IndieLisboa’10: Day 1

By Robert Koehler

Here’s your first sighting outside the IndieLisboa (International Independent Film Festival) headquarters at Lisbon’s vast cultural center, Culturgest. The festival’s poster design this year plays on the same Ben Day dots style which Roy Lichtenstein imported into his form of Pop Art nearly 50 years ago. This style plays through in the festival’s overall graphics system, which really is the first thing that hits a viewer at any film festival–perhaps even more than the program lineup itself.

Turning left from the poster banner in the previous image is this northern view up Culturgest headquarter for IndieLisboa. Note another aspect of a festival’s graphic system: Pole banners, featuring this festival’s chosen animal mascot. Berlin had its bear, Locarno has its leopard and Rotterdam has its tiger–and Lisbon has its crow.

Staff is busy preparing for opening night in the spacious Culturgest headquarter offices.

In another office and in the still uncrowded hallways, IndieLisboa staff gets things ready for the April 22 start.

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The festival fosters a childrens program alongside a notably sophisticated cinephilic main program. Here’s the lively poster art promoting the sidebar. In this way, IndieLisboa’s inclusiveness for children exactly parallels BAFICI’s own kids program, “Baficito.”