Fiction and Documentary 1
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
Date: Friday, May 28th, 2010, 8 p.m.
Location: Metro Kino
The first programme of six films in the international competition for “Fiction and Documentary” spotlights the world of economy. Factories and loading platforms are put into new aesthetic perspectives and simple employees become leading performers in archives and offices. The impressive images (and sounds) – realised as animation or musical, embedded in atmospheres ranging from dismal to comical – create new perspectives on the working world and economic structures.
Total length: 79 min
El Empleo (The Employment)
Argentina 2008, 6 min, digital
Director/Editing: Santiago ‘Bou’ Grasso | Screenwriter: Patricio Plaza | Producer: Patricio Plaza, Santiago ‘Bou’ Grasso
Hierarchic structures have been no rarity in the working world since the beginning of time, to put it mildly. In his lovingly illustrated animation, Santiago Grasso works with this seemingly unshakeable fact and sheds ironic light on the perverse logic of economy. Human beings as objects, emotionless, wordless, simply the proverbial cogs in the machinery.
Szczesciarze (The Lucky Ones)
Poland 2009, 27 min, DigiBeta
Director/Screenwriter/Cinematographer/Editing: Tomasz Wolski | Production: KIJORA, Anna Gawlita
Many fates are united in the three rooms of a Polish official building. The first room is where births are registered, in the second it is marriages, while deaths are recorded in the third. The personal insight into classic civil service procedures doesn’t record the pivotal events of life as being full of red tape, but heart-warmingly carries them out into the world with a sprightly step.
Photograph of Jesus
UK 2008, 7 min, DigiBeta
Director/Cinematographer/Editing: Laurie Hill | Producer: Basil Stephens | Music: Toolshed Music | Cast: Matthew Butson
An original review of key moments in the history of mankind, a meet and greet with James Dean, Adolf Hitler and Jack the Ripper. Whether it concerns Dodos or Yetis, the queries directed to the Hulton Archive of Getty Images, containing 60 million pictures, are as peculiar as its visitors. In a wacky and playful manner and with the help of animated collages, Laurie Hill guides us through this documentary.
The Shutdown
UK 2009, 10 min, HD
Director/Music: Adam Stafford | Screenwriter/Cast: Alan Bissett (Voice Over) | Producer/Editing: Peter Gerard | Cinematographer: Leo Bruges
At night the sky between the Scottish villages of Falkirk and Grangemouth is covered by an orange-red shimmering cloud of smog. Screenwriter Alan Bissett grew up in this industrial landscape. Reminiscent of “Blade Runner”, the images of the chemical factory and its effects on life – not least on one’s own family – become branded in one’s memory.
Terminal
Germany 2009, 9 min, 35 mm
Director/Screenwriter: Jörg Wagner | Producer: Dirk Manthey Film | Cinematographer: Peter Drittenpreis | Music: Felix Kubin | Editing: Andrew Bird
In his rhythmically composed work Jörg Wagner portrays the fully automated working routine in a container port. Here pictures and sound come together to form a fascinating symbiosis. The process of loading and shifting becomes an artistic-poetic choreography that breathes movement and life into this seemingly dire place.
La prévention de l'usure (A Piece of Sound Advice)
France 2009, 20 min, 35 mm
Director/Screenwriter: Gilles Charmant | Producer: Marie Dubas | Cinematographer: Pascale Marin | Sound: Benjamin Laurent, Alexandre Hecker | Music: Jean-François Hoël | Set design: Wouter Zoon | Editing: Julie Delord | Cast: Grégory Montel, Amandine Pudlo
The brightly coloured household appliances for which he provides the texts come complete with a user’s manual, love sadly doesn’t. With unforgiving fulfilment Pierre gives his girlfriend’s demanding fantasy as good as he gets. In the factory, supported by a ballet of workers, he singingly and dancingly eliminates initial doubts from the jazzy world of Musicals once and for all.