Panorama Announces Opening Films and Panorama Dokumente

Panorama will open their program this year with Bruce McDonald"'s The Tracey Fragments." The film portrays a fifteen-year-old girl's incoherent emotional world using innovative visuals, and was filmed in just 14 days. The Panorama Special will open with "Bushi No Ichibun" ("Love And Honor"), directed by Yoji Yamada. The film is the third and final installment in Yamada's samurai trilogy, and the story's protagonist is a young samurai (Takyya Kimura) who serves as a food taster for a lord. The Panorama Dokumente will screen 17 films, including 12 world premieres. "Big names and themes relating to politics, music, art and fashion will characterize this year's Panorama Dokumente", says section head Wieland Speck in a prepared statement. "Strange Culture", directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson, will open the Dokumente program. Panorama is a section of the Berlin Film Festival. [Amy Bronson]