Ted Fendt | Short Stay / Classical Period (USA 2016 / 2018)
Ted Fendt’s narrow oeuvre represents an distinct narrative in contemporary US independent cinema: he realized the two medium-length films SHORT STAY and CLASSICAL PERIOD on his own with the support of his environment, holding on to analogue film format while at the same time, representatives of mumblecore bet on online scores. Philadelphia and New Jersey are the settings of the plot, although there is basically no plot. Rather, these films, captured in a cinematically restrained way, are unagitated portraits of people who are Fendt’s age, who pursue their everyday life, often times isolated, even if they desire affection and recognition.
12 April, 8 pm – Luru Kino at Spinnerei – € 8 (7 red.) (for both films)
In the presence of Ted Fendt
SHORT STAY
USA 2016, D: Ted Fendt, A: Mike Maccherone, Elizabeth Soltan, Mark Simmons, 61′, English OV, 35mm
CLASSICAL PERIOD
USA 2018, D: Ted Fendt, A: Calvin Engime, Evelyn Emile, Sam Ritterman, Christopher Stump, 62′, English OV with German subtitles, 16mm
In SHORT STAY, the camera is above all occupied with following pizza delivery man Mike en route from A to B or trying to sleep. He sees his chance for a change of scenery when an old aquaintance, planning a long trip abroad, mentions that he is looking for somebody to take over his room in a shared flat and his “Free & Friendly Tour“ city tours in close-by Philadelphia. But even in the new surroundings, luck does not ensue.
If in his debut feature walking and sleeping are something like guiding themes, reading and thinking are the like in CLASSICAL PERIOD: a handful of young intellectuals meet for a reading circle where Dante’s “Divine Comedy“ is subjected to a thorough exegesis, apart from that there is talk about poetry, English church history and the own sleep- and restlessness. In sensually physical 16mm images, a microcosm emerges that is utterly shaped by the mind.
