By José Sarmiento Hinojosa
Mato Seco em Chamas culminates with a procession of motorcyclists after the fire of the repressive apparatus, represented in the armored police vehicle. An ending that adopts the epic western as a declaration of principles, but in this case, principles of elementary subversion in the face of repression. A remarkable film in the filmography of both filmmakers.
By Monica Delgado
With more than twenty films, between documentaries and fiction, the Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl arrived at the 72nd edition of the Berlinale. Rimini’s premiere is part of the official competition, and although it takes the name of a city that is not indifferent to any movie buff (the birthplace of Federico Fellini), it is a portrait of an autumn character, crossed by a context political and social, as is often the case in much of this filmmaker’s cinema.
by Claudia Siefen-Leitich
With her seemingly never-ending energy, there is a moment when you experience the painter and filmdirector Mara Mattuschka in peace and in almost frozen concentration, and that is while eating in a restaurant. As a performance artist, painter, author, actress, professor and even singer, Mara Mattuschka surprises her audience time and again and is one of the figureheads of Austrian avant-garde cinema. The body is at the centre of Mattuschka’s work, quite conscious in its impulsiveness and defectiveness, through which the unconscious seems to burst forth and leap at us. If one allows it to. Born in Sofia in 1959, she studied painting and animation with Maria Lassnig at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, but began to explore the medium of film at an early age.
By Víctor Paz Morandeira
American filmmaker Bette Gordon was in the spotlight in 2020 due to the recent restoration of her cult film Variety (1983), which found an obstacle in its way to theaters in the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately Play-Doc International Film Festival (Tui, Spain) gave us the opportunity this year to discover this gem on the big screen. The story depicts the life of a young woman who works in a porn theater in Manhattan selling tickets. Not only does the film subvert the traditional idea of female representation, but it also shows hidden unconventional human landscapes of New York by having the protagonist follow a mysterious client around the city. Gordon inverts the Madeleine-like stereotype of the beauty that exists only for the pleasure of the male gaze in a very playful way, delivering a feminist film – profoundly influenced by Laura Mulvey’s essays put into practice – that does not feel militant at all.
By Tomáš Hudák
Despite film becoming a predominantly digital medium in the 21st century, photochemical film has not disappeared completely. There is still a vibrant scene of experimental cinema around it that doesn’t value analogue film for its past glories but focuses on how it can speak to our present and help us reflect on contemporary issues like climate change. Newly established artist-run labs and collectives are therefore not only an expression of artistic ambitions or aesthetical priorities, but can be understood as part of wider social and political movements.
By Irina Trocan
Although my first visit to Gdynia was a distant seven years ago – for the 2014 edition of the Polish Film Festival –, the largest film industry event in Poland has always left me feeling like a bit of an outsider, and I don’t mean this as a complaint. The country’s film production is much higher and more diverse than most of its East European neighbors, to the point where it is quite difficult even for Polish film critics to keep up with new releases – thus, the main competition of the Gdynia festival is a welcome selection.
By José Sarmiento and Mónica Delgado
As part of the recent edition of the Al Este de Lima festival, the Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner gave a masterclass, where she delved into her work before a Peruvian audience. In this framework, we were able to talk with her about her motivations, her staging and her female leading characters.
By José Sarmiento
Peter Tscherkassky’s latest masterpiece Train Again (2021) is a magnificent work of synthesis: of the history of cinema, of cinema as a spectacle, of the anxiety of industrialization, of the unveiling of cinema apparatus, of the possibilities and expansion of structural cinema. Dedicated to his good friend and structural filmmaker extraordinaire, Kurt Kren, Tscherkassky shares the same impulses of the work he’s homaging.
José Sarmiento Hinojosa
I would like to make a case for the aesthetics present in Stephen Broomer’s appropriation films, but particularly in his latest film to date, Fat Chance (2020). One might be inclined to appreciate this work as a continuation of the possibilities for found footage in experimental cinema, following in the steps of other greats like Bill Morrison and Peter Tscherkassky (and yes, there is something to say -aesthetically and in its poetics*- about certain similarities between the film, and, let’s say, others like Outer Space or Light is Calling).
by Claudia Siefen-Leitich
“Touch“, “shame”, and “disgust” have a multiple meaning in film. Not only do the protagonists touch each other, but the film touches the viewers. Trapped in their cinema seats, captivated by the events on the screen and integrated into the identity machine of cinema, the individual separates himself or herself in order to be involuntarily touched by the so called heroes.
Directors:
Mónica Delgado Ch.
José Sarmiento Hinojosa
ISSN 2311-7451
© Desistfilm 2020
Lima Perú. All rights reserved.