Films presented at the Second MIT Short Film Festival 2006
1. Cross-cultural encounters / Central Europe (2000-2005)
Afrejsen (The departure) by Louise Friedberg, (Denmark 2005), 26’25”
Annika is a successful journalist, and has just been made foreign
correspondent in Moscow. The only thing she has left to do before
she leaves is say goodbye to her son Jonathan. But Jonathan is not
interested in saying goodbye. He wants his mother to be part
of his life – which is more than Annika can give.
Ajutoare Umanitare (Humanitarian Aid) by Hanno Höfer (Romania 2001), 16'
Three young men from western Europe arrive in Romania with humanitarian aid.
The inhabitants of a little mountain village have been waiting for them.
Another Day by Ingrid Coppe (Belgium 2005), 9'
A moment.
He, a dream, the reality, remembering
She, the memory, her reality.
They meet there.
Fleetingly.
Bilingual by Chamoun Issa (Great-Britain, 2005), 16’
On the point of conflict between lifestyles - traditional-lebanese or British-modern -
"Bilingual" ignites its sweeping comedian wit. Seen from the perspective of the
16-year-old Hana who wants to find a path of her own; realized with ease,
satirical sharpness and winking sympathy for all its characters.
Copy Shop by Virgil Widrich (Austria 2000), 12'
A man who works dedicatedly in a copy shop copies himself until
he fills the whole world with his clones. This ''film'' actually consists of nearly
18,000 photocopied frames, which are animated and filmed with a 35mm camera
Den som Spar… (Savings) by Maria Eng, (Sweden 2005), 19’30”
A bittersweet story about a lonely old lady, Ingrid, and her
substituting cleaning woman, Luciana. Their encounter results
in a downward spiral for both of them. In the eye of the storm is
a Piggy bank which is of vital importance for how the story develops.
A film about how prejudice and fear can mess up our everyday lives.
Die bösen alten Lieder (Evil Old Songs) by Fatih Akin (Germany ), 5'57"
Fatih Akin creates a short piece around a song with music by
Richard Schumann and words by Heinrich Heine,
remixed industrially by Caspar Brötzmann and FM Einheit
(Einstürzende Neubauten) to create something uniquely (anti-)German.
European Showerbath by Peter Greenaway (Great-Brittain), 5'
It'll be fine by Laila Pakalnina (Latvia 2004), 5'
La peur, petit chasseur (Fear, Little Hunter) by Laurent Achard (France 2004), 8'
A house in the country on a November day.
In a corner of the yard, a child quietly waits.
Le droit chemin (The Straight and Narrow) by Mathias Gokalp (France 2004), 12'
A 25 years-old prisoner recalls the story of his life,
confusing the beginning and the end.
Music for one apartment and six drummers by Ola Simonsson, Johannes Stjärne Nilsson (Sweden 2001), 9'28"
A gang in a Volvo have staked out a flat;
when its occupants leave to walk their dog,
the six break into the place...
The Isle by Kenneth Scicluna (Malta 2004), 5'
A foreigner comes to Malta, to take pictures of dilapidated buildings.
He photographs ruins that look like they could be on Böcklin's "Isle of the Dead."
Soon he finds, however, that crumbling edifices are not the only similarity
between the two Isles.
Unisono by Sasa Gedeon (Czech Republic 2005), 5'
A five–minute picture made by Saša Gedeon is a part of an unusual project called Visions of Europe. Its objective is to create a colourful mosaic of views of the growing European Community future. ...
Western Eyes by Hester Clark (Great-Britain 2005), 6’
Slim O'Rafferty, the tired old cowboy, needs to pass his compulsory annual eye-test
in order to continue riding his horse. The chief optician's deputy has other ideas.
Zapping by Cristian Mungiu (Romania 2000), 14'
2. New expressions - Experimental Short Films (2000-2005)
As If by Christian Meyer (Germany 2000), 12'
This is a simple love story. On a Saturday John Jenkins Jr
leaves his office at 1 pm. He picks up his girlfriend Jenny Lister
to go for a drive in the country. There they have a weird but
wonderful time together. However, at the end of one beautiful
afternoon the car breaks down! Feeling gloomy they take the
train back into town. Finally, they get back home ... In front
of the television Jenny and John try to save what’s left of this
eventful day.
Falcon by Karø Goldt (Germany/Austria 2003), 3'
An orange-red field of color with a graphic design that is not
immediately recognizable, accompanied by electronic sounds
on the audio track: ‘falcon’ begins with a static and visually arresting
image which is soon transformed. The color turns to white and
then pink, yellowish green changes to orange and red.
This takes place parallel to the vibrating soundtrack.
Various parts of the picture are affected by these modulations of
color causing them to stand out in differing intensities.
