Karel Doing presents a programme exploring cinematic mischief, with a collection of works that undermine and disrupt contemporary political discourse whilst providing a counterpoint to aestheticism – a tonic for the modern malaise. This selection brings together films from across Europe to reveal surprising links between disparate makers and thinkers – followed by a discussion with the filmmakers about their outspoken and radical positions.
Programme: - Five Angels (Richard Ashrowan, 2016, 5 min, Colour, Digital) A personal take on Brexit and alternate possibilities for governance.
- Dolls vs. Dictators (Martha Colburn, 2011, 11 min, Colour, Digital) Puppets use their powers to rid the world of the last remaining dictators. A LOUD statement.
- La La Leni (Oliver Bancroft & Louis Benassi, 2013, 8 min, Colour, Digital) The sun reflects off the polished chrome parts of the fetish machine, the frame is a blue cloudless sky. All around there is a Technicolour glow. We see nothing apart from the "model" like a "new woman" of the Weimar. In athletic swimsuit she looks around like a panoptician while cranking the instrument, nothing is captured, soon time is indicated by an approaching, phalocentric phantom. The shadow cast from a redundant factory chimney.
- Media Blackout I (Deniz Johns, 2016, 4 min, B/W, Digital) Inspired by actual media blackouts carried out in Turkey following several suicide attacks, Media Blackout I explores the concept of visibility/accessibility in media.
- They Call Us the Enemy (Pim Zwier, 2015, 7 min, B/W, DCP) Shining boots, stripes on shoulders and medals pinned to the chest: the theatrical pomp and circumstance which the military uses contrast sharply with the chaos it causes.
- Priya (Alia Syed, 2011, 13 min, Colour, 16mm) Priya is an extended aerial shot of a twirling Kathak dancer. The footage was buried in various organic materials deteriorating the initial image in an attempt to shift cultural specificity and linear narratives of time and space. Rituals of burial expound successive memories of entombment; the skin of the film becomes the body of the dancer, fracturing time into a darkly evocative, psychological space.
- Sans-Titre (24xH2O) (Thomas Chatard & Antoine Ledroit, 2015, 23 min, Colour, 35mm) "In 2008, we discovered 35mm trailers abandoned on shelves for years. Trailers are witnesses of a double disappearance (cyclic movement of oblivion due to the intensive frequency of movie releases on cinema screens, current changing in the world of cinema where the film gives way to digital). We deposited, buried and secretly abandon these coils in different locations to allow time, the elements, gradually altering the emulsion. France, Finland, Germany, Guinea, hidden treasures. After 6 months, 1 year, 3 years... we returned to these landfills, and recovered the damaged coils. Fiction willingly gives way to organic and rhythmic, offering a return to magic." – Thomas Chatard & Antoine Ledroit
