For this second evening of prisme#7, a two-part program welcoming the night to the sounds of the analog projectors. In the middle of these two screenings, rich in various filmic exposés, a live form arises between the seats and the screen of the Cinématographe challenging the bidimensional conception of what we name ci-ne-ma…
PROGRAM :
- 6:30pm – First screening
This eclectic screening of 6 films spans over 26 years of filmmaking and a wide geography, from Latvia to India, through Germany and the Netherlands. Documentary, highly pictorial or mischievous fiction, on this path we will encounter wonders of the cinematic mechanic, Yogi Tea maxims and grand bursts of light.
Analogue Natives by Bernd Lützeler (DE)
2001-2025 / 35mm & digital / color / sound / 25’/ suggested by LaborBerlin
“Celluloid was their only love, but all of a sudden working with those big, ancient machines felt just too inconvenient and exhausting.”
Signals by Petra Graf (DE/AUST)
2024 / 16mm / color / sound / 2’26 / suggested by Mire
“Tubes that seem to grow out of tall dry grass while recordings of bat calls can be heard. The head of a lighthouse slowly gives its binary call, accompanied by a deep circling industrial tone. An answer comes in the form of a second set of tubes, protruding from a building like cannon barrels.
Both visual and auditory signals can be read as a type of abstract Morse code.”
Lost fps // they come out in the dark by Sintija Andersone (LV)
2023 / 16mm / color / sound / 5′ / suggested by Baltic Analog Lab
“This 16mm analog journey was destroyed both by my forgetfulness and household chemicals. It was a cold winter day, and I had convinced my mom that I wanted to film her and her horse in a snowy landscape. The wind was freezing, and we all shivered, but I was excited to develop the material I had shot. I went to the lab and did the processing, but after opening the tank, I saw no image, just a dark film strip. I made a mistake while shooting and lost the whole thing. So I went on to destroy it even more. Frame by frame, a new world with melted landscapes and strange figures revealed itself to me and the film and its colorful layers came alive.”
Fioritura by Raluca Croitoru & Elena Butică, NL
2023 / 16mm >digital / b&w / sound / 5′ / suggested by Filmwerkplaats
“Filmed on 16mm, Fioritura is a visceral suspension of the everyday. The protagonists navigate fizzing emotions and internal contradictions; they use disgust and touch to transition from the superficial to the personally profound. The bowels and the city cry for their attention. As sweeping hands dream of manicure, messages attached to herbal tea bags become instant prophecies.”
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Monologue Extérieur by Francien van Everdingen (NL)
2008 / 16mm / color / sound / 2’35 / suggested by Filmwerkplaats
“This film is inspired by the paintings of Edouard Vuillard. Fragments of an interior appear from the dark like pieces of a puzzle that just don’t seem to fit. The walls do talk, from whispering to buzzing to a lively conversation about the world outside this tiny room: A botanical caleidoscope of treetops, green leaves and blossoms with a neurotic claustrophobic taste.”
Hiperdroms by Māris Viģelis and Egons Zīverts (LV)
1998 / 16mm / black&white / sound / 10′ / suggested by Baltic Analog Lab
“The film opens with Elvis Presley’s “Only You”, Moscow radio morning signals, Kremlin grumblers and the USSR anthem. A young man appears, smoking and shaving in front of the camera, but his hair continues to grow so fast that after a few minutes his body resembles an animal. The film evokes the backwardness of the Soviet order, with elements of performance. The artist Jānis Viņķelis plays the role of the man.”
- 8:45pm – Second screening & performance
Life cycles and figures of multiplication hover, with an evanescent nostalgia, over this screening which combines a live performance and a selection of 5 films.
It took a long time for it to open its leaves, performance by Ieva Balode & Biliana Voutchkova (LV/BG)
2023 / 3 16mm projectors, external shutters, violon, sound recordings, voice / 35′ / suggested Baltic Analog Lab
“Ieva’s and Biliana’s first collaboration engages in a multifaceted dialogue between their artistic tools and the environment they reflect upon. They are responding to the stimulus found in the processes of transformation in nature, applied to human psychological states which informs their real-time audio-visual composition. A tree documented throughout winter, spring and summertime reflects on the time passing and inevitable transformation involved in it. As whimsical as it may seem, the tree fell down shortly after being documented for this very work leaving its only remaining trace on the photochemical film and its multiple copies.”
Shedding by Vicky Smith (GB)
2024 / 16mm / b&w / silent / 4′ / suggested by MIRE
“A performance for the Bolex camera in which dimensions of stasis and movement are physically enacted by filming at varying frame rates. A still figure, saturated with light, appears to be highly overexposed. As layers of the image dislodge and peel away it becomes apparent that the exposure is correct, and that actually the brightness is caused through repeated multiple superimpositions.”
1014 by Deborah Phillips (DE)
2024 / 16mm / color / sound / 9′ / suggested by LaborBerlin
“My mother, Carol Frieda Herman P. Hirsch, Chaya bas Moshe ve Yehudit, died on June 23, 2022, at home, the way she wanted her last weeks to be. Self-determined, surrounded by majestic trees outside the windows, with birds chirping in the background. With her books in shelves nearby. Even when she lacked the energy to read, she was glad to have those books near her. And she enjoyed the smells of good food, her music and other simple things as long as it was possible.
The choice to use film material that was way past its sell-by date corresponds with how, as one approaches the end of one’s life, things fall apart, gradually. A tribute.”
NYC RGB by Viktoria Schmid (AT/US)
2023 / 16mm / color/ sound / 7′ / suggested by MIRE
“With NYC RGB Viktoria Schmid shows us a view of New York that we’ve never seen before, made possible by historical color film processes. The material, triple exposed with different color filters, mixes colors, space, and time to a perception that is possible only in film. Evidence of cinema’s potential for bursting open reality. The film is part of a series of works in which Schmid looks back to early color film processes. Music by Liew Niyomkarn.”
La aparición de Tezcatlipoca (chapitre 1 et 2) by Annalisa D. Quagliata (MX)
2018 / 16mm / color and b&w / sound / 15′ / suggested by MIRE
“A 16mm film that uses handmade film techniques to create a portrait of Mexico City, addressing images of the pre-Hispanic past through its contemporary landscape.”
Broken Blossoms by Miles McKane (FR)
1992 / Super 8 to 16mm / color / sound / 6′ / suggested by MIRE
“A cinematic metaphor, conceived as part of a compilation of films on AIDS, this is an emotional translation of the disease. The juxtaposition of music and images creates conflicts involving elements that, taken separately, would appear insignificant. Produced within the framework of SI FILM DA.”