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| war & peace 2008 programme |
Artists’ details in order
of screening:
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Claire Fowler, Home (2008)
6’
A portrait of Beit Iksa in the West Bank, exploring the contradictions
of Israeli occupation with the perspective of both Arab villager and
Israeli settler.
Claire Fowler is a film maker who works with documentary and experimental
narratives. She divides her time between Europe and USA. Her work
has been screened at numerous international venues including Sheffield
Documentary Festival, the Rotterdam Film Festival and Rooftop films
in New York City USA. She is currently studying at the Columbia Film
School in Manhattan. |
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Tim Shore/Gary Thomas, Burlesque
(2008) 10’45”
Five soldiers prepare and enact a performance that evokes the aggressively
physical games of the British public school – the Eton Wall
Game and British Bulldog – and suggests how the role and function
of the ‘soldier’ are determined. This game playing is
amplified in wartime, and echoes in the racism and violence ‘exhibited’
in the infamous Abu Ghraib photographs. But there are no naked and
blindfolded figures in Burlesque. The performance of ritual, control
and containment exalts the de-personalised, subjugated, censored
body.
Tim Shore and Gary Thomas collaborate on film projects that are
concerned with social and historical themes and subjects, and which
are typically developed from an extended period of careful research.
Through this extended process, they aim to extract subtle, detailed
and engaging ‘narratives’ from the historical record.
They won an award at Transmediale 2007 Berlin, and were selected
for the Mostyn Open in 2007. Burlesque was funded by Capture, the
national strategic agency for dance and moving image.
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Kevin Logan, Recitation
(2007) 4’29”
An audiovisual piece examining oral traditions and their relationship
with text based information and belief systems, in particular religious
texts. Recitation was inspired by a poem by Jarmain Patrick, which
was performed during a development week held by B3.Media, Brixton
for the identities. tv project.
Kevin Logan trained as a fine artist, working primarily in installation
and multimedia. Following post graduate study, he began to concentrate
on audio art and sound design for short film. He is currently exploring
the possibilities of moving image, field recorded audio and spoken
word. Recitation has been screened at many festivals including the
Moscow International Film Festival, Pocket Film Festival in Paris,
Transmediale 08 in Berlin and Encounters International Film Festival
07 in Bristol.
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Jonathan Moss, RQV2
(2007) 2’38”
The video depicts a walk through ruined buildings and across undergrowth
in a former camp in Riversaltes, a place between the Mediterranean
and the mountains on the edge of a motorway. This is a place for
those caught up in war: from here thousands were sent to Auschwitz;
later it was used for Spanish and Algerian refugees, and more recently
for illegal immigrants. A memorial is now being constructed on this
site – can a reminder of the horrors experienced move us towards
peace?
Jonathan Moss studied fine art at the University of Wales and Royal
College of Art, and now works in France. Primarily a painter-printmaker,
he only recently began making videos and has had screenings at the
International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, the Izolenta International
Film Festival in St Petersburg, the Gijon International festival
in Spain.
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Sarah Vanagt, First Elections
(2006) 14’42”
Goma, Eastern Congo, April 2005: A group of children act out the
first democratic elections since independence. Their election game
includes a lot of violence and death. The relationship between local
politics and the children is embodied by Bébé Rico
and Bébé Elégance, two animated babies used
in commercials. The Rico advertisements have a political connotation
in the collective imagination of Congolese people. Bébé
Rico is identified with President Kabila, and Bébé
Elégance with Vice-President Bemba.
Sarah Vanagt studied History at the universities of Antwerp and
Groningen then trained at the London National Film and Television
School. During that time she worked mainly with refugee children
from Rwanda, resulting in a graduation project After Years of Walking
(2003). Her work has been shown at IDFA (Amsterdam), the Amnesty
International Film Festival (West Hollywood) and Tate Modern (London).
She lives and works in Brussels.
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Aline Helmcke, Destruck
(2006) 2’19”
This animated film is built up on single frame drawings taken from
political report photos. These drawings, unusually complex for drawn
animation, are transformed from one key-frame to the next, blurring
the identity of once familiar images. Thus, an impression of decomposition
rather than narrative structure evolves. Sound adds to the surrealistic
and unsettling atmosphere of the work.
Aline Helmcke has just graduated from the Royal College of Art and
is now working as an independent artist and film maker in London.
She was born in Berlin and studied Fine Art at the Berlin University
of the Arts. Exhibitions and screenings include Bauhaus Archive Berlin,
Transmediale Berlin, rencontres internationals Paris/Berlin, Whitechapel
Gallery London, Kyoto Arts Centre and National Film Theatre London. |
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Lisa Byrne, Stand Up and Cry Like
a Man (2007) 4’
Stories are told by taxi drivers in Nothern Ireland of their experience
of surviving paramilitary attacks during the 80’s and 90’s.
The work relies on the past to point to the future of current violence,
by depicting the scars that penetrate these men today.
Lisa Byrne graduated in 2007 from the Royal College of Art and currently
teaches at the University College for Creative Arts. Her work has
been influenced by growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
Stand Up and Cry Like a Man was recently shown in the Body City exhibition
in Dublin. She had a solo show in Moscow in 2004, and in 2008 her
photographic work is part of an exhibition at the Courtauld Institute
of Art. |
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Mahmoud Reza Sani, Siyamo
(2003-2008) 18’
Intending to make a pictorial report about Afghanistan and its people
after the Taliban, instead Iranian filmmaker Mahmoud Reza Sani instead
ended up making a video diary. This account of his search for a
girl that he sees in a dream is funny and poignant. As the reaction
of locals to this stranger changes from suspicion to bemusement
and they help him on his quest, we gain fresh insight into the Afghan
people and their enduring culture.
Mahmoud Reza Sani is a young film director based in Tehran, with
a sea faring background. After working as a sailor, he became involved
in cinema industry in Iran, acting and working as assistant director
in several Iranian films. Since then he has made 27 short films
and 2 television serial features and participated in more than 40
international film festivals. Many of his shorts are documentaries
filmed around the world: Afghanistan, Iraq, Peru, Spain, Tunisia,
Cuba and Iran.
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