I Found Water

SJ Ramir / Australia, New Zealand / 2023 / World Premiere / 9 min.

synopsis

The autobiographical narrative uses a few shaky images partly drowned in the darkness, photographs from his personal archive and occasional intertitles to provoke reflections on the nature of memories, the mysterious logic of their preservation, surfacing, thinning and being.

“Digital video is very human to me. Particularly with regard to my practice, which involves pushing the video footage to its physical limits by restricting the light entering into the lens using the filters that I make. Every shot becomes similar to stretching an elastic band. How distorted do I want it for this shot? How much can I push it until it destructs?” (Source)

biography

SJ. Ramir (born 1971) is a New Zealand photographer and filmmaker who shoots with camera filters and lenses that he makes himself. By limiting the light entering the lens, he creates hazy, fleeting and distorted images of landscapes. The main themes of his work are the relationship between people and place, feelings of belonging or uprooting, and above all the process of inquiring and searching for answers. Ji.hlava IDFF regularly screens his films.