aDifferent festival Program 5 // Sympathetic Magic

February 18th, 2017 // 7:00 PM // Woodland Pattern Book Center
720 E Locust St Milwaukee, WI 53212

Ocean Hill Drive, Lina Sieckmann and Miriam Gossing

20 minutes 34 seconds, 16mm transferred to HD video, 2016

Synopsis:
As a result of an erroneously installed wind turbine, the flicker effect, which brings to mind structuralist experimental cinema, appears in documentary images showing the landscape and architecture of a Massachusetts coast town. Ocean Hill Drive examines a rare phenomenon, the so-called ‚shadowflicker’, that occurs in a suburban area on the outskirts of Boston. As a result of an erroneously installed wind turbine, the flicker effect, which brings to mind structuralist experimental cinema, appears instead in documentary images showing the landscape and architecture of a Massachusetts coast town. The film focuses on the visual quality of the pulsating shadows that intrude the suburban domestic sphere and disrupt the social and psychological equilibrium of the community. Documentary images are complemented with a female voiceover, which is based on multiple interviews that were transcripted and assembled into a single narration. The film slowly uncovers fragmentary memories from the time when the flicker began. An atmosphere of suspense and intangible fear is generated throughout the film, while the actual source of the flickering lights remains unknown.

Artist Bio:
Miriam Gossing was born 1988 in Siegburg (GER). Lina Sieckmann was born 1988 in Engelskirchen (GER). From 2009-2015 they have studied experimental film, performance and photography at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne with Matthias Müller,Phil Collins and Sophie Maintigneux. As a duo Miriam Gossing and Lina Sieckmann have produced several experimental documentary films on 16-mm film, investigating urban and private architectures, hyper staged sceneries and surfaces of desire. In their montage they are combining documentary images with fictional and found footage elements.

 

The Hills of Frohnau, Alisa Vostiklap

4 minutes 2 seconds, video, 2016

Synopsis:
The unusual hill formations have emerged on a barren stretch of land where the Berlin Wall used to run along the limits of Frohnau, a locality in the north of the city. The protuberances of Frohnau are a place of overlapping – the different strata produce a static, a buzz. At once physical remnants of Berlin’s inner-city border, they are also an improvised and cared for gathering place, and a rich succession biotope thriving on a disrupted land.

Artist Bio:
Alisa Vostiklap (born 1983, Kiev, Ukraine) is an artist living in Montreal and Berlin. In her work, she aims to approach the materiality of personal mythologies and subjective states, and the role of sensuality in the reciprocal relations with landscape and the insentient.

 

Piorun Stanislaw from Brudnow, Piotr Piasta

4 minutes, HD video, 2014

Synopsis:
'Piorun Stanislaw from Brudnow' comes from the series 'Last Object' which is a collection of portraits of old people who live in a rural area in central Poland. We do not see them in the film but we can hear their voices, see objects they used in their past and objects they use now. In this particular film we meet Mr Stanislaw Piorun at his house. He tells a story about a curse which can be spelled just by a sheer admiration. Mr Piorun gives a solution on how to get rid of a curse.

Artist Bio:
Piotr Piasta is a visual artist, an independent filmmaker and a photographer. Piotr was born in 1981 in Brudnow village, Wieniawa district, Poland, where he currently lives and works. In his art works he concentrates on themes of history, time and memory, which he often explores within a rural context.
Between years 2014/15 He was Berwick Visual Arts artist-in-residence. As a result of that he released a series of short films on ageing in rural communities.
He exhibited his works at such festivals as RAI Film Festival in Bristol (UK), European Szczecin Film Festival in Szczecin (PL), VAFA 2016 at Orient Foundation in Macau (CN), Intimate Lens - Visual Ethnographic Film Festival in Maddaloni (IT), AVI Festival in Jerusalem (IL), Lunenburg Doc Fest in Lunenburg (CA), Tasmanian International Video Art Festiva inLaunceston (AU), Experimental Superstars in Novi Sad (RS), Streaming Festival in Milan (IT), CÓDEC/Festival de Vídeo y Creaciones Sonoras inMexico City (MX), Filmideo at Index Art Center in Newark (US).
http://piotrpiasta.com/

 

Kung Wala Nang Tulad Natin (If People Such as We Cease to Exist), Sam Manacsa

16 minutes 34 seconds, video, 2016

Synopsis:
Lita searches for things that are still missing for her husband's burial, only to realize that these are not what she wishes to find all along.

Artist Bio:
Sam Manacsa is a filmmaker from the Philippines. She recently graduated from the University of the Philippines Film Institute. She has been a part of several student productions and local film productions.