Directors Lounge Screening: Dark Sun Rising
Thursday, 30 November 2023, 9 pm
Z-Bar, Bergstraße 2, 10115 Berlin-Mitte
The dark forces, occult magic or secret ceremonies exert a strong attraction and awaken the unconscious in us. Aleister Crowley, Nikola Tesla and Kenneth Anger have been a source of inspiration for many filmmakers, regardless of whether they believe in occult theories or not. And cinema and music are probably the media that go best together with subconscious vibrations. Moreover, the graininess of analogue film as well as some digital editing and expressive tonalities open the field for associations of the viewer.
Our contemporary world, with the need to defend democracy, to fight for rational politics and against “alternative facts” and conspiracy theories almost doesn’t allow any more to indulge in dark mythologies. This new dogma of always having to be realist, and fighting for the rational politics in democracy, may be one of the reasons for the increase of irrational right-wing tendencies and the power of subversive attacks on civil society. Perhaps it is people like Abby Warburg who show that appreciating dark myths does not mean you have to be reactionary or even irrational. Images have there own truth and connect with a different kind of consciousness. Thus, let’s dive into a world of dark suns and electric propulsion.
Program:
Craig Baldwin, Spectres of Spectrum – Excerpt, 1999 USA 14:44 mins
Spectres of the Spectrum is a 1999 science fiction collage film by American filmmaker Craig Baldwin. The story follows a father, Yogi, and daughter, Boo Boo living in post-apocalyptic wasteland as they fight against corporate control of the electromagnetic spectrum. The film mixes found footage with live-action scenes. The New Electromagnetic Order rules the world, opposed by the TV Tesla resistance movement. Boo Boo must go back in time 50 years and trace TV broadcasts of Science in Action to find an encoded secret from her grandmother. Yogi scans the history of the electromagnetic conflict.
Melissa Faivre, Under the Midnight Sun, 2022 DE, Berlin 9:52 mins
“Under the Midnight Sun” is a dance of light and shadows. Textured grayscale expanding across the landscape of an apocalyptic city. The sun is moon and light. It unveils itself by the means of visual pulsating dynamics, unstable frequencies and vibrating rhythms; until it disintegrates into particles and pixels. This visual-musical piece is dark, worrying and calls to sensorial explorations into deeper energies.
Laura Kraning, Devil’s Gate, 2011 USA 20 mins
Tracing the metaphysical undercurrents of a Southern California landscape scarred by fire, DEVIL’S GATE unearths a subconscious of the landscape, as the echoes of the past reverberate in the present and infect our perception and experience of place. The footage of Devil’s Gate Dam is interspersed with text about occultist Jack Parsons, co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who some believe opened a portal for dark energy nearby.
Johnny Welch, Aurum 2018 DE, Berlin, Super8 to HD, Version 20 mins
Exploiting Aleister Crowley’s Liber 777 as structuring device; each image in the film combines to form a sigil. The performers evoke Chthonian rhythms to magnify intent. The music drives a hypnotic path through suspension of the mind into the realm of the senses.
The film lives in fluxus. The first version of the film was performed live with Halv Drøm as a double-channel projection on Super 8. The performance included several painted loops consisting of nail polish, bodily fluids, charcoal, chalk and emulsion scratches.
Raymon Salvatore Harmon, Locrian -At Nights End 2010 UK 7:19 mins
This is a 3D video for Lorican’s At Night’s End off of the forthcoming album The Crystal World. It was filmed in a 13th century cemetery in Wroclaw Poland during the total airspace closure caused by the eruption of the Icelandic volcano. This film is meant to be viewed with red/blue (anaglyph) 3D cinema glasses.
Renata Daguerre, Listen and Repeat (no lyrics), AR/NL, 2020. 3:48 mins
Listen & Repeat is a video clip for musician Crux Coronado. It was made with modular analog video synthesizers in the year.
Renata Daguerre, Gesto Inacabado no-1, AR, 2018, 1:54 min
Gesto Inacabado n.1 (Unfinished Gesture N.1) was made from the idea of those artworks we never finished. Using old video material archived in external hard drives, with music that was also not finished for any kind of reason. In the first work I invited the artist and friend Ludovico Zanettini. Made in the year.
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/ German Version /
Directors Lounge Screening: Dark Sun Rising
Thursday, 30 November 2023, 21:00
Z-Bar, Bergstraße 2, 10115 Berlin-Mitte
Dunkle Mächte, okkulte Magie oder geheime Zeremonien üben eine starke Anziehungskraft aus und wecken in uns das Unbewusste. Aleister Crowley, Nikola Tesla und Kenneth Anger waren eine Inspirationsquelle für viele Filmemacher, unabhängig davon, ob sie an okkulte Theorien glauben oder nicht. Und Kino und Musik sind wahrscheinlich die Medien, die am meisten mit unterbewussten Schwingungen zusammen gehen. Dazu eröffnen das Korn des analogen Films sowie andere digitale Bearbeitungen und expressive Tonalitäten Raum für eigene Assoziationen.
In unserer heutigen Welt, in der es mehr denn je gilt, die Demokratie zu verteidigen, für eine rationale Politik und gegen “alternative Fakten” und Verschwörungstheorien zu kämpfen, ist es fast nicht mehr möglich, in dunklen Mythologien zu schwelgen. Dieses neue Dogma, immer Realist sein zu müssen und für das Rationale in der Demokratie zu kämpfen, könnte einer der Gründe für die sich verbreitenden neuen rechten irrationalen Tendenzen und die Macht der subversiven Angriffe auf die Zivilgesellschaft sein. Möglicherweise sind es Menschen wie Abby Warburg, die zeigen, dass die Wertschätzung dunkler Mythen nicht bedeutet, dass man reaktionär oder gar irrational sein muss. Bilder haben ihre eigene Wahrheit und verbinden sich mit einer anderen Art von Bewusstsein. Tauchen wir also ein in eine Welt voller dunkler Sonnen und elektrischer Antriebe.
Programm:
Craig Baldwin, Spectres of Spectrum – Excerpt, 1999 USA 14:44 mins
Melissa Faivre, Under the Midnight Sun, 2022 DE, Berlin 9:52 mins
Laura Kraning, Devil’s Gate, 2011 USA 20 mins
Johnny Welch, Aurum 2018 DE, Berlin, Super8 to HD, Version 20 mins
Raymon Salvatore Harmon, Locrian -At Nights End 2010 UK 7:19 mins
Renata Daguerre, Listen and Repeat (no lyrics), AR/NL, 2020. 3:48 mins
Renata Daguerre, Gesto Inacabado no-1, AR, 2018, 1:54 min