Is there any better format for the cinema? We haven’t found one yet. So, tonight let’s pay tribute to one of the masters of mangling the old analog film. Tonight, 9pm at Luru-Kino we will show a couple of Peter Tscherkassky’s experimental films from the 90s as well as some more recent ones – on 35mm! – that will put to test your audiovisual sensory apparatus.
Here’s some humble words by the man himself:
»In the case of my dark room films I have used 35mm film, most often CinemaScope. In my opinion, as far as the art of moving images is concerned, this is the most powerful tool I can access and use to produce work on a really low-tech-level. And when I say ›low-tech‹, I mean it. You can’t imagine how low my technical level is when I make my films! As a consequence I don’t need a producer, I don’t need a big budget, I don’t need technicians…« [source: digicult.it]
True Tscherkasskyism!
Peter Tscherkassky: raw material and the celebrating of an absolute cinema
Peter Tscherkassky’s films provoke the viewers with the rough changes of light and dark, sound and silence. Being an achieved analogous craftsman, the Austrian experimental filmmaker copies and recycles found footage, for example minor scenes from horror films, into new intriguingly uncanny compositions. In doing so, his internationally highly acclaimed works not only test the limits of film’s raw materiality through audio processing and multiple exposure, but rather attempt, pursue and shift traditional viewing habits and auditory abilities generally. The heart of his works touches on the pivotal understanding of cinema: it’s about the film itself, its materiality plus the codes that determine its cultural present. Tscherkassky draws inherently slumbering ghosts of the future from obsolete, analogue film material. The results frenetically approach something that defies a description and has to be seen—in the cinema hall, accompanied by thickest darkness and fierce sound.
Happy-End (AT 1996, 11’, 35mm)
Cinemascope Trilogie(AT 1997-2001) [L’Arrivée (1997, 3’, 35mm) / Outer Space (1999, 10’, 35mm) / Dream Work (2001, 11’, 35mm)]
Instructions for a Light and Sound Machine (AT 2005, 17’, 35mm)
The Exquisite Corpus (AT 2015, 19’, 35mm)
25 April, 9pm – Luru-Kino at the Spinnerei – € 6,5/5,5 (red.)
»Grenzen scheut das Gegenkino per Definition ohnehin nicht, siehe den Schwerpunkt ›Auschwitz Cinema‹ oder die queeren Filme im Programm…«
Ahem… thanks LVZ… yeah… almost. But there’s more to it than wanting to be transgressive. As a film festival we are also always trying to reflect on the political potential and functioning of the moving image. Therefore, we are glad to have Marcus Stiglegger coming to GEGENkino 2016 tonight in order to present his findings and ideas about the represantation of the Shoah and the horror of concentration camps in cinema and on TV.
24 April, 8 pm – UT Connewitz – € 8/6 (red.)
More information here or at www.utconnewitz.de
NB! The lecture will be held in German. The film though will be shown with English subtitles.
And by the way, we have a press and media archive now on our blog, where you can hear and read about the festival, in case you still don’t know what we’re doing here actually
We will also try to make available an audio recording of Stiglegger’s lecture there, if possible.
We hope you enjoyed the night at Institut fuer Zukunft yesterday. We were really happy to see so many faces there. Thanks a lot for coming!
Also thanks to those that came to the screening at GRASSI Museum yesterday. We hope to’ve gotten you all interested in postcolonial cinema yesterday with »Concerning Violence«. Well, if so, let’s develop our interests further a bit. Tonight we’ll screen the second part of our AFRICAN OUTLINES section—this time at UT Connewitz. Starting at 9pm we will show the films »Twaaga« by Cedric Ido and »Crumbs« by Miguel Llansó.Two films dealing with colonial history and fictions of an African future—but two quite different ones at that: one situated in a concrete historical time and place, the other one in an abstract apocalyptic landscape. You’ll see, there’s more to African cinema and Afrofuturism than you might have thought…
Read more about the films below. For the sake of clarity, there’s the whole programme of our AFRICAN OUTLINES section again below.
See you in the dark places!
Your GEGENkino
Twaaga
BF/FR 2013, D: Cedric Ido, A: Sabourou Bamogo, Harouna Ouedraogo, 30’, OV with English subtitles, DCP
1987. Burkina Faso in the year of the assassination of the anti-imperialist president Thomas Sankara. The two brothers Albert and Manu struggle along, each of them in his own way. The older Albert is part of a gang that is commissioned to bully a Lebanese dealer. Whereas Manu is still a child, loves comics and, in his recently tailored superhero costume, lives in magical world in which emancipation movements matter only if they help him to understand the mythologies of his mighty role models. That way he frolics through the dusty streets of his home town until he has to realize that with an own personal suit, you also have to claim your own destiny.
