Thursday, 18 May 20:30, Vagonu Hall

A FACE IN THE CLOUD

Curator: Ulrich Ziemons

A common event: You look up into the sky, dense with clouds passing by above. Suddenly, a shape manifests itself out of the billowing mass of droplets and particles. Something you recognize, something you have seen before, something palpable, describable. An object, an animal, a face. You blink. It is gone. This program brings together films that – in one way or another – dealwith ambiguous and ephemeral images. Their makers investigate film’s ability to store, layer and project time. The images they find and create are situated at the edge of memory and imagination, between remembering and envisioning, past and future, unveiling and obscuring. They leave gaps for the viewer to fill – images whose construction, status and temporality remains unclear, unexplained, uncanny. What makes an image real, what makes a memory true?

Palpar el FIN / On the edge of the END. Colectivo INDEX

Colombia / 2023 / 5’30” / sound / 35mm slides to digital

Estuary. Ross Meckfessel

US / 2021 / 11’30” / sound / 16mm to digital

NYC RGB. Viktoria Schmid

Austria / 2023 / 7’ / sound / 16mm to digital

THAT WAS WHEN I THOUGHT I COULD HEAR YOU. Matt Whitman

US / 2021 / 8’40” / no sound / 16mm

I Have Seen the Fire Ship. Daniel Murphy 

US / 2021 / 6’30” / sound / 16mm to digital

REVOLVER. Crystal Z Campbell

US / 2022 / 17’30” / sound / 16mm to digital

vs. Lydia Nsiah

Austria / 8’ / 2021 / sound / HD video & 16mm to digital

Friday, 19 May 18:00, Vagonu Hall

ALERT STATE

Curator: Aurélie Percevault

On the alert, to alert, being alert. Variations on states of heightened attention, in the filmmaker's gaze, the object / subject he-she observes or the viewer's reception. A range of films in various tones, from humour to critical distance, from sharp observation to deep contemplation. Hammered injunctions of the self improvement industry, image to be seized on the fly, horizons scrutinised in a subtle play of scales. Beauty and decay intertwined in a playful sensory oversolicitation. Diving into the depths of the forest, the essence of the cycles of life and death, the warning signs and the sudden reversal. Exultation defies the perennial police surveillance with a backdrop of nihilism. Watchers and the watched. Then the gentle ballet of an aerial panopticon. The calm before the storm? In the background, omnipresent, the shadow of a latent threat persists.

WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP

To Do. Saul Pankhurst

UK / 2022 / 3’20” / sound / 16mm to digital

Che. Ignacio Tamarit

Argentina / 2023 / 17” / optical sound / 16mm

FACE HOME VIEW. Raquel Vermunt

Netherlands / 2022 / 8’40” / optical sound / 16mm

Color Prism Suite #2: Withering Ends. Zack Parrinella

US / 2021 / 3’45” / optical sound / 16mm

Osmose / Osmosis. Laurence Favre

Switzerland, Germany / 2022 / 11' / optical sound / 16mm

Film porte-malheur: Le pain / Bad Luck Film: The Bread. Gérémy Lelièvre

Belgium / 2022 / 3’45” / digital sound / 16mm

2940 N Campbell. Jacob Kessler

US / 2022 / 4’10” / sound / 16mm to digital

Cinzas e Nuvens / Extended Presences. Margaux Anne Ali Dauby

Belgium, Portugal / 2023 / 12’30” / sound / 16mm to digital

Sunday, 21 May 20:00, Vagonu Hall

SECRET LINKS

Curator: Lāsma Bērtule

Seven films that deal with finding, losing and making connections. The threads weave into fabrics of families, cities, memories, songs, or riddles with no answer, and we are invited to discover patterns that we didn’t know before. It can be terribly sad and impossibly beautiful, and funny, and sometimes all at once, letting us equip ourselves with hope in the face of destruction.

Sensitive Material. Natalya Ilchuk

Ukraine, France / 2021 / 26’30” / sound / 8mm to digital

Two Cancers. Josh Weissbach

US / 2021 / 3' / no sound / Super8 to 16mm

Dans les cieux et sur la terre. Erin Weisgerber

Canada / 2022 / 11’40” / optical sound / 16mm

Época es poca cosa / Epoch isn’t big deal. Ignacio Tamarit, Tomás Maglione

Argentina / 2021 / 2’45” / optical sound / Super 8 to 16mm

L’Incanto / Enchantment. Chiara Caterina

Italy / 2021 / 20’ / sound / 16mm & Super 8 to digital

Бабушка Галя и Дедушка Аркадий / Grandma Galya and Grandpa Arkadiy. Anna Kipervaser

Ukraine, US / 2023 / 5’ / sound / 16mm to digital

I am a. Dagie Brundert

Germany / 2022 / 2’30” / sound / Super 8 to digital

Thursday, 18 May 18:00, Vagonu Hall

Baltic Experimental

Curator: Ieva Balode

The programme consists of the latest experimental films made by authors from the Baltic countries who not only choose to work on photochemical film but also create experimental narratives and engage with film's materiality and structure. This year's programme showcases works by members of Baltic Analog Lab and authors who are somehow connected to the lab.