Thus it only gradually becomes clear that the strange symbol
represents the abstract image of an airplane cockpit because
‘falcon’ not only refers to a bird of prey but is also the name of the
F-16 fighter bomber.
Karo Goldt’s work is modeled on a real image, a photograph that has
been edited on a computer. Reduction and abstraction are used to
enhance the symbolic character of the subject. At the same time the
result resembles x-ray images or thermography and thus points to
the existing relationship to other image producing devices. (Claudia Slanar)
Fast Film by Virgil Widrich (Austria 2003), 14'
A woman is abducted an a man comes to her rescue, but during their
escape they find themselves in the enemy’s secret headquarters.
This classic plot conceals an homage to action movies.
In 14 minutes, Fast Film (a play on words, English fast and German fast,
meaning “almost”) provides a tour de force through film history,
from its silent beginnings to present-day Hollywood.
The filmmakers printed out some 65.000 individual images from 300 films,
folded them into paper objects, arranged them in complex tableaux,
and then brought them to life with an animation camera in a
two-year production process.
Getingen (Jasper) by Mårten Barkvall (Sweden 2005), 17’45”
In an unknown time and unknown place two men strive tirelessly
to make contact with another civilization. But the reception is bad
so they seek higher ground. They travel through a gloomy and
barren world with the hope of a more tolerable existence hopelessly distant.
Ich rette das Multiversum (I'll save the Multiverse) by Ulf Groote (Germany 2005), 11'
Frank has discovered a blue shift instead of a red shift in the
spectrum of faraway galaxies: the universe collapses!
As more and more of his alter egos from parallel universes arrive,
he discusses a theory about how to create paradise at the
end of the universe. He manages to coordinate himself to save
not only his girl and his universe, but an infinity of worlds.
Jivan "Up There" by Marc Comes (Germany 2002), 10'
The passion of a 13-year-old boy called Jivan is recounted in
Marc Comes’s work ›up there‹. Water as violence, mechanics, a
futuristic tub as an amniotic sac, intensities of light. Jivan opens
his eyes. He folds his felt mat and steps out into the open.
›up there‹ is a psychological work of art in the tradition of
the European experimental film in which sound and picture
form a close intermedia relationship. »The film successfully employs
new aesthetic means of expression for traditional poetic
forms of filmmaking. The work changes surfaces and materials
in a masterly way and transforms them into moments of perception
and consciousness.« (Werkleitz Award 2003, press report)
»In my dreams, in my whole behaviour, something of my existence
before I was born lives on, something of swimming blissfully
in my mother’s womb. I know that I already existed then.«
(Pier Paolo Pasolini)
Land Under by Cornelius Kirfel (Germany 2003), 4'
The film ‘Landunter’ (Land Under) was a result of a seminar that
dealt with conceptions of utopia. The idea for the film and the music,
however, already existed. In the film itself neither a utopia nor a
counter-utopia is developed. There is also no intended reference
to things in the future or in the past which is why the sentence
‘If I could change the world, I wouldn’t do anything’ appears in the
introduction of the film. We follow the image of a street;
a flight during the night until the early morning.
Los Perros de Pavlov (Pavlov's Dogs) by Kike Maíllo (Spain 2004), 14'
Angel leaves home. Luis ends his day as a delivery man.
Sofia comes home from school.
Alicia sells soup.
Moises steals from a supermarket
There is an accident.Obras by Hendrick Dusollier (France 2004), 12'
In one single shot, Obras is a poetic and graphic journey exploring
Barcelona’s irreversible destruction and reconstruction.
One After Another by Anna Anders (Germany 2002), 1'
An attack on the audience. Thirty panes of glass are broken, destroyed
by hammer, fist, foot, bicycle pump, soup ladle, rollingpin,
broom, umbrella and other »percussion instruments«. And
the panes tinkle in a high-pitch tone ...Rack by Volker Schreiner (Germany 2000), 6'
Three cameras on one, two, three floors of a staircase, at one
time in one place, at one, two, three times in one place, at one
time in one, two, three places, at one, two, three times in one,
two, three places.Self-Portrait as a Nude; Study No. 2 by Wolfgang Lehmann (Germany 2002/2003), 8'
»I love signs of transience such as patina, scratches and age;
they are traces of history and existence in pictures. They are signals
for irreversible time. The film is like a painting that develops
with the parameter of time. It was put together from small
parts at the editing bench. There are no longer any negatives of
the original footage because all the material was combined to
form a whole during editing. The images on the screen are the
result of the extremely short sequences of shots, as a rule in two
or three frames. The ›smudge‹ is anything but a reduction of
the image; on the contrary, as a result the pictures gain a degree
of diversity and richness. The marks where the film is spliced
was something that excited me even in the ›classics‹ of film history,
and here this has been taken consciously to the extreme
by me. What interests me is not the analysis of the material but
rather the very conscious way of dealing with the aesthetics of
it. The nakedness of the body is not the most essential aspect of
the film. Nakedness is something natural, no more and no less.
