In Silico Experimental Short Film Competition 2

Time and place

Wednesday, 25 October 2023 at 21:00

Rodina Cinema Centre – Big Hall: Karavannaya Street, 12

Description

“How to Express It”, dir. Aibe Karelin. France, 2023, 5 min.
"o.a", dir. Yaroslav Kirichenko. Russia, 2023, 7 min.
"Reconstruction", dir. Igor Polikarpov. Russia, 2023, 11 min.
"Desert Dreaming", dir. Abdul Halik Azeez. Sri Lanka, 2023, 12 min.
“The Film You Are about to See”, dir. Maxime Martinot. France, 2023, 11 min.
"Hold on for Dear Life", dir. Simone Fiorentino. Italy, 2023, 9 min.
“Exterior Day”, dir. Giulia Magno. Italy, 2022, 8 min.
"Multicellular", dir. Raya Shmatova. Russia, 2023, 8 min.
"Wild Flowers", dir. Karla Crnčević. Croatia. Spain, 2022, 11 min.

Q&A with authors Evgenia Korchagina, Yaroslav Kirichenko,
Igor Polikarpov, Raya Shmatova, Andrea Gatopoulos.

Desert Dreaming

Genres: Experimental, Short-length

Director: Abdul Halik Azeez

Producer: Abdul Halik Azeez

Year: 2023

Country: Sri Lanka

Duration: 12 min.

Languages: English, Tamil

Description

Synopsis:
Tracing labor migration to the Middle East and the micro impacts of large shifts such as the neoliberalization of the Sri Lankan economy in the 70s, the film challenges monolithic narratives of personal history and middle class Muslim upbringing through popular culture and anecdotal, intimate recollections.

About the director:
Abdul Halik Azeez. Director, producer. His work examines technologies of power as mediated through contemporary culture, narratives of progress, lived experiences, and media. His multidisciplinary practice predominantly draws from post-war transformations that have impacted Sri Lanka, such as the effects of gentrification, tourism and renewed ultranationalist politics. Abdul Halik Azeez also works collaboratively with The Packet and other artists from Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

Reconstruction

Genres: Experimental, Short-length

Director: Igor Polikarpov

Operator: Glen Nadezhdin

Cast: Азат Садртдинов, Дмитрий Швецов, Дмитрий Болдов, Владимир Загинайченко

Producer: Igor Polikarpov

Year: 2023

Country: Russia

Duration: 11 min.

Languages: Russian

Description

Synopsis:
The experimental film “Reconstruction” examines the experience of a mentally ill person, contrasting scenes of supposed reality with the archival record of the events he narrates.

About the director:
Igor Polikarpov. Director. Born in 2000 in the city of Norilsk, he grew up between Moscow and Istanbul. He studied in the feature and documentary film direction faculty at the Institute of Film and Television. In 2019, he began studying at the Los Angeles Film School, where he is currently completing the production of his graduation film “The Porter”, shot on 16mm film in the Peruvian Andes. Other films: “Misha” (2019), “River without Banks” (2020), “The Scene” (2021), “Hilltop Russians” (2022).

The Film You Are about to See

Genres: Experimental, Short-length

Director: Maxime Martinot

Screenwriter: Maxime Martinot

Editor: Maxime Martinot

Producer company : Don Quichotte Films

Year: 2023

Country: France

Duration: 11 min.

Languages: English

Description

Synopsis:
Please note that the film you are about to see is taken from real material of film history, namely the disclaimers and warnings that frame the existence of many films. However, any collusion between art and industry, any conflict of interest between freedom of creation and the law, or any hint of moralism on the life of images, would be purely incidental and unintentional.

About the director:
Maxime Martinot. French director, editor and writer. After his cinema studies in Paris 8, he works between Brittany, Paris and Lisbon. His first feature film “Trois contes de Borges” won two prizes at FIDMarseille and was released in French theaters in 2018. His short essay film “Histoire de la revolution” won the Best Short Film Award at EntreVues Belfort. In 2022, “Antelopes” is nominated for the César Awards, in the Best documentary short film category.

o.a

Genres: Experimental, Short-length

Director: Yaroslav Kirichenko

Year: 2023

Country: Russia

Duration: 7 min.

