Fascinations

The analogue film maps our perception of the environment and how we relate to it through different perspectives and the influence of various changes. Do we perceive the city – the space we have been familiar with – in the same way when we look at it in hindsight from a plane window or watch it in a shaky 8mm video?“If old landmarks got replaced by the new construction, will the concept of home disappear? The city contains a speed that I can no longer keep up with as an individual. I could only continue to wander and linger in it; try to capture the afterimages of our memory in my own way.”---Source:https://www.instagram.com/p/CeKxNOSPOyX/?hl=cs

Bassim Al-Shaker was 19 years old when a group of Mahdi militia members visited his barbershop in 2007. They wanted a new haircut. When they saw his unfinished painting of Venus, however, they were so offended by the nude figure that they beat the young man, forcibly cut his hair, and dragged him out into the street. The film reconstructs the shocking incident through personal testimony and his own drawings. “This fear still lives inside of me, even as I share this film with you.”

The final installment in the five-part Cows series is a remarkable example of photo-videography as an art form. Photographs, which over time transform pixel by pixel, pose inconvenient questions about our relationship with animals: Are they merely objects for our consumption? Organic matter we've become disconnected with? Or…? “Are we hopelessly carnivorous or is veganism the future of humanity? Will we ever be compassionate enough to give up our animality and satisfy our appetites without killing?”---Source:http://franetjim.free.fr/vaches.html

At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, much of Spanish territory was under anarchist rule for some time. This forgotten historical event is remembered through 3D animations of scans of demolished villages and moving photographs of anarchist supporters, which were “brought to life” with the help of the Deep Nostalgia™ tool.“Anarchy strives towards a stateless order and mutual aid. Anarchism emphasises compassion, kindness, reason and equality. Adherents to anarchy ranged from Mahatma Gandhi to Bertrand Russell, from Helen Keller to Franz Kafka.”

In their sci-fi Billy Roisz and Dieter Kovacic pose a question if we will ever be able to communicate across the time and space. Inspired by the communication of cephalopods, they experiment with conveying messages using lights, colours, pheromons, sounds and movements instead of words, and they demand that we receive the signals by our whole bodies, just like octopuses.

This unusual documentary pixilation is based on images discovered in Cuban court archives. In the past, the Communist regime’s prying security forces surveilled not only the enemies of the regime, but also the activities of nonconformists, misfits and dissidents.“The images stored in Cuba’s judicial archives contain the island’s most jealously guarded secret: an alternative history in which the nonconformists, the misfits and the dissidents are also part of it.”---Source:https://now-after.org/eng/seichas.php?y=1

The hexagon as a perfect shape appearing in nature and architecture and at the same time a metaphor for historical processes and colonial oppression. This cinematic essay explores the hexagon from multiple perspectives, using archival and original footage to create provocative parallels between seemingly unrelated phenomena.“Being born under the sign of the hexagon / it’s not the best thing we’re doing these days.”

An unusual, conceptual documentary that combines the director’s fascination with fungi with modern, audiovisual technologies. Using photogrammetry from hundreds of images, the assembled 3D models document the maturation of four domestically grown species of fungi, their incredibly fast growth, and also their sculptural and artistic qualities.“Beyond a direct experience of the people, places and things around us, we often turn to forms of mass media to help inform our place in the wider world.”---Source: https://culturedays.ca/en/events/db229d38-e4ec-4d3b-beb6-f3f60c63f3d8

This experimental film presents a kaleidoscopic and psychedelic composition of digitally modified images thematizing mainly nature, the human body, and machines. Silberstein draws his inspiration from video games and cybernetics theory resulting in futuristic meditation. The sci-fi atmosphere is made complete with electronic music by sound artist Łukasz Szałankiewicz.“In Silberstein’s works, the image error or glitch is always representative, a phantasmagoric presence of sorts, evoking the spiritual, the political, the intimate, the human: it’s the activity of mankind at its most critical, involved in war, conflict, acts of resistence, but also in the intimate, the tender and its relation with nature.” (José Sarmiento-Hinojosa)---Source: Found Footage Magazine no. 6, march 2020

