24 – 29 noiembrie 2020 / Online / ediția a 10-a
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Sublime bodies

Sublime bodies

In SUBLIME BODIES, the body is both object and subject: both a lexical unit in a cinematic vocabulary that aims at representation, but also as a starting point of a subjective reflection on concepts such as embodiment, identity, sexuality, and senses. The films easily interchange between an interior and exterior perspective, setting a tension between the act of seeing (and, implicitly, the visual and auditory knowledge of the body) with the lived body’s subjectivities, with the empirical ways of knowing it from within. Sublime Bodies also searches for the contrast between the here of the body and the there of the screen or the Other, raising the question of the external perception of surrounding bodies, but also the question of the unique understanding that can be derived from the combination of proximal senses and distanced senses, of the turning plate between active and passive sensing. (Flavia Dima, BIEFF 2020)

Sublime Bodies. Reclaiming sexualised representations of the body

Carefully distinguishing between what is natural and what is normal (i.e. culturally constructed), the proposed panel will question societal norms and prejudices regarding sexuality, in an attempt to reclaim the power of sexualised representations of the body from a queer perspective, thus giving way to the search for personal identity and freedom.
 
The panel will be presented in relation to the competition program Sublime Bodies.
 
Invited filmmakers: Ann Oren, Michael Portnoy, Babeth M. VanLoo
Directed by: 
JAYNE PARKER
At first glance, nothing happens in AMARYLLIS. But look again. A poetic and gentle study of amaryllis flowers, JAYNE PARKER's film demands more attention than we are often willing to give to the screen. This little ode to color on 16mm film is not a calophilic exercise, but a whole cinematic translation of people's fascination with plants, their pigments, millimeter movements, reactions to light. PARKER takes what we are used to seeing in the background and brings it to the forefront, actually arousing a paradox – the realization of an "anti-film" through deep cinematic practices. (Călin Boto, BIEFF 2020)
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER – THE ART OF BODYBUILDING
USA / The Netherlands
2019
8'
Directed by: 
BABETH M. VANLOO
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER - THE ART OF BODYBUILDING consists of unprocessed, original 16mm material which the director herself shot during the Mr. Olympia Bodybuilding contest in the 1970s. VANLOO filmed Arnold Schwarzenegger, then Mister Universe, around 1975/1976. In her art installation “Sculpting the Body” she presented him as a living work of art: some of the poses were reminiscent of Rodin’s “The Thinker”. This art installation is unfortunately lost, but the original recordings have been used for a new cut. In this new film we see footage of an interview with Arnold Schwarzenegger by Raymond Mondini, recorded just after the Mr Olympia competition in 1976, combined with footage from the competition itself.
PASSAGE
Germany
2020
13'
Directed by: 
ANN OREN
ANN OREN creates a choreography from the professional routine of a foley artist, played by Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau, who works on the sounds of an equestrian training sequence. The intensive work of the artist gets a bit goofy, but not too much. However, the farce is waiting around the corner – more and more sensual, the artist dissolves their identity into that of the horse. Now they are ​​performing for the camera, in sync with the training sequences that OREN continues to insert. You can't think of the ideational implications while this queer, non-binary and naughty centaur is on screen. You’re charmed. Only after does decryption begin. (Călin Boto, BIEFF 2020)
A DEMONSTRATION
The Netherlands / Germany
2020
24'
Directed by: 
BENY WAGNER, SASHA LITVINTSEVA
A DEMONSTRATION lyrically unravels a fascinating moment in early modern European science, in which naturalists hastened a project that extends to the present day – that of cataloging the natural world. The taxonomies of people, plants, animals, rocks were born, and everything that couldn’t find its place in these scientific Procrustes’ beds fell under the umbrella of monsters. LITVINTSEVA and WAGNER are looking for visual remains of these taxonomies in performance halls, museums, libraries, but also in nature, a world full of small details from which the narratives and forms of monsters were built. We are challenged to resurrect ways of looking and thinking that are far away from us now, but that we can still access. (Călin Boto, BIEFF 2020)
EADEM CUTIS: THE SAME SKIN
Germany
2019
6'
Directed by: 
NINA HOPF
“I just want to be seen as who I am!”, says John. He refers to his mixed feelings regarding his trans identity, for John sees himself as a man. NINA, his twin sister, makes a body symphony of John’s in her queer festival darling EADEM CUTIS: THE SAME SKIN. While he’s being interviewed by his sister, he paints the screen – fingerprints, lips, indefinite bits of shapes on a screen which for too many decades demanded definite forms and shapes. (Călin Boto, BIEFF 2020)
THE SEISMIC FORM
Austria
2020
15'
Directed by: 
ANTOINETTE ZWIRCHMAYR
ZWIRCHMAYR does not fight theory with theory. Starting from a text written by Jean Baudrillard, the director makes small case studies, surreal or performative vignettes that revolve around seismic movements and ruins, the topics covered in the essay. A man poses nude by the sea. Earlier, he was completely covered with gravel. Two empty bodies haunt a historic building. Frozen time, suspended time, an alternative reality, resurrections - the director's response to all this is, of course, the act of filming, which also concludes her film. (Călin Boto, BIEFF 2020)
PROGRESSIVE TOUCH
Austria / The Netherlands / USA
2020
13'
Directed by: 
MICHAEL PORTNOY
Can you fuck to an irregular beat? PROGRESSIVE TOUCH depicts three moody, absurdist love scenes in which the goal is to “improve” sex by complicating its rhythm and choreography. Sex as dance as comedy. Enacted by three real-life couples, the dancers' every explicit move is synchronized to the propulsive, unpredictable score which borrows elements from progressive rock, trap, and math metal.

 

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