Programmed by Lorenzo Gattorna
Wolkenschatten
Anja
Dornieden & Juan David Gonzalez Monroy, 2014, 16mm, color, sound, 16:37
In 1984,
for three weeks in May, what appeared to be a giant cloud shrouded the small
town of Hüllen-Hüllen in darkness. Before the end of the month the cloud had
dispersed and life seemed to return to normal. One month later, however, the
town was hastily abandoned and its residents were nowhere to be found. They
left most of their belongings behind in such a way as to make one think they
would return at any moment.
The search
that followed led investigators to a cave on the outskirts of town. Inside the
cave a number of homemade contraptions were discovered. Connected by a variety
of mirrors and fitted with a wide array of lenses, they were found to form a
large projection device. Even though at first sight it appeared to be either
unfinished or broken, it was eventually determined to be in working order. When
it was turned on it projected a series of images over every surface of the
cave. Initially the source of the images could not be established, yet upon
further examination it was found that the images were engraved directly on the
lenses of the machine.
Along with
the machine a sheet of paper covered in handwritten text was also found. It was
titled “Cloud Shadow”. Beyond the uncertain clues provided by the images and
the text, no verifiable explanation for the disappearance of the town’s
residents has ever been given. For the sake of preservation the engraved images
were transferred onto 35mm slide film. Copies of the text and images were made
and archived together. We have been lucky enough to obtain one of these sets.
For the benefit of those interested in examining this strange occurrence, we’ve
put them together as a narrated slideshow.
Neither
God nor Santa María
Samuel M. Delgado & Helena Girón, 2015, 16mm, color, sound, 11:45
Since
airplanes did not exist, people moved around using prayers, they went from one
land to another and returned early, before dawn. In old audio recordings, the
voices of pastors speak of the mythical existence of witches and their travels.
In the daily life of a woman the magic of her tales begin to materialize as
night falls. Night is the time when travel is possible.
There is a Happy Land Further Awaay
Ben Rivers,
2015, S16mm, color & b/w, sound, 20:10
There Is A Happy Land Further Awaay (2015), captures the landscapes of the remote volcanic Republic of Vanuatu archipelago, before they were devastated by Cyclone Pam in early 2015, the footage becoming a ghostly document of an ecosystem now irrevocably altered.
A hesitant
female voice reads a poem by Henri Michaux,
recounting a life lived in a distant land, full of
faltering and mistakes. Island imagery of active volcanoes, underwater WW2
debris, children playing, and wrecked boats transform into intangible digital
recollections of the island, made on the opposite side of the world. Images of
the eroded land merge with eroding film, a lone figure on a boat
drifts at sea.
Baba Dana Talks to the Wolves
Ralitsa
Doncheva, 2015, 16mm, color, sound, 10:38
https://vimeo.com/150172995
Baba Dana Talks To The Wolves is an intimate, impressionistic portrait of Baba Dana, an 85 year-old Bulgarian woman who has chosen to spend her life in the mountains, away from people and cities. She lives in one of the oldest monasteries in Bulgaria, Zelenikovsky Monastery. Once known as a favorite place of repose for Bulgaria’s last Tzar, the place is now known as Baba Dana’s home. There are no wolves in this film. There are no wolves left in Bulgaria.
Journey to the Sea
Josh Gibson,
2015, 35mm, color, sound, 14:23
https://vimeo.com/135366693
In Journey
to the Sea, an elderly woman floats down a river of elusive memories and
fragmented artifacts from cinema‘s history, straining to recall the places that
she has been. Passing through childhood creeks and riverside views of great
cities, she also struggles to remember the impulse of travel itself. Her fading
and fluid memories of touristic desire merge into an unreliable account of a
great river teeming with duck-billed platypuses, disappearing Native Americans,
fellow tourists and intimate hair washes.
No comments:
Post a Comment