FAFF2010 Programme
Monday 16th August 2010
Fumiko Matsuyama (DE)
Abenteuer der Rumflasche (Adventure of the Rumbottle)
A mischievous rum bottle travels in a country where the ideals and the reality of the revolution do not always reconcile with ideals with each other. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and US embargo Cuba is an embarrassing situation. So much so that the dollar was recognized as legal currency. This short experimental film was shot mostly in Gibara, where the whole town turned out to celebrate its film festival. The famous Cuban film director and festival director, Humberto Solas who passed away meanwhile appears in this in cognito.
Paul Tarragó (UK)
The Badger Series Episode 1
The Badger Series has issues and attempts, each episode, to resolve them. Recasting a glove puppet through his own present day sensibilities, Paul assumes the role of a kindly uncle mentor to a household of capersome woodland creatures. Mortality, self-sacrifice, depression, altered states of consciousness and transgressive art practices are all explored as part of their everyday lives together. Meanwhile the show is mindful to adhere to the traditional structural formulae, with entertainment numbers and routines appropriate to the scaled down sitcom world that they occupy. The series is equal parts moral instruction and narrative play, mediate through the forced fit of an experimental filmmaker as children’s entertainer.
Milk, Two Sugars (UK)
Funny Little Dance
Tom Senior on Funny Little Dance: “Our practice gives serious regard to the faux decadence of girlish or womanish preoccupations, like dancing. The choice of imagery in the film questions gender distinctions and the status of the decorative as opposed to typical male ideas of grandeur and building for prosperity; exploring the gulf between the two archetypal constraints. This creates the tension, symbolised in a funny little dance.”
eddie d (NL)
Majesteit (Majesty)
In his clever and witty poems, eddie d mercilessly exposes the conventions and clichés of television and films. In Majesty, eddie d tackles a special (and extreme) example of political ostentation and ritual in the Netherlands: ‘Prinsjesdag,’ the day on which the monarch presents the governmental policies for the forthcoming year to the collective Dutch parliament. Majesty compares two so called ‘Throne speeches’ with each other from 1997 and 2008. Are there essential differences – apart from Queen Beatrix’s new hat and perhaps the newly designed upholstery on her throne?
Sebaldo (UK)
Bomb Ed
“I am eating the bread of modern design. I spend my days teaching ideas how to spread their wings and cross roads safely. I am extremely versatile. I specialise in Illustration, animation, 3D, concept building and narrative work. When not swimming in ponds I am an expert Papier Mâché sculptor. I love my work, and unlike normal ducks, I can land on trees.”
Alice Bradshaw (UK)
Static
The remains of a hole-punched text The Rocks Remain in constant motion. The found, mass-produced object has been manually hole-punched and the remains captured as stills. The stills created a frame pool which were randomly sequenced to create the moving image based on a random number from the computer’s operating system entropy pool.
Thomas Rummelhoff (NO)
Brainbox
Brainbox is a recent video project incorporating live action and animation, creating a string of scenes in which the spectator encounters various characters and events in haunting spaces. The juxtaposition of ambiguous scenes intends to trigger a creative thought process, where the spectators and invited to interpret and continue the narrative for themselves.
Maggie Hall (UK)
Face
“I produce work without a narrative and verbal content, work that exists purely to be experienced communicating a semi-intuitive understanding. I want to leave my work open to the formation of ideas and concepts rather than react to them. Recently I have begun to merge the initial creation of my work with the final product, recreating a version of the process. These works intend to compress, contain and capture the initial energy and tensions revealed in their creation.”
www.axisweb.org/artist/maggiehall
Robert Crosse (UK)
The Right String
Exploring the notions of restriction and control by isolating hand movements to tell a lyrical story of poetic manipulation. Taking inspiration from the story of Petrushka the hands appear in both conflict and conversation with each other. The projected image hints at the dance of puppetry and the invisible lines that keep us in line. We are the puppets.
