The second festival of Kazakh cinema and culture in Hollywood will be held on 1-7 July at the Directors Guild of America.

Kazakhstan’s cinematic boom tells on the increasing number of film festivals. The most ambitious of these was the first festival of Kazakh films in Hollywood – “Kazakhstan: kaleidoscope of movies” held last June. Now, its organizers have announced a selection of films for the 2012program.

The idea of showcasing the best of Kazakh art in Los Angeles belongs to a producer and actress Gauhar Nurtas. She has been working in Hollywood for nearly 10 years as a partner of Helix Films. This year special attention will be paid to new Kazakh films. The festival organizers have developed a simplified procedure for submitting films to selection. The page of Kazakh Film Festival (http://www.facebook.com/KazakhFilmFestival) is open for everyone and gives all the necessary information. Film authors do not need to send expensive parcels to the U.S.; it is enough to hand copies of films to the festival’s representative in Almaty before March 31, 2012. There are no genre limitations, invited are not only full-length feature films, short films but also, animation and documentary films. There are only two conditions: a film must be produced in the last 5 years and have English subtitles, or be dubbed in English.

According to Gauhar Nurtas, this year’s festival program is in the works, but it was decided to consist of seven movie nights.

- We decided to go beyond showing movies, - she says. - To give guests of the festival a better idea of Kazakhstan, we are planning to involve musicians and artists. The Kazakhs, who lived for centuries on the Silk Road, at the crossroads of cultures and religions, have unique identity and invaluable experience of tolerance. We are witnessing the revival of the Silk Road both in the literal sense – under construction are railroads, a highway Western Europe - Western China, and figuratively - Kazakhstan hosts major international summits, forums of world and traditional religions and festivals. Kazakhstan is again at the main crossroads of civilizations. So, we can say that our festival “Kazakhstan: kaleidoscope of movies” is a new branch of the Silk Road that has reached Hollywood.

Galia Shimyrbayeva