MLK by A Donald Harding  

One can say of language that it is potentially the only human home, the only dwelling place that cannot be hostile to man. John Berger


MLK 
Political speeches have an intellectual and emotional capacity to inspire action. Leaders crystallise the demands of a movement with their oration, inspiring their followers to act. Is it the musicality in the voice of the orator that gives political speech its emotional force? Can certain elements be isolated, the meaning from the music, the voice from the politics?A Donald Harding trans-codes Martin Luther King’s famous speech and renders it into a piece of music. The audio of the speech is processed into a musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) file and then this trans-coded data is arranged into a musical score played by eight stringed instruments from violin to double bass.Stripped of its literal sense, the oration of the civil rights leader becomes an aural abstraction of the original and the viewer is compelled to find new meaning in his words and in the film of the event itself. (source)

A Donald Harding  UK   MLK   5mins 20s 2010 will be shown as part of   Disingenuous Realities, Fri, 18th 10:30pm


Today:

Opening reception, Thursday, 10th of February 8pm – open end

You are cordially invited to the The 7th Berlin International Directors Lounge 2011, 10.-20. Februar
Meinblau, Pfefferberg, Berlin Mitte

the full program here
All screenings free admission  | No accreditation required  | Space is limited, the early bird catches a seat.

art house meinblau, Pfefferberg. (map)
Schoenhauser Allee 176 / Christinenstr. 18, 10119 Berlin
U Senefelder Platz | Tram M8 | Bus 240 | U Rosa-Luxemburg Platz |

Daily from 6pm till dawn. Opening reception Thurs. 10th, 8pm


still from Coleman Miller US Uso Justo 22 min 2005 

SUN 13th 10pm | PROFANE | Usama Alshaibi US 2010 | European Premiere

starring Manal Kara, Molly Plunk & Dejan Mircea  

Profane is a feature length motion picture about a young Muslim Pro Domme in
the midst of a spiritual crisis. It explores the idea of submission from a religious,
psychological and sexual perspective. It is also a horror film about possession by a jinn. Jinn are the Islamic equivalent of demons. According to the Quran, Allah (God) created humans from clay, angels from light and jinn from smokeless fire. They are equally good and evil, and it is said that each of us has one of our own.
Profane is an inverted exorcism. The main character, Muna, has lost her jinn and is trying to bring it back into herself in order to feel whole again. She also
struggles to understand the culture and religion from which she has been
alienated. In the meantime, she journeys through a maze of indulgence, excess, and altered reality to find that her true self has been whispering to her all along.

Filmmaker Usama Alshaibi  is known for two things: his award winning skill as a documentarian on one hand, and darkly sexy, sometimes disturbing experimental films on the other. His latest endeavor, Profane, tackles dangerous territory in the fictional realm. Combining his flair for the moody audio-visual explorations of his characterʼs inner worlds and the no-nonsense intimacy of the interview, he is able to makes sense of a young womanʼs spiritual emergency.
His exploration of the lesser-known aspects of Islam is irreverent and defiant of
both tradition and stereotype. In one scene Muna observantly covers her head in the hijab, while leaving the rest of her body nearly naked. It begs the question, if God himself is the only one watching, and one is accustomed to being nude in front of strangers, then why couldnʼt a bra and panties constitute sincere modesty?
Profane is a never-before-seen collision of Middle Eastern mythology and
western pop culture. It draws inspiration from horror films, psychedelic cinema,
and documentation of real Islamic exorcisms. The director is also influenced by
events in his own childhood. After escaping the trauma of war in Iraq in the 5th
grade, Alshaibi experienced life in Saudi Arabia. There he lived in fear as
teachers beat him with rulers and rubber hoses for his inability to recite the
Qurʼan.

