7 March 2016, 17:30, Hall “Europe”, Dohodno Zdanie, Ruse
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen takes place in the Ruhr region of Germany for already 60 years and is among the most important short film institutions in the world. For the tenth time, the Festival is sending films from its festival program on a world tour, including to Ruse. The International Elias Canetti Society, supported by Goethe-institute Bulgaria, OP Ruse Art, und the City of Ruse, will show two short film selections.
International Competition 2015
These five videos from the International Competition 2015 look at family relationships from unusual perspectives while for the most part elegantly refusing any clear genre classification. In Payal apadia’s film, for example, dreams and reality are so closely intertwined that an Indian woman’s relationship with her husband stays alive even after his death. Nina Yuen portrays her rational-minded father and asks: What gives our lives structure? In Joseph Dabernig’s film, two boys fantasise about the Cold War while their parents simulate a rocket launch on their laptops. And in “32 + 4”, the Principal Prize winner at this year’s festival, a student grippingly reconstructs the breakdown of her family. The film invents a discursive image practice in order to uncover repressed experiences. The intellectual breadth and depth of current international short film production is just waiting to be discovered in this programme.
The Last Mango Before the Monsoon (dir. Payal Kapadia, India, 2014, colour, diverse languages with English subs, 19 min.)
Raymond (dir. Nina Yuen, USA, 2014, colour, English, 11min. 30 sec.)
Nuvem Negra (dir. Basil da Cunha, Switzerland, 2014, colour, Portuguese with English subs, 18 min. 30 sec.)
Zlaté Piesky Rocket Launch (dir. Josef Dabernig, Austria, 2015, b/w, no dialogue, 10 min.)
32 + 4 (dir. Chan Hau Chun, China, 2014, colour, Kantonese with Mandarin and English subs, 32 min.)
Running time: 92 min.
Artist Film 2015
This year’s Artist Film programme assembles some of the most intriguing filmmakers currently working on the borderline between the film world and the art market. While Katie Davies presents a 500-year-old border ritual in England’s northernmost town, Sun Xun reflects on the last Year of the Dragon, 2012, in vivid animated images with references to Huxley and Magritte. Wojciech Bąkowski, winner of the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen, questions the relationship between language and image. In “Blue and Red”, Guangzhou and Bangkok merge into a fictional city depicted in fascinating night-time images that tell of the people’s resistance against the regime. And Bjørn Melhus dramatises Ayn Rand’s menacing rhetoric of unrestrained capitalism in over-the-top science fiction scenes with dance interludes. The films in this programme provide a compelling overview of the current state of media art.
What Happened in Past Dragon Year (dir. Sun Xun, China, 2014, colour + b/w, Chinese + English, 9 min. 30 sec.)
Blue and Red (dir. Zhou Tao, Spain/Thailand, 2014, colour, no dialogue, 25 min.)
Sound of My Soul (dir. Wojciech Bąkowski, Poland, 2014, colour, Polish + English, 13 min.)
Just My Own (dir. Alena Tereshko, Russia, 2014, colour, no dialogue, 6 min.)
Freedom and Independence (dir. Bjørn Melhus, Germany, 2014, colour, English, 15 min.)
The Lawes of the Marches (dir. Katie Davies, Great Britain, 2014, colour, English, 16 min. 30 sec.)
Running time: 86 min.
All films will be shown in the original language with English subtitles.
With the support of:
