Different Cinema Volume 2

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Average: 3.5 (2 votes)
Different Cinema volume 2 cover Different Cinema volume 2, recently published by lowave,  is a showcase for experimental shorts screened in Paris in the 6th edition of the Festival des Cinémas Différents on December 2004. This DVD combines both film and video works in a varied compilation of less-known contemporary works.

 

Contents

K (Désert)

K (Désert) - Frédérique Devaux (France), 2004.
4 min., Super 8 & 16mm., colour, sound.
Frédérique Devaux (Paris, 1956) is a professor of art and cinema at the University of Paris. She has written numerous essays on film, specially on lettrism. She has made about forty films, including several documentaries on experimental filmmakers. In K (Désert), Devaux uses films shot in Super 8 about the region of Kabylie, in north Algeria, as the material for this work. Shooting these films in 16mm, working with the film material itself, in a process of deconstruction and restructuring: cutting, scratching, filming the sound and the sprocket bands of the film, through which we're able to see the images of a foreign land and its people. Along with the use of freeze framing, and different speeds, Devaux manages to create a very rythmic and beautiful film. K (Désert) is the fourth film in a series composed by K (Il est une fois) (2001), K (Les Luttes amazigh) (2002), K (Les femmes) (2003) and K (Rêves/Berbères) (2006).

Da qui, sopra il mare

Da qui, sopra il mare - Mauro Santini (Italy), 2003.
10 min., Beta SP, colour, sound.
Mauro Santini (Fano, 1965) has worked in graphic arts and photography and been making videos for more than a decade. Da qui, sopra il mare is a nostalgic film, that tries to recollect lost memories and sensations through passing figures and faces, empty rooms and windows, always shown through blurry images, as if to reflect the imperfections of memory. The film relies heavily on its soundtrack to achieve its effect.

Lily in the glass

Lily in the glass - Shiho Kano (Japan), 2003.
6 min., 16mm., colour, silent.
Shiho Kano (Tokyo, 1975) is a young artist but with an impressive career. She has made numerous films, videos and art installations and won several prizes at international festivals. Lily in the glass is constructed with the minimum elements: a lily flower in a glass on a wooden table. A solitary figure, of which we only get to see her arm, drops and later takes a letter from the table. Kano works with absence instead of presence to build a powerful composition, suggesting a story of which we have but a few details. The mastery of cinematography and lighting of Kano in this short is unparalelled among its partners.

Deperdition Lointaine

Déperdition Lointaine - Dominik Lange (France), 1999-2004.
11 min., 16mm., colour, sound.
Dominik Lange (1972) has already made over fifty films in a brief span of time. He's currently working on montage and development effects at an alternative laboratory and the creation of concrete music soundtracks for his films. Déperdition Lointaine is a frantic travel through the country centered on the remains of human presence: abandoned houses, an old car on the side of the road, an ancient church and its stained glass windows.

Artemis

Artemis - Valérie Morignat (France), 2001
13 min., DV, colour, sound.
Valérie Morignat (New Caledonia, 1974), doctor in Arts, is currently a researcher in digital arts at the CNRS. She is also the artistic director of the actazé association, devoted to "social, scientific, and cultural development", developing "an international network of researchers who work against discrimination, segregation and inequality in the domain of contemporary creation and culture." Artemis, goddess of hunt and childbirth, but at the same time, a harsh defender of her own purity, who punishes the men that try to violate it, as well as her own companions who lose their virginity. Artemis centers on the female figure, calid and calm, but that contains another self, blood red, that moves violently as if struggling from within. Both images contrast with a white surface of water in movement; water, usually an organic and female element, but that in this case acquires an artificial and cold quality.

Flamen'co

Flamen'co - Olivier Fouchard (France), 2002-2003.
7 min., 16mm., B&W, silent.
Olivier Fouchard (Troyes, 1969) is an experienced maker of films and concrete music videos. He frequently collaborates with Mahine Rouhi. Flamen'co is a film of contrasts, a succession of still shots, of light and darkness, of open and closed spaces, of isolated figures searching and then meeting, dancing, but then never stopping to be alone. Strangely enough, the short's name is incorrectly spelled in both the DVD's cover and booklet, in different ways.

