(Film-Shop, Kasseler Dokfest@KiezKino im Film-Shop)
It is the last night on earth, everything is dark, warm, and soft. In the world's oldest video store, we slip into a small, unexplored pocket of time, filling it with the universal yet deeply personal longing for closeness and touch. Between the feeling of impending doom and the hope for a fresh start, six very different short films find their answers to questions like: What role does eroticism play in dystopia? Where do the forces of life and death converge? And how do we love when everything around us is falling apart? (Catriona Fadke)
Present? In a small workshop, Rebecca is engaged in crafting ceramic dildos that break away from their typical normative, phallic form. Past? Amidst the Inquisition, Josefa stumbles upon a dildo in dirt and soil, introducing it into their secret love affair with Maria. The two recolhidas (secular recluses) are accused of sodomy. In Tomás Paula Marques' queer love story, carried by gentle chants and mystical imagery, the boundaries of time and space blur. In between, the characters of DILDOTECTÓNICA encounter each other through the various layers of reality and fantasy, seeking their own forms of norm-free pleasure and resistance.
Through the smooth yet permeable surface of a mirror, Angel Montero and Maria Serna explore the connection between body, nature, and illness. Suddenly, death is very close, but the body is still here. And so it embarks on a journey in search of acceptance of impermanence and loss as part of life. But how does the body process the looming end of its own existence? Through healing rituals? Baths, touches, or proximity to nature? With all the senses, DEVOCIONES explores the boundaries of culture and nature, life and death. In deafening silence and inquisitive black-and-white shots, it discovers an unexpectedly tender yet strong form of zest for life.… >>>
In a small apartment kitchen, a person waits. There is a tense atmosphere in this room, seemingly far away from any other human. Here, the protagonist reflects on their longing for a connection to the outside world, for closeness and contact. The words they find for this are collected from online message boards, sometimes absurd, sometimes sincere and intimate. Their body finds space in cabinets, microwaves, sinks, thus connecting the interior and exterior in a sensual yet eerie way. In his 3D animation film ENDEARSING INSANITY, Poyen Wang takes us to a non-place that couldn't be more personal. Eroticism and horror collide and together explore the boundaries of our self-empowerment in an estranged environment.… >>>
When one wishes to explore something, to grasp the essence of a matter, something is inevitably lost along the way. But how can we look without destroying what we see? In Magdalena Bermudez's essayistic short film PARALLEL BOTANY erotically charged still lifes of fruits and plants intersect with their botanical illustrations. In the pursuit of knowledge, the objects of contemplation are placed under the knife and cut in half, seeking the inner essence and beauty of a thing that only emerges when it is divided. However, resistance stirs within the plants. Their two distinct representations collide and, in their juxtaposition, reveal the dark paradox of the unattainable – and the beauty of speculation.… >>>
CN: Thematization of suicide
In many Warhol filmographies, the title "Dance Movie" (also known as "Rollerskate") appears, yet it remains unfound to this day. In GODDESS OF SPEED Frédéric Moffet reimagines the lost work that was supposed to showcase the talented dancer Fred Herko, gliding on a single roller skate in 1963. In doing so, he also narrates the story of Herko's death in 1964, homeless and high on drugs, as he leaped naked from an open window while dancing to Mozart. Herko's story encapsulates pure zest for life, intoxication, and dance, alongside self-destruction and death. GODDESS OF SPEED gives space to these two energies and timelines alongside each other, offering a poetic, introspective glimpse into the end of life and the ecstasy that precedes it.
CN: The film works with light effects to which photosensitive people can react negatively.
During the lockdown, film materials for EMBERS FROM YESTERDAY, AFLAME. were processed with disinfectants that helped contain the spread of the coronavirus. William Hong-xiao Wei's transcendental experimental film serves as a reminder of the fragility of the cinematic medium and life itself. In the pure ecstasy of flickering images, intimate physical moments, kisses, and touches dissolve into psychedelic colors and merge into a vast, abstract whole through the analog manipulation of the images. Just as our familiar environment disintegrates, so does the visually accustomed. This cinematic frenzy is framed by fragile shots of young branches struggling to be reborn after the end of the catastrophe.