Crumbs
ET/ES 2015, D: Miguel Llansó, A: Daniel Tadesse, Selam Tesfaye, 68’, OV with English subtitles, DCP
The genre: post-apocalypse-science-fiction. A word as long as the hero’s journey undertaken to find Santa Claus. He is walking through different landscapes, sometimes sparse and desolate, sometimes green and lush. The hero is armed with western pop culture goods that become charged and turned into sacred artefacts. At home in the bowling alley, his girlfriend follows a mysterious voice from deep below while an extraterrestrial flying object reigns over everything. A lot of things come apart. Solely the altar for Michael Jordan – as always – seems to provide religious refuge. Spaniard Miguel Llansó, who has been living in Ethiopia for many years and whose passion belongs to experimental and punk attitudes in film and music, makes use of marvellous peculiarities of the imagination, the beauty of the countryside and the strong presence of his actors. Out of that, he creates a surreal, cinematic bastard full of humour and self-irony.
23 April, 9 pm – UT Connewitz – € 6,5/5,5 (red.)
GEGENkino presents
AFRICAN OUTLINES
| Fri 22 April GRASSI Museum of Ethnography | AFRICAN OUTLINES #1 |
| 7 PM | Concerning Violence. Nine Scenes from the Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defense Doc SE/FI/US/DK 2014, D: Göran Hugo Olsson, 85’, OV with German subtitles, BluRay Introduction by Diana Ayeh & Natascha Bing (AG Postkolonial Leipzig) |
| Sat 23 April Luru Kino | AFRICAN OUTLINES #2 | DOUBLE FEATURE |
| 9 pm | Twaaga BF/FR 2013, D: Cedric Ido, A: Sabourou Bamogo, Harouna Ouedraogo, 30’, OV with English subtitles, DCP Crumbs ET/ES 2015, D: Miguel Llansó, A: Daniel Tadesse, Selam Tesfaye 68’, OV with English subtitles, DCP |
| Tue 26 April Luru Kino | Crumbs ET/ES 2015, D: Miguel Llansó, A: Daniel Tadesse, Selam Tesfaye 68’, OV with English subtitles, DCP |
| 9 PM | Run CIV/F 2014, D: Philippe Lacôte, A: Abdoul Karim Konaté, Isaach de Bankolé, Djinda Kane, OV with English subtitles, 102’, DCP Introduction by Diana Ayeh & Natascha Bing (AG Postkolonial Leipzig) |
| Sat 30 April Schaubühne Lindenfels | AFRICAN OUTLINES #3 | AFRICAN SHORTS |
| 8 PM | Young Africans – short film programme and lecture by Claudia Böhme Chop My Money (CD 2014, D: Theo Anthony, OV with English subtitles, 13’) Yellow Fever (UK/KE 2012, D: Ng’endo Mukii, OV with English subtitles, 7’) Walk With Me (DK/UG 2015, D: Johan Oettinger, Peter Tukei Muhumuza, no dialogue, 12’) The Goat (SA 2014, D: John Trengove, OV with English subtitles, 13’) |
| 10 PM | Necktie Youth ZA/NL 2015, D: Sibs Shongwe-La Mer, A: Sibs Shongwe-La Mer, Bonko Khoza, Colleen Balchin, 86’, OV with English subtitles, BluRay |
Concerning Violence – Nine Scenes from the Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defence
Let’s not forget about our screening today at 7pm today, too! We will present the film »Concerning Violence« in cooperation with GRASSI Museum for Ethnography and AG Postkolonial Leipzig. A few words about the AG Postkolonial (in case you haven’t heard of them yet):
As part of the Engagierte Wissenschaft e.V., that is trying to transfer scientific discourses and debates into political practice, AG Postkolonial wants to bring out the connection between colonial history and recent debates on racism, global inequality and the contemporary dealing with »Others«. Furthermore, AG Postkolonial concerns itself with the politics of colonial memory and also tries to unveil traces of colonialism in the city of Leipzig. We couldn’t wish for a better to partner to introduce the film »Concerning Violence« than the AG Postkolonial.
Fri, 22 April 2016, 7pm – GRASSI Museum of Ethnography
»Concerning Violence – Nine Scenes from the Anti-Imperialistic Self-Defense«
(Doc SE/FI/US/DK 2014, D: Göran Hugo Olsson, 85’, OV with German subtitles, BluRay)
With an introduction by Diana Ayeh & Natascha Bing (AG Postkolonial Leipzig)
If you’re quick on your bikes, you might be able to make it to both screenings today:
7pm, GRASSI Musem – AFRICAN OUTLINES: CONCERNING VIOLENCE
9pm, IfZ – GEGENkino & Cry Baby present DESIRE WILL SET YOU FREE
Buntes Kino gegen graue Konvention: Desire Will Set You Free | Tracks ARTE
Hey, we’re on TV! Well, almost. ARTE Tracks wrote some nice words about our festival and about our screening and party tonight at Institut für Zukunft.
Big honour!
Word’s gotten around already who our special guest is going to be? If not, you’re in for a fruity surprise tonight:
9pm, Institut fuer Zukunft
GEGENkino & Cry Baby present DESIRE WILL SET YOU FREE
Film screening: Desire Will Set You Free
(DE 2015, D: Yony Leyser, A: Yony Leyser, Tim Fabian Hoffmann, Chloe Griffin, 92’, OV with German subtitles, BluRay) Director Yony Leyser will be present.
11 pm – After-screening Party with:
~ Special Guest DJ-Set ~
Abyss X (S H A M E) – live
Ziúr (Boo Hoo)
Zacker (No No No!)
Claire
CAST +BBE (Cry Baby)
XVII (IfZ)
