virar mar / meer werden / becoming sea(2020)

The Navel of the World(en)

“Te Pito o Te Henua” (The Navel of the World) tells the story of the community behind Rapa Nui’s largest and most colorful annual Indigenous celebration, the Tāpati Rapa Nui Festival. Honoring ancient rites and competitions, Rapa Nui families participate in nine days of athletic feats, cultural demonstrations and ceremonies paying respect to the land, water and other natural beings of the island. They also crown a Queen to represent her people for a year throughout Polynesia and on the world stage. The film traces the journey of 19-year-old candidate Vaitiare and her family as they join work to earn her the crown and represent this small but well-known island as its people fight for increased autonomy and recognition on the world stage. Through intimate character portraits, behind-the-curtain moments and heartfelt musical performances, “Te Pito o Te Henua” reveals the true meaning of Tāpati and the deep connections the Rapa Nui share with their lands and waters.

Every Ambulation a Betrayal(en)

Return to 'burn' only to find out you're already in that urn.

1/57: Experiment with Synthetic Sound (Test)(de)

Mostly dark, rejecting images which are repeated. A stone wall, the chamber of a revolver which is, at first not recognizable, a close-up of a cactus. The duration of the takes emphasises the photographic character of the pictures, simultaneously with a crackling, brutal sound. (Hans Scheugl)

Mémé(fr)

Living in the World(en)

An auto-documentary about a disenfranchised Everyman and his struggle to re-integrate himself into society. He fails and turns to crime.

Straits of Magellan: "Drafts and Fragments"(en)

A sampling of forty-nine fragments from Frampton's catalogue of 'actualities', the films from STRAITS OF MAGELLAN: "DRAFTS AND FRAGMENTS" are all silent and unedited. Several invoke, directly, the work of the Lumieres, as in Frampton's reworking of DEMOLITION D'UN MUR (1895) in which a dilapidated farm silo is demolished in place of the Lumieres' wall. He makes reference to his own work and plays homage to the work of contemporaries. A complex range of formal issues are raised in other fragments. Finally, Frampton offers a number of analogues for the act of filming and cinematic seeing that includes a series of appropriated 'lenses' ( a stone portal, a wooden silo) and a set of 'screens' a pool of water, curtains, a dusty window).

Botanist Francis Hallé Explains...(fr)

14-part special in which botanist Francis Hallé explains forest science and processes. Part of the "Once Upon a Forest" physical release.

Chant(en)

Creates a reorientation of vision in a union of sights and sounds which suggest a different way of appreciating and understanding the fundamental integrity of experience.

May 35(en)

A haunting commemoration of the Tiananmen Square uprisings.

Hackney Marshes – November 4th 1977(en)

An improvisation recorded over the course of one day, starting at dawn and finishing after dusk. The film was edited in camera and shot from one camera position in the middle of one of the 112 football pitches that cover Hackney Marsh, a location chosen because of the similarities between the surrounding buildings and objects (identical blocks of flats, goalposts etc.). By cutting between precisely matched framings of similar objects, illusions of movement were produced, disrupting representational readings of the landscape. Unforeseen events occurring in the vicinity were also recorded, determining to some extent the subsequent filming. Through selection of shots and changes in cutting pace and speed of camera movement, the film fluctuates between record and abstraction.

Roda Viva Roda Brasil(pt)

Metro(fr)

A short documentary about the construction of the parisian subway in the 50s.

Devant – Contrechamp de la rétention(fr)

Pauline, Norah, Kristina and others wait for hours, sitting under a hut deep in the Bois de Vincennes. In front of the administrative detention center (CRA) in Paris, they have all come to see their loved ones locked up. Lives on hold, awaiting deportation or release. On this stage, these women tell their stories, talk to each other, share their experience, their revolt and their dreams with new visitors. They are the mirror of migrant detention, its reverse view.

Bukit Orang Salah(en)

At various points in its history, tiny St. John's Island was where Singapore's colonial founder Sir Stamford Raffles docked his ship upon arrival, a quarantine centre for immigrants and pilgrims returning from Mecca, a penal colony for political detainees and secret society leaders, and a sleepy holiday resort. Unlike its neighbouring islands, however, St. John's was never fully developed. It occupies an in-between space, the vestiges of its history scattered around the land. Its indeterminacy stands in sharp contrast to Singapore, where land use is meticulously planned to fulfil economic and social functions. In this film, St. John's Island - otherwise known as 'Bukit Orang Salah', a nickname coined by the people who were quarantined there - becomes a site of and for reflection, prompting questions about our history, heritage and identity.

The Five Obstructions(da)

In 1967, experimental filmmaker Jorgen Leth created a striking short film, The Perfect Human, starring a man and women sitting in a box while a narrator poses questions about their relationship and humanity. Years later, Danish director Lars von Trier made a deal with Leth to remake his film five times, each under a different set of circumstances and with von Trier's strictly prescribed rules. As Leth completes each challenge, von Trier creates increasingly further elaborate stipulations.

Germany in Autumn(de)

The film does not have a plot per se; it mixes documentary footage, along with standard movie scenes, to give the audience the mood of Germany during the late 1970s. The movie covers the two-month time period during 1977 when a businessman was kidnapped and later murdered by the left-wing terrorists known as the RAF-Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Fraction). The businessman had been kidnapped in an effort to secure the release of the original leaders of the RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang. When the kidnapping effort and a plane hijacking effort failed, the three most prominent leaders of the RAF, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin, and Jan-Carl Raspe, all committed suicide in prison. It has become an article of faith within the left-wing community that these three were actually murdered by the state.

Photodiary(ja)

"The majority of my 8-mm works were made for the three-minute "Personal Focus" film special put on in Fukuoka. This film is an animation of photographs I had taken on a regular basis as a sort of diary, and was made to have a rough feel to it." - Takashi Ito

December Hide-and-Go-Seek(ja)

"Ryuta is 5 years old. Even though he is my son, I sometimes wonder what this small person is to me. Even though I see his joys and sadnesses and know the feel of his warmth on my skin when I hold him, there are moments when my feelings for him become vague and blank." - Takashi Ito

Heartbeat(en)

Tant qu'il y aura de la poussière(fr)