April 7-10, 2022 Budapest
For the first time ever, Budapest Ritmo will feature a line of music films, many of them produced and shot especially for the festival! Premieres of unique cooperations between Hungarian directors and bands, music documentaries and music and film related roundtable discussions await the festival’s visitors.
Last year as Budapest Ritmo went online we strived to offer something more to the audience. We grew tired of stream concerts, we wanted to create something that will stay relevant after the pandemic. That’s why we connected Hungarian bands and directors who cooperated on breathtaking, artistic music films.
As the music films were a huge success with the audience, we decided to continue down this road. In 2022 Budapest Ritmo published an open call for creative film concepts. Over 30 world and folk music bands applied together with film crews. The best two treatments were selected by a jury board: internationally renowned folk-ambient star Deva and the fresh folk formation, Uljana Quartet won.
The 2021 music films (Mordái, Dresch String Quartet, Odd ID, Károly Cserepes) and the new 2022 films (Deva, Uljana Quartet) will premiere for the first time at Budapest Ritmo. Music documentaries and a music film themed conference session will also be part of the festival.
In 2022 Budapest Ritmo and Bartók Spring published an open call for music films for Hungarian folk- and world musicians. The jury was looking for artistic concepts that look beyond the world of music videos and soundtracks, and instead create a universe where music and cinema are equal. Deva with director Marcell Bajor and Uljana Quartet with director Anna Kormos were selected. Their music films will premiere at Budapest Ritmo on Apr 10, 2022.
For a moment during the early months of the pandemic we were all thrilled to pick from lockdown concerts. Our enthusiasm broke quickly. At-home concerts were often recorded on crowdless stages, making us feel even more isolated. For the online edition of Budapest Ritmo ‘21 we produced music films instead – complex musical and cinematic artworks by Hungarian musicians and directors that would stay relevant long after the lockdown has ended.
Music is by nature indescribable. Writing about music is nearly impossible, listening to a record is somewhat better, watching musicians on film is as close to reality as it gets. Music documentaries take on the hard task to guide the viewer to lesser known corners of the musical world, be it the sounds of Lisbon streets or the grassroots Hungarian folk revival.
