Directors Lounge: Discreet Structures
Films by Toby Cornish und Johannes Braun / Jutojo Berlin
Thursday November 25th, 21h
Z-Bar, Bergstraße 2, 10115 Berlin-Mitte

Discreet Structures, the title of the program with Toby Cornish and Johannes Braun, refers to the compositional qualities of their films. It also applies to the linking to local architecture or urban places, and to the ways the artists work with musical scores. Both artists’ work mainly originates in Super-8 or 16mm footage, which they shoot and then process digitally. And most films are product of collaborations with musicians.

Two visits to Sarajevo in 2003 and 2004 gave Toby the opportunity to make a structural film in this historically and politically charged place: Sarajevo Vertical. The bridge, where arch-duke Franz Ferdinand was murdered, which gave way to the declaration of war in 1914, the name Tito on a bridge, and the white graves of killed Muslims from the most recent war, all appear in the film but only as a backdrop, or as the ground on which the visitor stands. If “Sarajevo Vertical” has or needs a symbolical/political reading is up to the viewer. First of all it is the rule of composition of filmmaker Cornish to align every image to a vertical line while shooting and then edit the film on principles of repetition, rhythm, acceleration and size of the vertical line.

Plenty 2: Ägypten
Tuesday November 30th, 19-21h
E:ventGallery, 96 Teesdale Street, London E2 6PU

The screening series PLENTY proposes a new way of looking at artists’ films by showing only a single work, regardless of its duration. Each film is given the freedom to unfold on its own terms, and the viewer is given the time and space to consider it.

- Ägypten [Egypt] (Kathrin Resetarits, Austria, 1997, 16mm, b/w, sound, 10 minutes)

Ägypten takes viewers on a journey into the silent world of sign language, exploring visual communication between people of all ages. Children recount movie scenes and an expedition to the pyramids, a woman signs a traditional Viennese ballad and a group of pensioners socialise. The film uses the power of cinema to explore this theme with humour and compassion.

Kathrin Resetarits (born 1973) is a Viennese writer, actress and filmmaker. Her other films include Fremde (1999) and Ich Bin Ich (2006). She played a leading role in Barbara Albert’s Fallen (1997) and has worked as an assistant to Michael Haneke.

Plenty, a free monthly screening series selected by Mark Webber, forms part of the “Brief Habits” programme curated by Shama Khanna.