Preghiera, 22 febbraio 2008

The camera gets lost in the deserted streets and lonely reflections of the city lights. Without words, it captures the loneliness of souls who, although surrounded by crowds and concrete, remain invisible and disconnected. Every corner, every abandoned detail, every step echoing along tells an untold story, where the silence of the night is the only interlocutor.

How Do You See Me? is a Brazilian documentary feature that entwines both experienced actors and beginners to explore the hardships and the happiness that are inherent to the job when detached from the glam and glitz of the gossip industry, creating a diverse and comprehensive mosaic of what it means to be an actor in Brazil, a country so full of contradictions. The film brings forward a reality that the masses usually don't get to know: the men and women moved by a deep passion for acting and touching people. With Julio Adrião, Matheus Nachtergaele, José Celso Martinez, Cássia Kis, Nanda Costa, Babu Santana, Luciano Vidigal and Letícia Sabatella, among others.

Victor Maynard is a middle-aged, solitary assassin who lives to please his formidable mother, despite his own peerless reputation for lethal efficiency. His professional routine is interrupted when he finds himself drawn to one of his intended victims. After sparing her life, he unexpectedly acquires a young apprentice. Believing Victor to be a private detective, his two new companions tag along, while he attempts to thwart the murderous attentions of his unhappy client.

Two figures —an angel bathed in light and a widow veiled in mourning— mirror each other’s gestures. Through the interplay of costume, color, and hand-drawn intervention, Emerge & Fade explores how innocence and disillusion coexist and transform one another.

In an alternate reality where the decline of nations has given rise to corporatist regimes, any trace of culture or tradition is suppressed by these new leaders to prevent the masses from reclaiming a national identity. However, rebel cells have emerged to counteract this agenda.

An exploration of the link between science and beauty through the work of scientists at CERN, in Geneva.

Through Martian horizons, she gazes upon the world she’s only known through tales of scrap screens. Colors altered by fading memories, and shapes molded by imagination... Her perception of Earth, a symphony played by fragmented notes, an artwork painted by distant echoes. In the embrace of Mars, she carries the fractured essence of a heritage lost in space. Generations adrift in the solitude of the Martian plains, lives in a kaleidoscope of the world.

“A pink moving screen will stand at the entrance to the theatre, in the night. One hour before the screening a projectionist will show Griffith’s Intolerance on this screen. The start of the film will be announced at 8.30 but no one will enter before 9.30. During these 60 minutes of waiting, people on the first floor of the building will shake out very dusty carpets, and someone else will throw ice water on the heads of those spectators waiting for the screening. Some actors who have infiltrated the crowd will insult other actors on the first floor. At this moment only, and to stop the beginning of a scandal, the doors of the theatre will open…”

An homage to the influential practice and philosophy of artist Nasreen Mohamedi. The film incorporates Mohamedi’s personal notes and her unique singular vision, drawing upon the aesthetics of the bare line, and its metaphysical journey eliminating physical borders/barriers.

When a group of young DIY artists in Santa Fe can’t find a door into the art world, they blow open an entirely new portal with their grit, passion, and tenacity. Within just a few short years – and with a little help from George R.R. Martin – this group called Meow Wolf ultimately hits a cultural nerve and garners massive, unexpected success with their exhibit, House of Eternal Return.

A field laborer fights to survive in a hostile environment. The appearance of a strange presence and a revolver will change his destiny.

This is one of several films and slide shows that feature Smith as a mock celebrity. It opens with the excerpt from No President originally called "Marsh Gas of Flatulandia" - several minutes of black and white footage of steam escaping from manholes segues to an interior scene of various creatures emerging from dry ice vapors - then shifts to show the filmmaker, clad in a leopard skin jump suit, attended by a nurse as he sits amidst the detritus of his duplex loft. A fan presents him with a black-and-white glamour shot to autograph as Ondine, dressed entirely in black leather, snaps his picture. Violence erupts as the nurse takes out a whip to discipline the star's fans. When a female creature pulls out the same dagger depicted in the glamour shot, Smith jumps up and shakes the weapon from her hand. The action is post-scripted with footage of a steam shovel patrolling the rubble where the Broadway Central Hotel once stood.

From the streets of Bristol to the caverns of London and beyond, BanksyDoc finds the truths and explores the impact that the world’s most famous graffiti artist has had on the art world, on the expression of protest and satire, and on the perception of what you can do with a spray can and a stencil. Furthermore, this documentary explores the highly active art collector's world and how the celebrity factor shockingly influences value.

"Frederick" is the story of a high profile yet sardonic painter and art gallery owner who suffers from an intense version of “artist’s block.” However, his passion reignites when he has an idea for a new show, with his subject being the exploitation of beauty in society. To his surprise, he receives an unexpected visit from an intimidating yet oblivious policeman, Detective Marks, who interrogates him about the disappearance of several young fashion models. Frederick and Marks play a game of cat and mouse, culminating in a mysterious exhibition that both horrifies and entertains.

Shadow plays flicker, birds call, and colour leaks into grey walls. In Starlings, live action collides with puppetry and poetic visuals as a teen girl transforms loss into light, reviving the fractured bond with her father through the fragile power of art.

A short documentary by Hiroshi Teshigahara about his father, the sculptor Sofu Teshigahara, preparing an exhibition.

A doctor allergic to the human touch finds his salvation in writings tattooed on the body of a dead poet.

The Eye explores silent landscapes where nature and absence coexist. Between the memory of places and resilience in the face of time, the film oscillates between beauty and existential vertigo, capturing what persists and what fades.

An experimental video essay which uses circles and waves to explore neurodivergent experience.

Fragments of a collective post-human dream construct a world that straddles hyper-technological, ecological, and mythological dimensions.