Perhaps/we

Perhaps/We - Solomon Nagler (Canada), 2004.
11 min., 16mm., colour, sound.
Solomon Nagler is canadian filmmaker, member of the Winnipeg Film Group. His work deals mainly with the representation of self an his jewish roots. in Perhaps/we, we see, through the dreams of a painter, “in the fallen city of Lodz”, a remembrance of the jewish holocaust in Poland: a grey city, empty apartments, a cemetery, jewish scriptures, a hand painting the aleph letter, the first letter of the jewish alphabet (a new beggining?). Nagler works with his own film material, painting on it as if to reflect the influence of the painter on his dream.

F.I.R.T. 119

F.I.R.T. 119 - Rubén Guzmán (Argentina-Canada), 2002.
10 min., Super 8, B&W, sound.
Rubén Guzmán (Buenos, Aires, 1959) is an experienced filmmaker and curator. Besides making his own films and videos, he has also worked for other filmmakers as Maddin and Sharf. F.I.R.T. 119 is a double homage: to the industrial railways in southern Argentina (the title refers to the train number 119 from Ferrocarriles Industriales Río Turbio or Río Turbio Industrial Railways) and its workers, and to Dziga Vertov's cinema, through its cuts and montage and its use of light and motion. Specially worthy of notice is Adriana de los Santos' piano soundtrack.


DVD data
Video and audio quality on this DVD are pretty much standard. The video bitrate is somewhat low, but it doesn't seem to affect the viewing, and there are almost no noticeable artifacts, except, perhaps in Artemis. The extras are scarce: the standard filmo- and biographies and 2 "bonus films" that are the festival's intros. The DVD comes with a bilingual booklet in French and English with brief commentaries on the films.
Different Cinema volume 2 is a very good compilation of recent works. The mix of styles, media and tendencies makes it the more interesting. On the high end (in the humble opinion of this editor) are the works of Devaux, Kano, Morignat and Fouchard. On the low end, the works of Santini and specially Lange, which I didn't like as considered it uninnovative and lacking coherence. Though this volume doesn't reach the high level of its predecessor, it's still very worthy of notice and recommended.



Release date September 16, 2006
Content 1 DVD10 + booklet
Distribution
lowave
Region
0 (region free)
Format
PAL/NTSC
Video
4:3
Audio
Dolby Stereo
Colour
Colour and B&W
Subtitles English, French, German, Spanish
Length 60 min.


Additional info

You may but this DVD through lowave's site, or at online stores, such as ChaletFilms or Shortfilm.com.

You can find more stills at our gallery. There follows some additional info about the fillmakers:

-   Artists' page at lowave.

  • Frédérique Devaux

- Page at cineastes.net.
- Info about her lettrist works.
- Other works available: K3 (Les femmes) incliuded in the lowave DVD Resistance(s) and the Cinexpérimentaux documentary series (co-directed with Michel Amarger) at Re:voir. Her films can be rented through Canyon Cinema , Collectif Jeune Cinema and Light Cone.

  • Mauro Santini

- No relevant information has been found.

  • Shiho Kano

- Personal web page.
- Other works available: Her films can be rented at Canyon Cinema and Collectif Jeune Cinema.

  • Dominik Lange

- Filmography at cineastes.net and at L'Etna.
- Other works available: His films can be rented through Light Cone and Collectif Jeune Cinema.

  • Valérie Morignat

- Official site.
- Other works available: Her films can be rented through Collectif Jeune Cinema.

  • Olivier Fouchard

- Other works available: His films can be rented through Light Cone and Collectif Jeune Cinema.

  • Solomon Nagler

- Official site.
- Other works available: There's a DVD compilation available at the Winnipeg Film Group. His films can be rented through Canyon Cinema and Collectif Jeune Cinema.

  • Rubén Guzmán

- Other works available: His films can be rented through Collectif Jeune Cinema.

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