The desire to work with the material, the rhythm of the images,
the editing and assembling of the pictures, the light and the colours—
these are the real self-portrait because it is in these that I
find my passion for creating.« (Wolfgang Lehmann)
Sommarlek (Summer Clouds) by Axel Danielson (Sweden 2004), 15'
The July afternoon air is thick with the song of crickets.
A man, a girl and a boy – three different people in one location.
In between them lies the rye field and at the horizon,
the storm clouds are building.
When the rain falls this afternoon, everything will change…
Suburbs of Emptiness by Thomas Köner (Germany 2003), 12'
In the winter of 2002/03 the media artist Thomas Köner collected
over 3,000 photographs taken by public surveillance
cameras posted on the Internet in order to select from them the
material for his work ›Banlieue du Vide‹. Nothing appears to be
happening in these places, empty of people and harden in ice
and snow. But then, hardly noticeable, subtle changes are perceived.
Drifting snow, tyre tracks, a slight change in the weather
situation are all Köner needs to breathe life into his material.
Just as the snow absorbs sounds, there is also something about
the images that is restrained and removed from reality, like
blurred memories or uncertain premonitions—present but on
the verge of formlessness. These are the last perceptions of the
»suburbs of emptiness«.
»The feeling of transition and disappearance contained in the
work comes both from the slow movement of the pictures the
artist has chosen and from the sound composed by Köner. Both
together give the piece a timeless character. ›Banlieue du Vide‹
refers to an existential quality of everything that is in the process
of disappearing. There is nothing we can do about it but to
wait and not to be involved: what we are looking at is steadily
disappearing«. (Nicole Gingras)
The Day Slows Down as it Progresses by Thomas Bartels (Germany 2000), 14'
›The Day Slows Down as It Progresses‹ is a kaleidoscopic combination
of picturesque images from India and it’s about making
pictures. A woman squats in her doorway, letting fine powder
flow out of her hand to form a colourful ornamental pattern.
In a workshop in Bombay men paint large-scale cinema hoardings.
A photographer takes passport photographs in front of the
Baroda court house, developing them directly in his wooden box
camera.
The hand-crafted processes documented here reflect the way
the entire film is made. The original material which Thomas Bartels
shot on 16mm film in India was later re-shot frame by frame
with a rostrum camera, thereby altering it by enlarging details,
changing the tempo or assembling a moving collage using animation
techniques. The sound-track was created in a similar
manner, albeit digitally, by Wolfgang in der Wiesche. As source
material he used original sounds and musical fragments taken
from Hindi films and vocal recordings made by the Berlin-based
musician Nandkishor Muley.The Maid Asleep by Corinna Schnitt (Germany 2001), 8'
In a single crane shot the viewer is shown a housing estate with
detached homes. The mass of lovely houses are laid out like a
pattern plate – clean and ideally arranged, but completely deserted
and eerie. Not until the end of the film is the charged
atmosphere interrupted by a voice speaking from an answering
machine.
The Source by Tim Coe (Germany 2002), 2'
An overgrown garden: Out of the distance comes a solitary person,
then another one and another one. We see this coming and
going of people in a series of short shots.
Ultimately we see a street corner with many people walking
in all directions. It has, however, gradually become apparent
that all the people are the same person—this place is entirely
populated by identical replicas. The confrontation with a world
populated by replicas of just one person creates mixed feelings.
Is this egoism on the part of the artist (since he has populated
the world with replicas of himself)?
There is an innate drive to reproduce and pass one’s own
genes on to the next generation. This seems to have been forced
here to the extreme of megalomania. A strange variation on the
solipsistic idea that the only being I know to be a thinking, feeling
consciousness is myself.
Utrecht Hut by Franz Hoefner (Germany 2002), 3'
This all-round unit combines contemporary functionality with
traditional charm. It takes little room and thus creates additional
storage space for your living-room. Even the smallest flat
can become gigantic. With the Utrecht hut you will experience
how it feels to live in a country-house-style dwelling and learn
to use living space differently. It can be realized quite easily and
requires little craftsmanship. The Utrecht hut is a home that
adapts to you.
The video loop shows the transformation of a wall unit called
›Utrecht‹ into the ›Utrecht hut‹ on the ground-plan of a living room
3. European / Chinese Animation Films (2000-2005)
About Life by Shui Yu, (China, 2004), 14’05”
This is lively mixture of live-action and animation.
Life can have many different possibilities.
One careless move may trigger a chain of unexpected
consequences on others and even the world. Who knows?