Description

Synopsis:
In this experimental film, satellite photographs are interwoven with photos and video shot on a more familiar scale. This creates complex patterns that supplement each other regardless of whether they were shot at the distance of 1 metre or 35,000 kilometres. These patterns bloom both naturally and thanks to man; they can argue and compete in beauty, freeze or change every second, be material or dissolve in an imaginary abstraction.

About the director:
Yaroslav Kirichenko. Director. Born in 2004 in Yaroslavl, he became interested in documentary street photography in his latter years at school. The documentary film “o.a” is his directorial debut, made in his second year at university.

Hold on for Dear Life

Genres: Experimental, Short-length

Director: Simone Fiorentino

Screenwriter: Simone Fiorentino

Producer: Simone Fiorentino

Producer company : Eclettica, Nouvelle Bug

Year: 2023

Country: Italy

Duration: 9 min.

Languages: English

Description

Synopsis:
A young man wanders around his bomb-wounded city with his dog and his noseless friend Jean-Michel, while trying to keep his everyday life intact.

About the director:
Simone Fiorentino. A screenwriter, film director and music composer born in 1985 in Palermo. He wrote, directed and composed three short films “Together” (2018), “I Saw Our Future in the Orb” (2021) and “Hold on for Dear Life” (2023) and recorded one music album, with the art name silly blu.

Divlje Cvijeće / Wild Flowers

Genres: Experimental, Short-length

Director: Karla Crnčević

Editor: Karla Crnčević

Producer company : Elias Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE)

Year: 2022

Country: Croatia, Spain

Duration: 11 min.

Languages: English, Croatian

Description

Synopsis:
My father used a camera just once in his lifetime. After 30 years he asked me to digitise the VHS material he filmed. I was wondering what he remembers.
Created from an impulse to rethink and rewatch personal archive footage, the film explores memory and its relation to documentation and non-institutional archive practices. Connecting politics with intimate spaces, the film questions both the influence of war on private archives and the role of gardens as places of new beginnings.

About the director:
Karla Crnčević. Dramaturge and film worker. She explores politics of images and sound through various formats and work conditions. Her video and film works have been exhibited and awarded in various countries. She is one of the founders of Unseen festival – dealing with revitalization of cinema spaces. She holds MA in Dramaturgy (Academy of Drama Arts, Zagreb) and Filmmaking (EQZE, San Sebastian).

Esterno giorno / Exterior Day

Genres: Experimental, Short-length

Director: Giulia Magno

Operator: Giulia Magno

Screenwriter: Giulia Magno

Year: 2022

Country: Italy

Duration: 8 min.

Languages: Italian

Description

Synopsis:
Inspired by a famous exchange of letters between Michelangelo Antonioni and Mark Rothko, Esterno giorno is an experimental love letter to Italian cinema. Embarking on an intimate journey in the footsteps of Monica Vitti’s characters, the filmmaker poetically intertwines contemporary footage shot across Italy and the Jordanian desert with excerpts from Antonioni’s films, creating an illusion of continuity between past and present.

About the director:
Giulia Magno. Filmmaker, art historian and curator. Her moving image works have been exhibited internationally, including at the ICA Miami, the National Galleries of Scotland, and the National Museum of Cinema. As a curator, she has collaborated with international institutions such as the ICA London and the MAXXI Museum in Rome to curate exhibitions exploring the intersection of cinema and art.

Multicellular

Genres: Experimental, Short-length

Director: Raya Shmatova

Producer company : SPUFT

Year: 2023

Country: Russia

Duration: 8 min.

Languages: Russian

Description

Synopsis:
Our world exists only thanks to the possibility of a simple cell to evolve through continuous movement. What will happen if we set it above all else in nature and give it power?

About the director:
Raya Shmatova. Contemporary artist, graphic designer, director of documentary and animated film. Currently a third-year student in Alexander Markov and Maria Popritsak’s workshop at the St. Petersburg State Institute of Film and Television, she has participated several times in film shoots sponsored by the Presidential Grants Foundation.

How to Express It

Genres: Experimental, Short-length

Director: Aibe Karelin

Year: 2023

Country: France

Duration: 5 min.

Languages: Russian

Description

Synopsis:
A documentary essay about life in a totalitarian state through the prism of childhood memories.

About the director:
Aibe Karelin. Director. He was born in 1984 in France. After the graduation from the school of Decorative and Applied Arts, he devoted himself to studying historical mistakes, their repetitions and consequences.