Let’s take our future seriously, and have some fun while we’re at it. ICON TLV, the international science fiction and fantasy festival, will take place from October 1 – 8, 2012. Now in its 16th edition the festival is the Israeli hub for genre films, gaming, speculative fiction and engagement with imagination, innovation and social change. ICON TLV Director Uri Aviv stated that this year’s focus will be on the future – and not a moment too soon.
In the chaotic heat of the Israeli scene, as we thrash about from crisis to crisis in this hand to mouth existence, the common claim heard from all – from highest ranking politician to the pedestrian prols is that “it’s impossible to think ahead.” But maybe that is the problem…
So let your imagination run wild, grab your geek gear and take a look at what ICON TLV has to offer. The complete schedule will be available in Hebrew on the ICON TLV site, many events are already posted. Some highlights:
The Future of Death – a discussion on the end of death and the future of life, will take place on Tuesday, October 2nd at 19:30 in Hall 4 of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. With Erez Livneh, founder of Vecoy Nanomedicine, talking about the possibility of curing all diseases; Dr. Adam Reuter discussing insurance companies as the enemy of prolonging life; journalist Vered Shavit will talk about Death in a Digital Age; Prof. Naftali Tishbi, Hebrew U., on the possibility of uploading all our memories to computers, and more.
Modern Prometheus – Robotics, Synthetic Biology and 3D Printing – will take place on Wednesday, October 3rd at 18:30 in Hall 4 of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. Dr. Omri Amirav-Drori, CEO and founder of the bio-start-up GenomeCompiler will give a talk on Democratizing the Tools of Creation.
Science Fiction author and special guest of the festival Christian Priest will give the opening talk of The Cybernetic Frontier, on Tuesday, October 2nd in Hall 4 at 17:00. Among the topics to be discussed are the limits of thought and the infinite frontier of science fiction and fantasy; the dissolution of borders between public and private; Crowdsourcing vs. Hubs; and crypto-anarchy. Pirates welcome.
The Unconference of Singularity, launched at ICON TLV 2011, returns this year in cooperation with Hemda, the Center for Science Education in Tel Aviv. “Singularity” is the hypothetical future merging of biological and non-biological systems which, it is proposed, will result in greater-than-human intelligence. Opening the Unconference this year will be high-tech entrepreneur Dr. Yossi Vardi. The conference will take place at Hemda, 7 HaPardes Street, Tel Aviv, on Tuesday, October 2, 2012 from 9:30 – 16:30.
A conference on Special Effects, produced in cooperation with the Israeli Animation College, will take place on October 3 & 4 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque from 8:30 – 14:30, with two days of lectures, demonstrations and panel discussions with leading animators and special effects artists.
The famous, funny and geek-chic Hippopotam comedy troupe will return to ICON TLV, as will Tz Sofit (ץ סופית) an internet-radio comedy troupe. There seems to be seriously funny potential in the Stand-up Geek Event – an open stage for the lighter side of sci fi films, comics, zombies, vampires, superheroes, computer games and all things glorious, gory or geeky.
Last, but not least is the ICON TLV film festival – always a Midnight East favorite. Robot & Frank, directed by Jake Schreier and written by Christopher Ford will open the festival. An aging ex-con (Frank Langella), entrusted to the care of a robot by his loving children (James Marsden and Liv Tyler), with the sexy Susan Saradon as local librarian – sounds like something good.
Several directors/producers will be guests of the festival and will be present at screenings of their films, including: Brandon Cronenberg, director of Antiviral; Colin Trevorrow, director of Safety Not Guaranteed; Zal Batmanglij, director of Sound of My Voice; Juan Martinez Moreno director/producer of Lobos de Arga; and Bendik Heggen Strønstad, producer of Thale.
The festival is organized by the Association for Speculative and Fantastic Fiction in Israel in cooperation with the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, and is produced with the cooperation of the Tel Aviv Municipality Performance Department and sponsored by the Israeli Film Council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