Impetus. Miglė Križinauskaitė-Bernotienė

Lithuania / 2022 / 4' / sound / 16mm to digital

Can’t Help Myself. Anna Ansone

Latvia / 2022 / 19' / sound / 16mm to digital

Pleasing to the Eye. Signija Joce 

Latvia  / 2023 / 4' / sound / 16mm to digital

Thanatophobia. Ieva Balode, Michael Higgins

Latvia, Ireland / 2022 / 11' / sound / 16mm to digital

Time Here No Longer. Jāzeps Podnieks

Latvia  / 2022 / 15' / sound / 16mm to digital

Teacup Part 1. Artūrs Lūriņš

Latvia / 2023 / 5'30'' / sound / 35mm to digital

lost fps // they come out in the dark. Sintija Andersone

Latvia / 2023 / 5'/ digital sound / 16mm 

RAINBOW VISION SPECTRAL EXPRESS. Ieva Aleksa, Artūrs Lūriņš, Elīna Matvejeva, Sintija Andersone, Dāvis Gauja, Andrejs Strokins, Mersedes Margoit, Kei Sendak

Latvia / 2023 / 12' / digital sound / 16mm

Sunday, 21 May 17:00, Vagonu Hall

Retrospective: Schmelzdahin

Curator: Jānis Putniņš

Schmelzdahin group was formed in Bonn in the end of the 1970's when three young artists Jürgen Reble, Jochen Müller, and Jochen Lempert started practicing alchemy of light and image, subjecting both self made and found footage to different kinds of physical treatment. The spectrum of their actions was wide – film was putrefied, left in pond water for months, transformed with various chemical substances, physically attacked in many different ways, and, of course, melted (an approximate translation of “Schmelzdahin” could be “melt away”). The outcomes of these experiments were preserved on film with an optical printer, resulting, over a more than ten year long period, in many visually impressive collaborative works that, instead of a structured narrative, affect the viewer with an unbridled visceral energy, surreal humour and a creative approach to the soundtrack.

This programme consists of six quite different films by Schmelzdahin, created in the group's most prolific period between 1984 and 1988. They let us both appreciate the diversity of the artists' creative expressions, and notice the elements embodied in all of these works: a deep interest in natural phenomena, a love for the visual qualities of the image, a punk rebelliousness, and an ironic attitude towards popular culture.

Stadt in Flammen / City on Fire. Schmelzdahin

Germany / 1984 / 5' / optical sound / 16mm

Weltempfänger / World Receiver. Schmelzdahin

Germany / 1985 / 5' / optical sound / 16mm

Aus den Algen / Of algae. Schmelzdahin

Germany / 1986 / 10' / magnetic sound / Super 8

Der General / The General. Schmelzdahin

Germany / 1987 / 13' / magnetic sound / 16mm

Schildmeyer Darlaten. Schmelzdahin

Germany / 1988 / 10' / magnetic sound / Super 8

Krepl. Schmelzdahin

Germany / 1988 / 8' / magnetic sound / Super 8

Wednesday, 17 May 18:00, Vagonu Hall

Noise Spectrum Frequencies 

Curators: Kristaps Epners, Rvīns Varde, Adriāna Roze, Mailo Štern, Rihards T. Endriksons, Marija Luīze Meļķe, Artis Svece

We approached seven people from different fields whose thoughts we resonate with. We asked them to choose one of the submitted films that they feel in some way connected to. This kaleidoscopic programme consists of works selected by this varied group of curators, celebrating the different perspectives, sensibilities and approaches on the side of filmmakers as well as spectators.

Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor. Lynne Sachs

US / 2018 / 8' / sound / 16mm to digital  

Skyscraper Film. Federica Foglia

Italy / 2023 / 8' / sound / 16mm to digital

Sight Leak. Zuqiang Peng

China / 2022 / 12' / sound / Super 8, 16mm to digital

Sky Room. Marianna Milhorat

US / 2017 / 6' / sound / 16mm, 35mm to digital

Potemkin Piece. Justin Clifford Rhody 

US / 2022 / 1' / sound / 35mm to digital

Ashes by name is man / Popiół imieniem jest człowieka. Ewelina Rosińska

Poland, Germany  / 2023 / 20' / sound / 16mm to digital

Transhumance. Elodie Ferré

France / 2023 / 5' / digital sound / 16mm