the story

Through interviews, we find out that Muna has been alienated from her culture and abused within her religion. Her behavior as a teen became an embarrassment to her parents, prompting exorcisms while in the Middle East and several self-imposed exiles to the United States throughout her young life. Her audacious nature and promiscuous appetites lead her into sex work and
exploring the more illicit pastimes of young Americans. Within her adopted
environment she lost her sense of identity and even her language.
As we watch Munaʼs day-to-day life we are made privy to her sincere desire to
return to Islam, through prayer and attempting to read the Qurʼan. We
experience the subsequent supernatural events – real or imagined – that take
place as a result. We hear what Muna hears, though no one else in her world
seems to believe or understand whatʼs going on. They go on partying, paying
little attention to her affliction, which is indistinguishable from drug-induced
hallucination.
As an audience we follow Muna as she tries to reconcile her own very liberal
sensibilities with a stricter more dogmatic moral code imposed by fellow Muslims. In one pivotal scene after having befriended a cab driver named Ali, he offers to help her learn to read the Qurʼan. He appears one morning at her home flanked by a young Muslim Imam (religious leader). Muna and her best friend Mary have been up late frolicking in carnal and chemical exploration. The Imamʼs disgust with she and her friendʼs lack of decorum angers Muna and triggers her rage at past prejudices and abuses.
Sheʼs not about to give up her identity for her religion. She just wants to be
closer to God, and to know her own roots. This conflict is made manifest in the
Jinn. This troublesome invisible demon emerges from Muna as she struggles to
reconcile two seemingly incompatible sides to her personality. Itʼs only by
reintegrating with her personal mischievous spirit that she is able to feel whole
once again.

Usama Alshaibi US Profane 79min 2010

exact screening time might be subject to change

FRI 18th 8pm | MUSE | Massimo Salvato GB  2010 | European Premiere

In attendance of Massimo Salvato (director), Julia Krynke (lead actress, Ludmilla), Adam Harvey (Co-producer and composer), Rich Swingle cinematographer), Alastair Scott (executive producer, TankSchool) and Robin Mitchell (photographer)

Ludmilla is a force of nature driven on a voyage of discovery by the ghost of her grandfather as she seduces and spell-bounds two writers to secrete the essence of their genius, which she taps and distills to create a voice that manifests in the novel, Muse.

“…Like Mullholland Drive I am not sure I fully understood the journey – but I loved and was intrigued by the journey. I think it is essentially a simple idea about the interaction and rather selfish nature of creativity – wrapped in a beautiful convolution. Really loved it…!”

                         Christopher Morris (BAFTA Award winning documentary filmmaker)

Massimo Salvato is fascinated by structures and the way things work. He enjoys the ‘ambiguity’ of his love for narrative films and his disbelief that a film must necessarily have a narrative. This in-between space/time provides Massimo with fields which he feels are not researched enough in cinema. He studied economics in Italy before exploring his passion for theatre and film, founding in 1998 a cultural association in Italy, organising short film, music and theatre events; and achieving a Master’s Degree in Film at the International Film School Wales in 2005. In 2004 he wrote, produced and directed Carmen, a UK and Italian short film co-production dealing with gender issues and rural conservatism. In 2007 his first feature film script won him a place at Ekran, European Training Programme for Film Professionals, at the Andrzej Wajda Master School of Film Directing, in Warsaw. In 2008 he made a promo teaser for his new project Muse which helped him to build the team with which he completed the film in 2010. Massimo lectures in Film and Visual Culture at the Newport Film School, University of Wales Newport, and he is Course Leader in Film Studies in Coleg Gwent, South Wales.

 

Massimo Salvato GB Muse 19min 43s 2010

exact screening time might be subject to change

The 7th Berlin International Directors Lounge | February, 10th – 20th 


Once again this year, the Berlinale is drawing a great many filmmakers and cineastes to Berlin. In parallel and by now an insiders’ tip, the Directors Lounge, developed by Berlin artists, is hosting for the 7th year in a row its own very special kind of film festival.

On the Pfefferberg, on the premises of the Meinblau Gallery, a broad audience will be presented an international offering of experimental and short films as well as media art. Out of 700 submissions, a heady program has been put together, to be accompanied by live events, DJs and a lounge bar.

Encounters and discussions between artists and audience are an essential feature of the concept, and so once again this year many national and international artists will be on hand in person to present their projects.

The multiple-award-winning British composer Michael Nyman, known to the general public in particular for his music for The Piano as well as for numerous Peter Greenaway ventures, will personally present his own films.

