Curator's Note:
This year, I happened to attend the Clermont-Ferrand Festival
(France), the largest short film festival in the world. I saw
a lot of exquisite shorts. I found some of them (especially the
ones in the Labo Competition) incredibly inspiring for the dance
filmmakers and lovers of dance film. That is how this proram was
born. Films in this program do not include dance but they are
full of choreographic and editing techniques that dance film makers
work with all the time.Calmin Borel,
one of the curators of the Labo Competition at the Clermont-Ferrand,
will be in person to introduce the program and answer audience's
questions. KINODANCE ecpresses its deep gratitude to the Digital
Arts Foundation for making Mr. Borel's visit possible.
"Coagulate”
(6min, 2008, France)
dir. Mihai Grecu
Absence, presence and aquatic distortions in this choreography
of fluids, mysterious forces twist the physical laws and affect
the behaviour of living beings in purified spaces.
Mihai
Grecu was born in Romania in 1981. After studying
art and design in Romania and France, he has been pursuing
his artistic research at the Fresnoy Studio of Contemporary
Arts. Recurring topics such as distress, cloning, hallucination,
city life and war articulate the whole of his exploration
of mysterious and subconscious beginnings. These visual and
poetic trips, mix several techniques and styles and may be
seen as propositions for a new dream oriented technology.
His work hes been shown in numerous galleries and film festivals
(Locarno, Rotterdam, Festival of New Cinema in Montreal).
"L’Arbitro”
(15min, 2008, France)
dir. Paolo Zucca
In the spirit
of Sergio Leone and Federico Fellini, this magnificent short
choreogaphs the hellish mayhem of a lowest division football
match wherein the destinies of two thieves cross path.
After
receiving a Degree in Modern Literature at University of Florence,
Paolo Zucca
took courses in screenwriting and directing in Rome. He directed
five award-winning shorts and over thirty commercials. He
live in Saridna, Italy.
"The
Girl Chewing Gum” (12min, 1976, UK)
dir. John Smith
"In
The Girl Chewing Gum” Smith choreographs the action in
the static frame set in a busy Longon street. We hear the voice
of the “director” who gives instructions that get
more and more ridiculous. The more film progresses, the more
documentary reality gets subverted, the order gives in to chance,
the theatre of absurd gets created.
John
Smith
was born in London in 1952 and studied film at the Royal College
of Art. Since 1972 he has made over 40 film, video and installations
works. His films have been shown in cinemas, art galleries
and on television throughout the world and awarded major prizes
at film festivals in Leipzig, Oberhausen, Hamburg, Cork, Geneva,
Palermo, Uppsala, Bangkok, Ann Arbor and Chicago.
"Sweden" (8min, 2000, Sweden)
"Music for One Apartment and Six Drums" (10min, 2001,
Sweden)
dir. Johannes Stjärne Nilsson and Ola Simonsson
"Sweden":On
the Swedish south coast a man is gazing out at sea. He pulls
out a compass and finds north. He starts to run. Three days
and three nights later he reaches his goal: Treriksröset.
He has passed the state of Sweden.
"Music...":Six
drummers participate in a well planned musical attack in the
suburbs. As an elderly couple leave their apartment the drummers
take over. On everyday objects they give a concert in four
movements: Kitchen, Bedroom, Bathroom and Livingroom.
Johannes
Stjärne Nilsson, born in 1969, has a
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in industrial design and is also
a cartoonist and illustrator. Ola
Simonsson, born 1969, has a Master of Fine
Arts (MFA) in music education as singing-master and is also
a singer and musician. In 2000, the artists formed a production
company Kostr-film and since then directed seven award-winning
films that were screened all over the wolrd.
| KINODANCE
would like to thank Swedish Film Institute for providing
the screening copies of the film |
.
|
“Next
Floor” (11.5min, 2008, Canada)
dir. Denis Villeneuve
During
an opulent and luxurious banquet, complete with cavalier servers
and valets, eleven pampered guests participate in what appears
to be a ritualistic gastronomic carnage. In this absurd and
grotesque universe, an unexpected sequence of events undermines
the endless symphony of abundance.
Denis
Villeneuve has rapidly achieved both public
and critical attention for films showcasing his powerful and
distinctive cinematic voice. His first two feature films “32nd
Day of August on Earth” and “Maelström”
were screened to critical acclaim at many international festivals.
“Superbia”
(15min, 1986, Germany)
dir. Ulrike Ottinger
Early
allegorical forms and figures (triumphal procession, dance
of death, Baroque tragedy etc.) set up the stage for the the
triumphal procession of the giant haystack as a symbol of
human vanities. The procession becomes a military parade of
abrupt, functional and arrogant gestures. Through montage
choreography, the films brings together and juxtaposes diverse
musical fragments and rhythms intone in the staged triumphal
procession with documentary images, including marches, ticker-tape
parades and military review.
Ulrike
Ottinger has been a unique voice in German
cinema since her debut in the early 1970s. Born in 1942, she
began her career as a painter in Paris, and was widely exhibited
in Europe before returning to Germany, where she directed
her first film in 1971. Since 1973, she has lived in Berlin.
Over the past 20 years, Ulrike Ottinger has directed 15 films,
including feature-length fictions and experimental documentaries.
“Muro”
(18min, 2008, Brazil)
dir. Tião
Soul in
vacuum, desert in expansion.
Tião
is one of the founders of the group Trincheira, based in Recife,
Brazil. “Muro” is his second short. It has been
screend and won awards at such festivals as Clermont-Ferrand,
Berlin, Cannes and many others.
