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Cinema Muzeul Țăranului -
Wednesday, March 16, 2016 - 20:30
Cinema Muzeul Țăranului -
Saturday, March 19, 2016 - 22:00
Written by:
Antoinette Zwirchmayr
Cinematography:
Rosa John
Editing:
Antoinette Zwirchmayr, Rosa John
Sound:
Rob Peters
Music:
A Thousand Fuegos & Squalloscope
Producer:
Antoinette Zwirchmayr, Carmen Weingartshofer
Romanian Premiere
Working at the threshold of documentary, diary and essayistic cinema, Antoinette Zwirchmayr’s The Pimp and His Trophies is an oneiric recall of the director’s childhood memories of her grandfather - one of Salzburg’s most infamous pimps. Beautifully shot on 35mm and exuding the claustrophobic ambience of conflicting memories, the film employs archival photographs and atmospheric shots of the brothel’s plush interiors as associative stopgaps for the voiceover narrations. At the center of it all lies a structuring absence enveloping the corporeal spectres of the family’s illicit business. Hearing of the grandfather’s love for hunting, the titular mementos take on a new life, materializing from the limbo-state of memory through the process of cinematic reflection. (Andrei Tănăsescu, BIEFF)
Director:
Antoinette Zwirchmayr is a Salzburg and Vienna-based Austrian filmmaker and artist. She has studied at The Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. She has directed several films, including The Pimp and His Trophies, which was awarded the prize for Best Documentary Film at the Diagonale Film Festival in Graz.
Contact:
contact[at]antoinettezwirchmayr[dot]com
Festivals, awards:
- Best Documentary Film - Diagonale Graz 2014
- IndieLisboa 2015
- Festival dei Popoli 2015
- Toronto International Film Festival 2014
- Vienna Independent Short Film Festival 2014
Director's statement:
The first time I visited my grandfather’s brothel I was seven years old. We were sitting on a couch in the entrance hall and he was telling me a story. Just as the story was reaching its climax, he suddenly stopped speaking and left the room with two prostitutes. I looked over at my grandmother, whose gaze was empty, as if she were somewhere else. Prostitution, pimping and human trafficking are universal phenomena of society and at the same time a taboo in public discourse. Beyond the indisputable moral rejection of evil per se, the various attempts to interpret this behavior have generally focused almost exclusively on the victims, in this case, the prostitutes. The offenders or pimps are usually not keen on discussing their profession or introducing themselves publicly, mainly because of judicial circumstances. Being the granddaughter of one of Salzburg’s most infamous pimps, I have encountered such a perpetrator on a truly intimate level, seen through a child’s eyes. Despite my initial, childlike naiveté I have witnessed and felt the ambivalence of the situation early on, through personal experience and the routine exposure to family life. I can only speak for myself when I say that my fascination for the subject has always been greater than my refusal of it. Secret audio recordings by my grandmother, footage of my grandfather, architectural blueprints and photographs of the brothel, my father’s thoughts as well as my own memories: all this forms the groundwork of my undertaking. My goal is not to shock, but to show the reality behind the façade, with all of its cracks, to expose the many facets of truth that lie beneath. (Antoinette Zwirchmayr)
The first time I visited my grandfather’s brothel I was seven years old. We were sitting on a couch in the entrance hall and he was telling me a story. Just as the story was reaching its climax, he suddenly stopped speaking and left the room with two prostitutes. I looked over at my grandmother, whose gaze was empty, as if she were somewhere else. Prostitution, pimping and human trafficking are universal phenomena of society and at the same time a taboo in public discourse. Beyond the indisputable moral rejection of evil per se, the various attempts to interpret this behavior have generally focused almost exclusively on the victims, in this case, the prostitutes. The offenders or pimps are usually not keen on discussing their profession or introducing themselves publicly, mainly because of judicial circumstances. Being the granddaughter of one of Salzburg’s most infamous pimps, I have encountered such a perpetrator on a truly intimate level, seen through a child’s eyes. Despite my initial, childlike naiveté I have witnessed and felt the ambivalence of the situation early on, through personal experience and the routine exposure to family life. I can only speak for myself when I say that my fascination for the subject has always been greater than my refusal of it. Secret audio recordings by my grandmother, footage of my grandfather, architectural blueprints and photographs of the brothel, my father’s thoughts as well as my own memories: all this forms the groundwork of my undertaking. My goal is not to shock, but to show the reality behind the façade, with all of its cracks, to expose the many facets of truth that lie beneath. (Antoinette Zwirchmayr)