Guy Maddin, Canadian filmmaker and juror at this year’s Berlinale, will be the subject of a special evening, with his own personal selection of his short films. This program will be complemented by readings by Kenton Turk and films bearing the mark of his influence.

Ten days long, starting daily at 6 pm, issue- and country-specific programs and the best films of the Open Call will be presented. Further highlights include Jean-Gabriel Périot, one of the most important exponents of French experimental film; the Collectif Jeune Cinéma; Alexei Dmitriev (St. Petersburg), shooting star of the international curator scene; Berlin gallerist Fridey Mickel; Kika Nicolela (Brazil); Klaus W. Eisenlohrs “Urban Research”; the Zebra Poetry Film Festival and films by artists of the Myriam Blundell Project (London), to name only a few.


Meinblau, Pfefferberg
Christinenstr. 18 | Schönhauser Allee 176
U Senefelder Platz
10119 Berlin Mitte

daily from 6 pm – open end
Opening Party: Thurs, 10th, 8 pm

all screenings: free admission

still from the Real Snow White | Pilvi Takala 

TITS (To Insult The State)

Alexei Dmitriev will show his TITS at Directors Lounge!

We all love TITS. But we donʼt talk about it openly, because in our society it is complicated to express it as such affection is not always welcome. It is also a challenge to find the films that depict TITS properly.
So the aim of this program was to gather the films that make TITS their main subject. The angle the artist looks at TITS can be different: copyright, violence, media, politics, etc., still the topic stays the same. Oh, and TITS stands for To Insult The State.

The Artwork in the Age of its Mechanical Reproducibility by Walter Benjamin as told to Keith Sanborn
Keith Sanborn / US / 1996 / 05ʼ00ʼʼ
This is Jayne Austenʼs first digital video work and since it dates from 1936, it is likely the oldest digital video work in the world. It was for a long time believed lost and rediscovered only this year. This represents a very rare public screening of the work. It was conceived as a post-theoretical response—in the sense used by von Cieszkowski—to Walter Benjaminʼs essay of 1936.

The Barbarians
Jean-Gabriel Périot / FR / 2010 / 05ʼ00ʼʼ
We are scum! We are barbarians!

The Commute
Elías León Siminiani / ES / 2009 / 12ʼ30ʼʼ
The unofficial (classified) version of the genesis and nature of the rush hour, and its effects on the life of the modern world citizen.

Fertile Ground Corporate Slug
Bryan Konefsky / US / 2010 / 04ʼ00ʼʼ
A Pixelvision portrait of media visionary Gene Youngblood set to a Death Metal
interpretation of folk singer Pete Seeger’s Garden Son. Additional commentary by investigative journalist Greg Palast, who speaks about Youngblood’s  influence on his own work and, perhaps, all of us.

The New Killing Fields
Maximilian Westphal / DE / 2004-2009 / 13ʼ00ʼʼ
Would you like to shoot a chicken with an AK-47 or a cow with a bazooka?
“The New Killing Fields” shockingly displays how tourism affects the disarmament in postwar Cambodia.

Keine Angst vorm Endlager!
Till Penzek and Jon Frickey / DE / 2008 / 02ʼ20ʼʼ
Mr Atom is back! The uber-cute mascot of the nuclear power lobby once again takes a stand on atomic energy. This time it’s all about final storage issues – something quite crucial to Germany where, for some reason, radioactive liquids keep seeping out of old barrels… But in the end, even critical Dr Schmidt gets convinced: everything is going to be just fine!

Real Snow White
Pilvi Takala / FN / 2009 / 09ʼ15ʼʼ
The absurd logic of the “real character” and the extreme rules of Disneyland become apparent when a real fan of Snow White is banned from entering the theme park dressed as Snow White.

Blackʼs Back
Derek Woolfenden / FR / 2009 / 12ʼ00ʼʼ
“Black’s Back” is a subjective vision about a figurative struggle between a White imaginary (Hollywood, Disney) and the Black revendications in the fifties, sixties and seventies in USA. This movie is a tribute to the Black Revolution and a sad testimony about misery and injustice from capitalist governments dispite the Black Panther Party’s warnings.

