Notes on Film 01 Else(2002)

Berlin: Symphony of a Great City(de)

A day in the city of Berlin, which experienced an industrial boom in the 1920s, and still provides an insight into the living and working conditions at that time. Germany had just recovered a little from the worst consequences of the First World War, the great economic crisis was still a few years away and Hitler was not yet an issue at the time.

Always on Time, Always Outta Line(en)

Running up that [mountainous-outcropping] because there is none of this that's stopping.

No(thing) Staring Back(en)

On the Clickity-clack Express it's clear I'm always under duress, unless I forget.

The Screen Tests of Cosmotropia de Xam(en)

THE SCREEN TESTS OF COSMOTROPIA DE XAM A collection of 12 screen tests from all over the world, based on a direction sheet of Cosmotropia de Xam. Starring: Elzabeth Hart of Psychic Ills, How I Quit Crack and Aura, Carmen Incarnadine, Shivabel, Black Madeleine, Jenni Hensler, Agnes Pándy, Suzy Poling, Omebi, Sarah Toon and Owleyes, Dania Myers, ∆AIMON

Hope This Goes Over Well/Living in an Empty World(en)

I really hope this is well-received. I really hope there's some sort of reprieve.

Confession(ja)

A filmmaker recalls his youth in the town of Onomichi. In the present, he shoots a film in Onomichi alongside his cast, crew and family.

Scar(zh)

A girl who was floating freely in the water accidentally gets her skin cut by a sailboat passing by. The story is derived from personal experience, recreating the senses of women in love and the unique inner sense of time through creation.

I am Perfectly Normal: Part I(en)

A forgotten faceless celebrity ascends into heaven along the path of self-discovery and through a land of faded memory.

Exit(en)

Events take a sinister turn one night in London, when two very different couples arrive at a double-booked apartment. Actions have consequences and not all debts are paid for with money. Leaving, it's harder than you think.

Your New Pig Is Down the Road(en)

"Filmed in 16mm and hand processed in a week at Phil Hoffman's Film Farm in Canada, this film was a treasure map to lead my husband to his gift, a little pet pig." ⁠— Helen Hill

Ever Reaching Fairly Preachily(en)

Flitter like tittertatter trying to breathe while working, like a mad hatter; the outofbreath feeling rising from recursive reforgettings (or their resemblances).

Stories Told, Storied Gold(en)

Tales of old springing forth underlying dissatisfaction with current states of being.

What Was It Supposed to Be Like?(en)

Rather pointless, rather stilted, fetid; not what we want us going after.

Xenoi(en)

The Greek island of Syros is visited by a series of unexpected guests. Immutable forms, outside of time, aloof observants to human conditions.

On the Various Nature of Things(en)

Chinese Viola(pt)

The rare short film presents a curious dialogue between filmmaker Julio Bressane and actor Grande Otelo, where, in a mixture of decorated and improvised text, we discover a little manifesto to the Brazilian experimental cinema. Also called "Belair's last film," Chinese Viola reveals the first partnership between photographer Walter Carvalho and Bressane.

Crash!(en)

Short film produced by the BBC about JG Ballard's Crash. “The film was a product of the most experimental, darkest phase of Ballard’s career. It was an era of psychological blowback from the sudden, shocking death of his wife in 1964, an era that had produced the cut-up ‘condensed novels’ of Atrocity plus a series of strange collages and ‘advertisers’ announcements. After Freud’s exploration within the psyche it is now the outer world of reality which must be quantified and eroticised. Later there were further literary experiments, concrete poems and ‘impressionistic’ film reviews, and an aborted multimedia theatrical play based around car crashes. After that came an actual gallery exhibition of crashed cars, replete with strippers and the drunken destruction of the ‘exhibits’ by an enraged audience.” (from: http://aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.blogspot.de/2013/01/short-film-adaptation-of-jg-ballards.html)

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero(en)

An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 December 2011. A special projector was constructed for the event which allowed the actual filmstrip to be burnt at the same time as the film was shown.

A Silent Day(ja)

A depiction of a girl’s uneasy state of mind as it wavers between life and death.

A Thought of Ecstasy(en)

August 2019. Frank recognizes his own story of twenty years ago in a recently published book. He remembers Marie, with whom he had a relationship before she moved to the United States and disappeared from his life. Frank sets out in search of her and finds himself in a USA petrified by a heat wave and lost in suspicion and political paranoia. He heads into the desert in pursuit of Marie.