Fractured architecture, interim use, vacant dreams! Limbo states typical of the city,
which are due to utopian housing projects and economically driven urban planning. The films in
this cross-genre program tell of such projects and places, and of their - usually hopeless -
states of decay. Whether vacant flats in Japan, neglected districts in Milan, un-places along
the Berlin Wall, Smart-City enterprises in Georgia, or iconic GDR housing in Leipzig, all of
these places share an air of melancholy and absurdity. Through documentary, staged, and personal
narration the films uncover the afterglow of these places; make them narratable, turn them to
music, and make them visible by exaggerating their absurdity.
A reel-to-reel tape recorder plays a song or a prelude to a song, that tells the story of the increasing number of abandoned houses and buildings in Japan. This contemporary story is told in the style of ancient nō, traditional Japanese theatrical form. The work does not show images of uninhabited buildings, but instead serves as a conceptual starting point. The lyrics of the poem are recited in archaic Muromachi period (1333-1573) Japanese. They are based on current newspaper articles and poetic fragments dealing with the theme, giving character and personality to the voice we hear. The work is shot on 35mm film consisting only a single shot. The song is associated with the machine rather than the human. The performer becomes a machine and the machine becomes a performer. The work creates a future mythology or a dialogue between past and present by juxtaposing the traditional storytelling form with a contemporary interpretation of the current phenomenon of desolate houses.(Jonna Kina)… >>>
The site of the event - former wall strip in Berlin - is physically explored and made tangible. A relationship develops between me and the urban environment in which I spend my daily life. This happens in a similar way in the cinema, where I - embedded in the film - show gestures of my physical body live in front of the audience.… >>>
Premiere:
World Premiere
SCENES FROM TRIAL AND ERROR follows the endless tests of developing a futuristic smart city and deep sea port in a small fishing village of Anaklia on the shores of the Black Sea in west Georgia. The documentary film investigates the material and social conditions that are produced as a result of these ambitious infrastructural investments, aimed at transforming the country into a trade corridor for the speculative New Silk Road project.… >>>
Nominated:
Goldener Key
- Director: Tekla Aslanishvili
The story is set in one of the iconic architectural projects of the GDR, Leipzig-Grünau. The effects of the social and cultural transformations of post-GDR have imposed a new – yet invisible – layer onto this architectural landscape, and subsequently disguised my memories about a place once I grew up in. 14 of 19 high-rise buildings disappeared from the cityscape without anyone noticing. I had been haunting the area for long. I feel like an alien in it, in its past and its present.… >>>
Premiere:
World Premiere
Nominated:
A38-Production Grant Kassel-Halle
- Director: Alexander Göbel
The film ALL, OR NOTHING AT ALL starts with an aerial view of Viborg, Denmark, one of the oldest Viking settlements that grew into a medieval city. Viborg looks like an idyllic city, with brick buildings surrounded by water and red-tiled roofs. This soon falls apart into an uncanny, post-apocalyptic diorama in which the urban landscape has been shredded. Seven avatars sing and dance the viewer through the abandoned shopping streets, garages, the old crusader paths and centuries old alleys of Viborg while they sing ‘All, or Nothing at All’, originally sung by Frank Sinatra and re-interpreted by Danish singer Nina Vadshølt. While Sinatra interpreted the song from an utterly male perspective, Nina Vadshølt transformed it into an angelic, rebellious chant. The choreography is based on the musical West Side Story (1961), in which polisch,american and puertorican street gangs fight each other.… >>>
Premiere:
German Premiere
- Director: Persijn Broersen,Margit Lukacs
