17. Feb
20:00, Hackesche Höfe Kino17. Feb
PRENDAS – NGANGAS – ENQUISOS – MACHINES {EACH PART WELCOMES THE OTHER WITHOUT SAYING}
D+DOP: Elke Marhöfer, CU 2014, 26 min.
Silence interrupted only by wind and birdsong, rays of light creating artifacts, a trip on the river, close-ups and short cuts to plants and animals. Seemingly unconnected images meet as if by accident – traces of the present on the past. PRENDAS – NGANGAS – ENQUISOS – MACHINES {EACH PART WELCOMES THE OTHER WITHOUT SAYING} refers to a Congolese-Cuban practice of healing – everyone and everything exists, connects, and lives in coexistence with that which was and still is here. How can a place whose post-colonial legacy remains ever visible, experience healing in this way? In this work, Elke Marhöfer practices a non-hierarchical approach to filmmaking, and seeks to subvert the anthropocentric gaze.
THE DEMANDS OF ORDINARY DEVOTION
D: Eva Giolo, C: Sara D’Agati, Elia Libero, Agata Salerni, Aline Dupont, DOP: Eva Giolo, Eva Claus, BE/IT 2022, 12 min.
A coin toss frames and provides the rhythm for this elegantly collaged experimental film. Working worlds and images of nature interact with each other in rapid succession. Children are diapered, nursed, caressed. An analogue camera is tested. Chairs are woven. Pottery is moulded. Hands provide care, fix, organize. Rituals of the everyday. Commonplace, yet graceful in their cinematic power, at times sublime. Like a meditation, moments flash, are released and repeated, while the hypnotic polyphony of sounds unites different senses.
KOBAN LOUZOU
D: Brieuc Schieb, C: Virgil Vernier, Audrey Carmes, neel, Laurence Sanchez, Baptiste Perusat, DOP: Marie Ward, Raphaël Guillet, FR 2022, 60 min., French original with English subtitles – international premiere
A house in the French countryside as a miniature of society: When Audrey arrives, she is confronted with a lecture right away. The landlord tirelessly underlines how progressive he is, and what a unique space he has created outside the urban centres. While his utopia doesn’t seem to leave much space for others, he is surrounded by three other volunteers who work for him. The house isn’t very large so all of them find themselves unable to avoid each other. Starring the remarkable independent filmmaker Virgil Vernier in a blissfully awkward performance, Brieuc Schieb navigates humour, irritation, and intimacy in his meticulously composed first feature – all to face a question not just today’s art world is obsessed with: Who can really bear living in a collective?
DAWN
D: Leonor Noivo, C: Alexandra Espiridião, Ana Teresa Magalhães, Lilia Trajano, Isabel Costa, DOP: Vasco Viana, Paulo Menezes, PT 2021, 28 min., Portuguese original with English subtitles
The story of a disappearance: Maria does not feel comfortable in her skin. Having recently become a grandmother, she still toils as a cleaner in the outskirts of Lisbon. This socially invisible work makes the sensitive woman feel increasingly alien. Maria’s skin changes and her desire to speak weakens. Despite the warmth and openness among her colleagues, and the caring of her daughter, she is inexorably drawn away from the city and from her life as a human being. A gentle, poetic film about the forces of departure that take hold of the body and transform its memories and roles.
Debate AESTHETICS OF CARE
Which cinematic styles might make a more caring society not only conceivable, but palpable too?
Guests: Caroline Kirberg, Leonor Noivo, Brieuc Schieb
The AESTHETICS OF CARE debate is presented in complement to our inaugural conference CINEMA OF CARE – WHO LOOKS AFTER FILM CULTURE?