A cup of Tea by Zheng Zhou, (China, 2004), 4’57”
Within a cup of tea, there might exist a brand new world.
Born er Pissefarlige! (Wicked, wicked kids) by Diego Krogstrup, (Denmark 2004), 7’
Two kids on a mission to kill are accidentally thrown into each other’s arms
and discover that neither of them wants to kill at all.
Their bosses don’t agree and are out to get them both.
Cat by Hua Bu, (China 2002), 5’40”
The saddest story you will ever see about cats, or maybe about ourselves.
Bring tissues.
Cirkus (Circus) by Thomas Pors, (Denmark, 2004), 8’20”
Naive clown with a fabulous act and a heart of gold wants to join the circus.
Unfortunately he ends up in the wrong place: A circus where the manager is apathetic,
the ballerina has had enough, and the horse is on prescription drugs.
Exit by Robert Depuis, (Denmark, 2004), 7’
A perfect shot. Through the window, through the chair and straight
through the fat man’s head. He collapsed, slid off the chair and hit the floor.
Nobody could have survived… but the fat man did not die.
Folder by Plastic Operator (Mathieu Gendreau & Pieter Van Dessel), (Belgium 2006),
Overtime by Damien Ferrié, Thibault Berland, Oury Atlan (France 2004), 4'
Small facric puppets find their creator lying on his bench, dead.
Our sad creatures don’t understand that he died, for they never had
been confronted to such a concept, and will try to live as everyday.
Pond by Ying Huang, (China, 2001), 5’39”
An intriguing piece that fuses traditional Chinese ink-painting
with 3D animation technologies.
This short film wants to show the delicate balance of the Nature between
harmoniousness and competitiveness, through an episode of two dragonflies,
one red and the other green, in a picturesque lotus pond.
It reflects the yearn of the director for a peaceful and tranquil life.
Realm by Bo Yuan, (China, 2004), 4’52”
A ladder goes up without end. A man keeps climbing until he goes nuts.
A realm or height we always want to reach but may not really know anything about
Shadow by Li Zhang, (China 2003), 7’59”
This animated film explores the divide between a person's inner and
outer worlds and the relationship between man and society.
A sad love stories depicted in the simplest line form.Shooting the Sun by Xue, Yidan & Mu Zhang, (China 2005), 7’30”
A long long time ago, there were nine suns in the sky,
scorching the earth into flames. There got to be a hero who could save mankind.
A unique piece of sand animation with striking visuals.
Son and Father by Dayu Liu, (China, 2005), 11’43”
The changing attitude of the son towards his father,
tells how he is growing up and the society is evolving.
The Bird by Gong Zhang, (China), 15’10”
Heart-tearing story of a little bird who fights for its freedom.
The Kite by Guoqiang Xie, (China, 2005), 6’55”
During those turmoil days of the Cultural Revolution, a young lad
held on tight to his dream for freedom and serenity,
which is set free with his kite.
The Tail of the Rabbit by Yin Luo, (China, 2005), 7’31”
A little girl ran into a strange rabbit who somehow lost its tail…
The Thief by Xiaoping Zhou, (China, 2004), 4’08”
A story of misunderstanding that might have happened to all of us.The Wedding of the Mouse's Daughter by Le Zhang, (China, 2005), 7’12”
The mouse king is determined to marry his daughter to the most powerful
being in world and the story starts with their search for this being.
A classical fairy tale that every Chinese kid has grown up with.
Toto and Gogo by Zhiyong Li, (China 2005), 4’00”
Playful gags between a kong-fu master rabbit and dog.
Villa, Volvo & Vicki (For dog and country) by Andreas Bodker Jorgensen, (Denmark, 2004), 7’44”
A man is drowning in stress. He is so obsessed by his diary that he has
forgotten the world surrounding him. It takes a torrent of water to show him
that there are more important things in life than his next appointment.
Wu Wo by Yuxi Wan, Gunter Grossholz, (Germany 2005), 5’55”
The scenes and stories of this piece are based upon stunning ancient mural
paintings found in ancient Chinese palace. Wu Wo is a 600 years old mural
that makes living and thinking of China Sung dynasty become alive.
The mural and a Tanka tell about the buddhist understanding of life as a circle.
A collaborative work between German and Chinese animation filmmakers.
Xian Xian by Yi Li, (China, 2005), 3’33”
A popular film star of the 1930s in Shanghai, was very concerned about
her diet so as not to put on weight, until one day the Japanese intruders came…
Xiao Xiao Series by Zhiqiang Zhu, (China, 2002)
Kong-fu masters watch out! Be afraid of this little match man!
More to be added
The Festival is presented in conjunction
with Prof. William Uricchio's course "Topics in International Media" (21F.015)
For further information please contact the Festival Organizer, Kurt Fendt <fendt
mit.edu>