Thank You Third World
KRONCK / DE / 2009 / 03ʼ30ʼʼ
“Thank You Third World” is a multimedia-based campaign dealing with our ignorant way of consuming products produced under degrading circumstances in the 3rd world.

total running time:  66min 35s

A closer look at Max Hattler

Max Hattler, whom we introduced to DL during last years 6th Berlin International Directors Lounge will be in town this week for a Directors Lounge special, Sat 8th January, 9pm, Z-Bar. Reason enough to sneak into the mind behind classics like collision or aanaatt.

Max about Max:

“I am interested in the space between abstraction and figuration, where storytelling is freed from the constraints of traditional narrative. My work contemplates microcosms, moments, atmospheres: Close-ups as reflections on the big picture. While my films tend to be without dialogue, they explore the relationship between sound, music and the moving image.”

Others about Max:

  • One of “three of the world’s most exciting young animators” Dazed and Confused
  • One of “Europe’s most hotly tipped visual artists” Metropolis Magazine, Japan 
  • “groundbreaking animation and music video work” Shooting People
  • “Max Hattler is one of my favourite experimental animators” Directors Notes
  • “his personal work is a revelation” Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
  • “Current hot potatoe” Time Out London

Max about how it all started:

“I was never all that much into film, which for a long time I only knew as narrative, live-action drama. Nor was I interested in animation, which I had only experienced as ‘cartoons’ – drawn funny films. I came to film in a roundabout way, through an interest in visual arts, design aesthetics, and the time-based media of sound and music. As a kid, I was always drawing and painting. I grew up in a musical family and in my teens I started using computers to make music, while also dabbling in computer graphics and animation. Perceiving these disciplines as disparate from each other, it took me a while until I realised that I had to combine them through the medium of animation film.” Interview at Shift magazine


Max Hattler performing live at Videoformes 2008, photo by dopi

Collision, Max about turning points:

“…you could see Collision as a sort of turning point (or starting point). I think Collision made a (small) impact because it was doing something new by commenting on politics through abstraction, by exploring graphic art as metaphor. Discarding traditional storytelling, it presents a marriage of image and sound to produce a kaleidoscopic take on our geopolitical situation. Subtle and bold at the same time, the film aims to mesmerise the viewer with symbols that are detached from their established context and applied in the service of an alternative reality. … The reading is open-ended: cultural carnage or carnival of cultures.” Interview at Shift magazine

It comes as no surprise that Max Hattler will be part of the 7th Berlin International Directors Lounge

top photo: Max Hattler at DOK Leipzig 2009

The 7th Berlin International Directors Lounge
Introducing the curators: Kika Nicolela

Kika Nicolela was among the most acclaimed directors of The 5th Berlin International Directors Lounge. Two years later we are glad to welcome her as one of the core curators for 2011. Kika will present recent Brazilian videos (2009-10) , an international
selection of videos under the theme “Windows” and introduce the Exquisite Corpse Video Project. Exquisite Corpse  is an international collaboration project with the participation of over 60 artists from morethan 20 countries.

Kika Nicolela is a Brazilian artist and experimental filmmaker. Her works include single-channel videos, installations, performances, experimental documentaries and photography. Graduated in Film and Video by the University of Sao Paulo, Kika Nicolela also completed film courses at UCLA University. She was the recipient of several grants and has participated of over 60 solo and collective exhibitions in Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Poland, Portugal, UK and US. Her videos have been screened and awarded in festivals of more than 30 countries, such as: Directors Lounge, Kunst Film Biennale, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, ACA Media Arts Festival, Videoformes New Media & Video Art Festival, International Electronic Art Festival Videobrasil and Sao Paulo International Film Festival. Since 2008, Kika Nicolela also curates and coordinates the Exquisite Corpse Video Project, an ongoing collaborative series of videos that involves more than 60 artists from 25 countries. In 2010, she was selected for the Rondo Studio (Austria), Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Foundation (Germany), Gyeonggi Creation Center (South Korea) and the I-Park (US) residency programs; she will also have a retrospective of her videos at the prestigious Museum of Modern Art in Salvador, Brazil.