his hands tethered to the sky. It’s all an excellent accompaniment for Alterman’s film, which has proven to be one of the quiet and thoroughly deserved hits of the festival. I spoke with Alterman to try to unravel some of the mysteries of his film.

Read the FULL ARTICLE here

Convento's UK premiere screens to a sold out crowd at Edinburgh International

Tales of the unexpected

Jarred Alterman’s striking film is the story of the Zwanikken family living in a converted monastery in Mertola, Portugal.  Here he talks to EIFF about micro-narratives, Charlie Chaplin and robotic ants.  Alterman’s statement ‘I hate art-speak’ might be surprising given that ‘Convento’ focuses on a family of artists, however this is exactly the appeal of his film and its characters, robotic or otherwise.

Read the full article here

The UK Premiere of ‘Convento’ will take place at the 65th annual Edinburgh International Film Festival in June.  There are two public screenings:  Sunday June 19th 6pm at the Film House and Wednesday June 22nd 8pm at the George Square Theatre.   EIFF  is also bringing out Christiaan Zwanikken and a collection of kinetic sculptures for the duration of the festival.  There will be a public exhibition of his sculptures and a collection of short films by Jarred Alterman.     After the Sunday premiere, there will be an after party at The Caves. Visit the official site of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Event

The UK Premiere of ‘Convento’ will take place at the 65th annual Edinburgh International Film Festival in June.  There are two public screenings:  Sunday June 19th 6pm at the Film House and Wednesday June 22nd 8pm at the George Square Theatre.  

EIFF  is also bringing out Christiaan Zwanikken and a collection of kinetic sculptures for the duration of the festival.  There will be a public exhibition of his sculptures and a collection of short films by Jarred Alterman.     After the Sunday premiere, there will be an after party at The Caves.

Visit the official site of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Event

We are so honored that Maryland Film Festival Director, Eric Hatch, adds CONVENTO to his “insider picks” for upcoming festival this weekend! (and once you see the amazing line up.. you will know why.. amazing weekend of films!) *click on pic

We are so honored that Maryland Film Festival Director, Eric Hatch, adds CONVENTO to his “insider picks” for upcoming festival this weekend! (and once you see the amazing line up.. you will know why.. amazing weekend of films!)

*click on pic

IFC's Matt Singer Reviews CONVENTO at SXSW- read article

Unorthodox subjects demand an equally unorthodox documentary — an “unortho-doc?” — like “Convento,” a quiet and curious film about a quiet and curious family living in a former monastery in Portugal, the Convento Sao Francisco de Mertola. They’re the Zwanikkens: mother and former prima ballerina Geraldine, animal and nature lover Louis, and Christiaan, the “kinetic artist” who spends most of his time designing bizarre sculptures, like the one above, that fuse animal bones and remains with working robotics to create moving (practically living) works of art. In this former house of God, Christiaan gets to play God himself, giving life to these weird little robo-beasts…  (click above link for full article)

Check out PRESS for more reviews!