Distance

A digital miniature in which the form into which the image is deconstructed emphasizes the things we leave in our wake – trajectories of movement, actions, decisions, gestures. This guide of the traces we leave behind dissolves into a depiction of the things that remain; the simple visual approach raises the imperative of understanding the consequences of the movements of mind, body, and things. "Choreography of an imaginary journey 
Color / 7 minutes 40" P. Bokanowski

Wandering on the edge of darkness, the camera records grainy objects and pulls hesitant signs of the searched-for refuge from the darkness. By carefully working with light, the filmmaker sketches a unique place bathed in silence and uncertainty, on the back of specific depictions of buildings and landscapes. “The theme explored in my work is that of ‘journeys’ – both physical and metaphysical; alluding to isolation of the individual and isolation of place.” SJ. Ramir

Contemporary and archival footage of the Berkeley Pit, an open pit copper mine in Montana – today filled with contaminated water – is chemically altered using poisonous substances from this water containing copper, arsenic, cadmium, zinc, and sulfuric acid in order to call attention to the destructive consequences of mining. “The film shows the destructive consequences of mine waste through a variety of photochemical processes using the same contaminants found in the water of the pit.“ J. Gerlach

The title of the film is the date on which the editorial staff of the Hungary´s largest opposition newspaper, Népszabadság, was fred. The filmmaker tore up copies of that day’s issue, layered them, and then turned them into an urgent collage expressing his yearning for the free expression of opposition viewpoints. The visible edges of the film emphasize the impossibility of presenting information in a complete context. “Our film is a simple political statement. It was made in two days, right after the shut-down of Népszabadság.” B. Máté, P. Lichter

The latest film by this legendary experimental filmmaker puts together news footage of giant airships that emphasize their monstrous size and nearly nightmarish impression using realistic images in which the filmmaker nevertheless emphasizes their mythological and mysterious nature, as well as the sense of awe they evoked in their time. The golden age of the airship was in the interwar period, when they flew to the North Pole, crossed the Atlantic, and even circumnavigated the globe. During the war, they were used for naval reconnaissance, especially by Germany, and to engage in airborne terror against civilians. Later, they were used (primarily in the United States) as airborne radar stations.

A visual study of the book as a medium and cultural artefact. Parallel images analyse books from the point of view of appearance and material with the film plunging into the depths of their microscopic fabric while, at the opposite end of the spectrum, the variety of their surfaces, textures, fonts and shapes blossoms into structured volumes ordered on a bookshelf. “Born from observing the phenomena of quietly vanishing old book stores, our work first became an exploration of the medium of the book itself, and then grew in to something more haunting.” E. Tammi, S. Ekström  

Inspired by Italian Renaissance art, the filmmaker transforms news reports of protests in the Gaza Strip into a painting of people and the landscape, as if the boundaries of fields and meadows were a place for overcoming political limitations and the ability of an expansive viewpoint presented the ideal of inhabiting the visible.  "The struggle for liberation intertwines with nature rejuvenation, creating an array of reflections." G. Silberstein  

Genre conventions cleverly broken down with animations, breaking through the scenery of rural Mexico, where in the area surrounding the director’s family farm, symbols of stories of physical desire conceal a layer of idyllic childhood memories and come into conflict with the traditional concept of masculinity and identity expression.   "By centering queer desire within the story of my Mexican-American family, I validate my own lived experience as well as challenge popular representation of masculinity, power and vulnerability." A. G. Gomez  

The filmmaker takes hundreds of photographs of ocean trash that has washed up on the shores of Japan and uses the photogrammetry technique to turn them into sculptures. When filmed in the virtual space, they become mementos of environmental irresponsibility and examples of the excesses of our affluent way of everyday life. "Looking through the eyes of new technologies, we can have unexpected and incredible views of the reality." Y. Nishimura  

This conceptual experience in which differences in color are translated into notes on a piano looks at the area surrounding the port of Marseille. The result is a musical composition created through an abstracted reflection of the nature, look, and visual diversity of a place where ships arrive and depart. "Through video artworks, I ruminate both on the notions of temporality and duality of digital arts - the interplay of the sound and the image - to build new realities to the world around us." J.-M. Rolland  

Observing a volcanic crater opens up a narrative filled with allusions and intimations that create an imaginary city along the lines of the metropolis of Brasilia inside the Cape Verdean volcano Pico de Fogo. A projection of an urban plan creates a world of possible stories, while shots of the urban model take us on a walk along the geometry of the city where even the cloud cover has been calculated. Portuguese filmmaker Joana Pimenta (1986) lives and works in the USA and Brazil. Her films and video installations work with techniques from visual anthropology. Previously at Jihlava, she showed her film debut The Figures Carved into the Knife by the Sap of the Banana Trees (2014), in which she used invented memories to construct a dream correspondence between the Madeira islands and the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique.“There I found myself, time traveler, space archaeolo gist, trying to rebuild exoticism out of wrecks and remainders.”

A meditation on surveillance, dramatized by a person having panic and anxiety attacks in a white room with no doors or windows. The filmmaker reflects on the omnipresence of seemingly inconspicuous observation. The impossibility of a hidden camera’s objectivity is emphasized by reactive changes in its angle of view when the person attacks it. Austrian filmmaker and curator Norbert Pfaffenbichler (1967) is a pioneer of video art and a founding member of the VIDOK art group. His works often combine electronic music and abstract projections. Pfaffenbichler was the curator of the important group exhibition Abstraction Now at the Künstlerhaus in Vienna (2003), which worked with computergenerated sounds. Previously at Jihlava IDFF, he showed his film Intermezzo (Notes on Film 4) (2012).„Camera is a short étude on the topic of the invisible camera. it is part of my ‘notes on film-series ’ which deals with different topics from the history and theory of film.”