Snow Tapes

Mich’ael Zupraner

Israel/Palestinian Territories 2011, 13'30'', HDCAM, colour

Statement:

In this work, with a strong sense of political urgency and complexity, the artist provided camera to a Palestinian family in the highly charged city of Hebron. But instead of a one dimensional depiction of a political conflict, he complicates the viewer's life with a bifurcated screen in which we are confronted not only with the violent reality of the occupation, but also with the glee of the victim when he is able to be aggressive, with the ambivalence of throwing snow balls as both playful and violent, and with the Israeli director himself as someone who stand to gain from representing Palestinian suffering. The result, while raw and rough, is both subtle and evocative, and reconfigures cinema as an active agent beyond the subjective-objective division rather than settle for a passive political role.

Reframing the Artist

Sascha Pohle

Netherlands 2010, 35'00'', HDV, colour

Statement:

We might mistake this piece for a familiar post-modern exercise, reflecting upon the representation of artists in mainstream cinema. Yet, by having the familiar tropes re-enacted in a Chinese art factory in a non patronizing and sensitive way, the director allows us an ever expanding view of both the astounding wide scope of an art labour that includes instant Mona Lisas side by side with Vladimir Putin and Deng Xiaoping portraits, and a rare and non nostalgic view of the labourers, low-paid craftsmen of painting who nonchalantly assume the roles of heroic artists such as Jackson Pollock and Vincent Van Gogh.

Ten Five in the Grass

Kevin Jerome Everson

USA 2012, 32'00'', DV, colour

Statement:

Through a deceptively simple but profoundly observed series of extended compositions, Kevin Jerome Everson discovers the world of real cowboys, not as larger than life mythic figures but as down-to-earth African-Americans totally devoted to the rodeo. There is something truly surprising in seeing the white American image of the cowboy transformed into the joyful leisure activity of young African-Americans. It is a deeply moving portrait that gives one of the primary romantic archetypes a new cultural identity.

Marian Ilmestys

(The Annunciation)

Eija-Liisa Ahtila

Finland 2011, 37 min 30 sec, DCP, colour

Statement:

The classic religious depictions of the Annunciation become both humane and ironic by having them re-enacted with a cast of unassuming yet wholly engaged women. Different layers of meaning and sensuality are constructed and narrated in an unpretentious and disarmingly witty way.

Sounding Glass

Sylvia Schedelbauer

Germany 2011, 10'00'', Digibeta, b/w

Statement:

With very few images culled from the flood of footage originally taken during World War II, the filmmaker manages to express the incomprehensible trauma of war as a strong visual experience. With a highly compressed use of sound and image, Sounding Glass creates a visceral impact that can only be achieved by cinematic means.

Tic Tac

Josephine Ahnelt

Austria 2011, 2'30'', 35 mm/Super 8, b/w

Statement:

This film expresses the visual mystery of what at first might seem to be found footage of teenagers playing in an anonymous courtyard. At the modest 2/5 minute length of an 8mm camera roll, Tic Tac captures images pregnant with fragility and multiple meaning.