Disorientation

Wednesday 9.11.2011 / 13:15 h / Filmladen

It is said that travelling makes us wiser. For sure, travelling changes us; it raises doubts, it topples the perspective, and often it creates utter confusion. This is true especially for those travels who would be more accurately termed as "emigration" or "escape". The films in this program tell of the irritations of displacement; of the "new place" that doesn't yield what one was hoping to find, or even worse, makes you fear a loss of self. But chances are that what one finds instead turns out to be better than what was lost.

No Country for Young Man

Iran has been experiencing a very high rate of “Brain drain” during the last few years. While feeling confused, many Iranian intellectuals and college graduates naturally come to believe that leaving Iran is the ultimate solution to their bewildering situation. However, as soon as they leave, another set of holes emerge in their lives. They have to face whole new sets of conflicts and deal with a new set of circumstances such as cultural and social shocks, communication barriers, etc. Something like a sense of belonging is still missing. This film explores the contrast between Iranian youth’s taste of life and what the country has to offer. It visually demonstrates the contradictory feelings of constant homesickness that this generation is experiencing, whether they decide to stay home or leave it. By focusing on the theme of “friendship”, this film tries to create more adequate representations of what is happening beneath the surface through exploring individual’s personal feelings.

Tao told me...

Yesterday, I have read a book.
A book written by a chinese philosopher who lived two thousand years ago, I think...Maybe more?
Today, I went to Beijing with a movie camera.
I was on the lookout. As simple as that.
I wanted to check if images of the city would help me understanding the book.
But maybe it is the opposite?

Through the Doorways of Dream

Sometimes dreams are chaotic and confusing. I try to find some order, by looking for the patterns in them. In doing so, it may give me a new way of perceiving the reality around me.

Tokyo - Ebisu

The JR (Japan Railway Company) Yamanote Line is one of the Japan's busiest lines, consisting of 29 stations and running as a loop. The film shows the views from the platforms of 10 stations in Yamanote Line, from Tokyo Station to Ebisu Station clockwise. The in-camera visual effects and the layered soundtrack may exaggerate the sense of the actual happenings at the locations. The film also exhibits the shooting and recording methods.

Cannot Be Anything Against the Wind

A series of sequences of landscapes shot in an area of 60 km make up mosaics of places and reference axes constantly changing and that do not exist in our surroundings. In this video bodies are not near or far. They are large or small. The horizons change and no space is independent from the viewer. Incorporating only memory, the landscape is seen in a variety of speeds and movements that apply a bodily logic to the vision. That which flows beyond the walls of our horizon, together flow on the same plane. Whilst the plans themselves also flow. Horizons change. Every living being is inside its own bubble which contains everything visible to them and their space maintains the solidity of their structure. In CAN NOT BE ANYTHING AGAINST THE WIND the view is an individual projection on a site, the action is the individual or collective use of an environment and the landscape is a view without action. The sky in this video is used as a natural "blue screen" and the sequences of each landscape, composed with a multilayers system, create a place that does not exist in reality.

Rihla

Rihla is the story of a man who travels from east to west. The film shows a kaleidoscopic view of the West and reflects on Occidentalism and mutual perception. The story is based on fragments of literature, from Arabic and Islamic countries, describing cities and countries of the West. The literature that is used originates from the 14th century until today. Different times and perspectives mix and intersect, all coming together in the narrative of the main character.

Flocking

FLOCKING, a transdisciplinary film project at the intersection of scientific research and art production, was developed during a cooperation between the Centre for Statistical Mechanics and Complexity (SMC) at the University La Sapienza in Rome, the ZKM Karlsruhe and the faculties of Photography and Media Art 3D at the University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe.
Through their use of camera technique and 3D visualisation, the results of the research at the University of Rome offer new conclusions on the behaviour within flocks of birds. The studies analysing the coordination of flocks of birds are based on sequential photographs. Using these photographs, three-dimensional data is generated to derive systems on the behaviour of individual birds within the flock. The data is of interest not only for the fields of biology and physics, but also for economists and sociologists.
The aesthetic quality of the images, that are created on an objective basis and without any artistic background, reminds one of romantic typologies such as panorama and landscape painting, or photographs of artists like William Turner, Casper David Friedrich or Luigi Ghirri, as well as Muybridge's work on kinetics and animals. The focus of the cinematic work is the range of topics between collective behaviour, complex systems and self-organised structures, as well as the difficulty to differentiate between an artistic and scientific image production.