film & video: CP01 When you're strange
The film and video section consists of a series of screenings relating thematically to the motto of the festival. Works range from feature film programmes [FP] to a number of compilation programmes [CP] and special programmes [SP]. The compilation programme features selections from the entries to the transmediale award 2008 – where the majority of this year’s award submissions may also be viewed at the project library. Two special programmes are dedicated to reflect on the conflicting and conspiring currents of the 1950s, a time when the Haus der Kulturen itself – the former congress hall – was donated to Berlin as a gift of the American people with the intention of it becoming the city’s ‘beacon of freedom’ before the Berlin Wall effectively split the city in two. Many of the artists will be present at the festival providing an opportunity for discussion after the presentation of their work. The programme closes on Sunday, February 3, with the preview of the annual ‘transmediale video selection’.
Beach
Guli Silberstein [il]
A personal account in the form of an out of tune TV broadcast; an accelerating stream of images, depicting a family on the beach in Tel Aviv, is juxtaposed with a video of a girl running frantically on a bombed beach in Gaza, only about 100 kilometers away.
Bilder aus dem Tagebuch eines Wartenden
Judith Zdesar [at]
This is a search for the lost, or to be more exact wasted time spent during obligatory military service on the edge of Schengen country, which is embodied by the absurd micro-performances of the young showoffs and in banal, everyday monologs about the sense (or lack thereof) of their presence, enlarged to almost Becket-like dimensions. The situation: No one knows what will happen next. Its unsettling aspect: Even capturing migrants would seem to be a reasonable option, but the soldiers are too far from the border for that to happen—a war movie without a war. The only thing that remains is concentrating on one’s own emotional situation. When your existence becomes a kind of service and your superior has lost the authority which gives him meaning, service on the border becomes a borderline case of filmic/linguistic representation. Though these Images from a Diary of Waiting seem strange and foreign, they have more to do with us than we would prefer. Lo-fi science fiction without a future, the soldiers themselves are the aliens, and the enemy looks like your best friend. Really spooky.distributed by: www.sixpackfilm.com
Ensayo de un Crimen (Rehearsal for a Crime)
Ximena Cuevas [mx]
An homage to Luis Buñuel's “The criminal life of Archibaldo de la Cruz” with a twist to these days control systems of security. From the moment we are suspects we are potential culprits. Therefore we are all guilty. distributed by: www.vdb.org
Stranger Comes To Town
Jacqueline Goss [us]
They say there're only two stories in the world: man goes on a journey, and stranger comes to town. Six people are interviewed anonymously about their experiences coming into the U.S. Each then designs a video game avatar who tells their story by proxy. Goss focuses on the questions and examinations used to establish identity at the border, and how these processes in turn affect one's own sense of self and view of the world. Stranger Comes to Town re-works animations from the Department of Homeland Security--combining them with stories from the border, impressions from the on-line game "World of Warcraft," and journeys via Google Earth to tell a tale of bodies moving through lands familiar and strange.distributed by: www.vdb.org
Arameans
Ricardo Mbarkho [lb]
This video questions the mobility of the Arameans in the Lebanese social context; this is through the example of an Assyrian woman who has undergone one of the explosions in Beirut. Since they moved from Iraq, until their departure from Syria, are the Arameans who hold their language and their religion pursued again by terrorism in Lebanon?
Recitation
Kevin Logan [uk]
Recitation is an audiovisual piece examining oral traditions and their relationship with text based information and belief systems, in particular religious texts. Inspired and utilising a poem by Jarmain Patrick, which was performed during a development week which brought together visual, spoken word, and audio artists. It incorporates computer animated text/hand-made graphics and footage captured by a mobile phone camera.
More information: www.transmediale.de