70th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 1-6 May 2024
Four extraordinary filmmakers in the 2024 Profiles at Oberhausen Mox Mäkelä, Davorin Marc, Abraham Ravett, John Torres
The Profiles of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen are dedicated to artists and filmmakers who consistently work with the short film format. In 2024, the Festival will present four outstanding and diverse filmmakers: In her often ecocritical works, Finnish conceptual artist Mox Mäkelä addresses the relationships between humans and their environment, often with a touch of satire and comedy. The Super-8 works of the Slovenian Davorin Marc, which have not been shown for decades, are a real rediscovery. US filmmaker Abraham Ravett’s theme is the memory of the Holocaust, his works are both explorations of the nature of time and of personal and cultural memory. The Philippine filmmaker, writer and musician John Torres is regarded as the poet of Philippine cinema; his work comprises feature-length and short films, 13 of which Oberhausen will present in two programmes.
Mox Mäkelä, Finland
The cultural references in the works of Finnish conceptual artist Mox Mäkelä, born in 1958, range from fairytales and literature to religious figures or current phenomena like social media. Her works have been shown in galleries and museums, at film and art festivals. In her films and installations, she explores the distant relationship of humans to the biosphere and the ecosystems of which they are a part. Mox Mäkelä’s animated collages of architectural spaces and devastated environments show up the ever-growing consumer and corporate capitalism, often with a touch of satire and comedy. Her productions, in which she often appears herself, can be seen equally well as independent artworks and as part of a series, a comprehensive whole. Oberhausen will present a survey of her short film work in two programmes entitled SWEET and SALT & SOUR.
The films
SWEET:
Manors and Maneuvers, 2011
Economic Rices, 2011
Violet’s Summer, 2020
Kissmud, 2016
Dear Internet Discussion Forum, 2013
Villahousut (Wool Trousers), 2021
Food 00 – Head Data, 2012
Hospitality Fin€, 2016
Hagioscope, 2020
tanssi / talkoot (dance / talks), 2022
APO – The Trip Now, 2012
SALT & SOUR:
Slaughters Love, 2021
Levitaatio Betonialustalla (Levitation on a Concrete Surface), 2015
Status, 2013
Bomb Sapiens, 2019
Dog Fathers and Godsons, 2010
Godmother and Dog Sons, 2010
Posle Dozhdichka v Chetverg (after rain on Thursday, proverb), 2022
Kahvia (Coffee), 2020
Night Ship Doc, 2015
Davorin Marc, Yugoslavia/Slovenia
This Profile is a rediscovery of a young and so far not adequately recognised artist: As a teenager, Davorin Marc, born in 1964, began to make short films that attracted some attention. At the age of 23, he retired from filmmaking and did not take up a camera again until 2013. At the centre of this programme is a rarity: the Super-8 projection of eight early films by Davorin Marc which were practically invisible over the past 35 years. Marc made his first short film at the age of twelve as a member of a film club at his primary school. In the 1970s, his works were screened successfully at numerous Yugoslavian film festivals but were not rediscovered until 2013. Shortly afterwards, Marc took up the camera again and began a second career, in which he has been developing a new and unique approach to abstraction. His new films, too, have been shown at festivals, including at Oberhausen. Especially for Oberhausen, Marc edited eight of his newer works as a loop installation, a digital postscript to this analogue profile and a glimpse of a project currently in the making.
The Super-8 films:
Smrt v družini (Death in the Family), 1979
Procesija (Procession), 1979
Paura in città (1181 dni pozneje ali vonj po podganah) (Fear in the City (1181 Days Later or Smell of Rats)), 1984
Ej, Klanje (Slaughter Ahoy), 1981
Ugrizni me. Že Enkrat. (Bite Me. Once Already.), 1980
Nemoj, nemoj plakati (Don’t, don’t cry), 1981
Ja, ne vem (Yes, I Do Not Know), 1980
Vsi gremo, gremo (We All Go, Let’s Go), 1980
The Loop:
… Here a Little
Indigo, 2013
Hej (Hey), 2016–20
Dobrodošlica. (Welcome.), 2017
miauuu., 2016
Poglej me, no #3 (Hey, Over Here! #3), 2015
999/999/1, 2015
Piknik (25 second per frame), 2013–14
Nebo nad Hévízom (The Sky over Hévíz), 2018–20
Abraham Ravett, USA
For decades, Abraham Ravett, born in Poland in 1947 and raised in Israel and the United States, has been making films about his family in which he deals with the effects of the Holocaust, a historical trauma suffered by both his parents. His works have been shown at the New York Museum of Modern Art and at numerous international film festivals. Ravett teaches at the Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Meditations about loss, trauma and grief are a constant in his work. Ravett often takes a historical photo as the starting point of his memory work: visual memories of lost family members trigger reflections on the nature of time and its effects on remembering, on personal and cultural memory and the materiality of memory objects. Oberhausen will present a survey of his work in three programmes.
The films:
Łódź:22592, 2019
Notes For a Polish Jew, 2012
Half Sister, 1985
Lunch with Fela, 2005
The March, 1999
One Flower, 2023
John Torres, Philippines
John Torres, born in 1975, is often called the poet of Philippine cinema. Torres is an independent filmmaker, musician and writer who has made more than a dozen short films and five feature-length films, including his award-winning debut long film Todo Todo Teros (2006). He teaches at the UP Film Institute and Ateneo de Manila University, leads film workshops and is co-organiser of the Los Otros art space in Manila. Love, relationships and memories are at the centre of his work, for which he uses diverse materials from snapshots to mobile phone movies and very often the spoken word in the form of poetry and fragments. Oberhausen will present 13 of his short films in two programmes.
The films:
Trees Wearing Our Clothes When We’re Not Looking, 2017
Tawidgutom, 2004
Salat, 2004
Very Specific Things At Night, 2009
Hai, They Recycle Heartbreaks In Tokyo So Nothing’s Wasted, 2009
We Don’t Care For Democracy, This Is What We Want: Love And Hope And Its Many Faces, 2010
Silent Film, 2011
Muse, 2011
After Nonoy Estarte, A Certain Orpheus, And Those Flowers In Dahilayan That Accompanied This Other Sense They Told Me About, 2016
Study On Lukas In Lukas The Strange, 2013
Mapang-Akit, 2012
Ruption 1 2 3, 2020
We Still Have to Close Our Eyes, 2019
A selection of high-resolution stills from the films is available for download here:
https://www.kurzfilmtage.de/en/press/#t654
Accreditation deadline: 25 April 2025
https://www.kurzfilmtage.de/en/visit/#c3193
Oberhausen, 17 April 2024
Press contact: Sabine Niewalda, +49 (0)208 825-3073, niewalda@kurzfilmtage.de