It is an experimental film in which the best of the structural film tradition merges with an urban symphony. A busy intersection is a plentiful source of the scenes that form a rhythmical unit with its own structure and meaning. The celebration of cinematography in its very own realm of images and sounds!“While often originating with images from nature, my films are at base about form, structure, time and pattern, rather than about content in any direct sense.” (Richard Tuohy)---Source: http://www.nanolab.com.au/artist%20statement.htm

This short, autobiographical documentary combines phone monologues, dashboard camera footage, and visual accounts from social media to make a unique, inside look into the life of an up-and-coming female artist from Baghdad who inevitably crosses paths with political turmoil. Munaf documents her journey from her attempts at creating contemporary art in a very limiting environment, the ISIS invasion, and her emigration to Turkey to the invasion of Ukraine where her parents emigrated to.“We artists always get death threats and threats of violence. We bother them. They hate us and see us as an easy target. This is a subject people don't talk about because it's an everyday thing. Someone gets killed and the next day you have to go to work as if nothing happened.” — Sarah Munaf---Source: Journey Inside the City 2:35-3:03

In a capitalist society, light never fades and labor never slacks. We're all expected to be constantly awake and efficient drivers of profit. Our sleep schedules have been impaired and there's no time for us to dream, let alone think of social change. This half-awake visual poem about sleep deprivation and its impact on the human body and senses is inspired by the author's own personal experiences with insomnia.“As long as necessity is socially dreamed, Dreaming will remain a social necessity.” (Guy Debord)

In his essay on fossil capitalism and the high price of cheap energy, Mike Hoolboom revives New York from the beginning of the last century. The restored footage of busy urban traffic is accompanied by his divergent reflection on cities built primarily for cars, not people. Especially the less privileged.“Cars are like important men in conversation with other important men.”

This experimental film directs our attention toward abstract imagery, which accentuates the stock footage present on-screen, before guiding our attention toward text excerpts and colorful shapes that have been edited in a rhythmic fashion and culminating in scenes depicting everyday life. Together with the symphonic background music, they form a coherent composition that could serve as a memory for one person, a dream for another, and a reality for someone else.“The romantic poem “Erotessa” (eng. Parting), by the Finnish National Poet Eino Leino (1878–1926), inspired composer Kimmo Kuitunen 15 years ago to make a contemporary music composition for choir. … In this visual, impressionistic poem the urban longing for nature, conflict and hypnotic feeling of the original piece can be found.”---Source:https://www.ses.fi/catalogue/film/parting/

The second part of the series Cypriot Collage Stories sketches out the history of this Mediterranean island as a conflict of its two mothers – Aphrodite and Virgin Mary. Animations and collages are intertwined with found footage of the 1974 Turkish invasion of the island, revealing the obvious fact that modern conflicts are rooted in history.“The two mothers of Cyprus, Aphrodite goddess of Love and Mary, Mother of Jesus, enter a fight. Which one will conquer all the island? Aphrodite holds the people together, Mary keeps them apart. History versus Religion.”---Source: https://www.cypriotcollage.com/ashes-of-venus

The immersive, colorful imagery of this experimental film by Austrian creative Tina Frank draws us into the glow of a dimming lightbulb. This is, in turn, joined by an uncompromising soundtrack evoking an electrical discharge, which also became part of the digital album Get This: a tribute to composer of electronic works Peter Rehberg.“Tina Frank, a close collaborator of musician Peter Rehberg, who passed away in 2021, has continued iii, their joint work from 1996, with pliii. The audio portion comes from General Magic, Rehberg’s colleagues. With the acoustic source material consisting of the high-frequency sounds of the LED lamp, the exploration of the intrinsic life of an everyday object is reminiscent of the legendary project Fridge Tracks, created in collaboration with Rehberg, in which the humming of refrigerators was declared to be music.” (Shilla Strelka)---Source: https://www.sixpackfilm.com/en/catalogue/2770/

In an unspecified totalitarian country, a man is apprehended. After 110 days of suffering in prison, he's released, and hitchhikes out of the country. The film consists of descriptions of real-life events and stylized staged shots, to question the oppression inflicted onto the innocent by the state.“Prison with Songbirds is a documentary and fiction hybrid in which dream-nightmare and digital-celluloid collide.”Source: https://ewanmacbeth.com/Prison-with-Songbirds-2022

More than 30% of Brazil's Pantanal biome was affected by fires between the years 2018 and 2021 due to unscrupulous agribusiness. Felippe Mussel's experimental film consists of a sound spectrogram of these fires, from which a fragment of the Ecuadorian constitution gradually emerges, granting nature the same rights as humans.“Nature has a right to renewal.”

In this essay film, the talking heads of American TV news in the 1970s return to today's screens to warn viewers of the demise of humanity and the world as we know it. The film, thus, forms a bridge between the shots of the past and the terrifying visions of the future and, despite its poetic charm, calls for immediate action.“Symbolism will not save a sinking ship.”

This video essay is a survivor manifesto. It gives voice to those who are very often lonely, brings them together and celebrates them. The author is convinced that it is their experience and skills that may lead the humankind to utopian society. A thorny path, paved with painful processes like getting even with traumas, healing and self-acceptation, could make the soil ready for a world dominated by empathy, self-reflection and queer love. “This is a manifesto. For all the weirdos, freaks, trauma survivors, fruit cakes and fearlessly life loving people. This is to our creativity, to our wit, to our survival skills, to our ability to manage crisis…”

This performative lecture by Boram Soh is inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' short story, Blue Tigers. Like the Argentine writer, she explores the dynamics between hunter and prey, human and beast. Tracing the hunting practices of the era and making ten stops along the trajectory of imperial history, Soh transforms what we know into articulate geometric objects through the auxiliary of her own body.“Soh’s research juxtaposes the mechanics of matter with abstract concepts of light and darkness, life and death, sacrifice and regeneration. She singularly interprets symbols and sign systems, translating them into hieroglyphics.” (Amanda Sarroff)---Source: https://en.sohboram.com/the-geometry-of-the-hunter

Is it possible to use sound to travel through time and experience the fate of other people? This story of a sound engineer studying recordings of war conflicts from the past transports viewers smack dab in the middle of a ravenous rampage where the horrors of the past come to the fore. The film also presents a philosophical reflection on the role that sound plays in our world. The film was developed on the program of the AAMOD Premio Zavattini.“The sound never dies. It keeps resonating around us, always.“

This expressionist, black-and-white film-poem recalls avant-garde experiments from the beginning of the last century and makes use of stark contrasts between light and dark. Accompanied by ambient noise, the film introduces a dystopian world in which familiar objects are transformed into abstract images, leaving viewers unsettled and disoriented.“Instead of using words and sentences, my series of photographed single frames and sequences let arise a visual imaginary poetry.” (Telemach Wiesinger)---Source:https://mubi.com/cast/telemach-wiesinger

Charles Darwin dedicated his last essay to the life of worms. His text inspired Anna Marziano to make a wordless collage of sixteen-millimeter shots highlighting the similarity between artistic creation and the relentless activity of these creatures that fertilize the soil and decompose organic waste. Just like the film itself decomposes before springing back to life.“I feel very close to the open form of collage. When I think about the film during its preparation [...] I think of the film as a dynamic collage, faithful to the movements of thought in its encounter-collision with the real.” (Anna Marziano)---Source: https://annamarziano.com/About

This meditative film serves as a visual means of coping with past traumas and histories of violence. Through a simple narrative, we shift from a happy childhood filled with fun and games outdoors to a paralyzing experience of fear in adulthood. The combination of 16mm film with digital footage evokes a jarring, internal conflict.“A key question in her work is how to deal with violence visually in such a way so it can heal colonial wounds, instead of representing it.“---Source:https://anabravoperez.com/About