Category Archives: Films

Come On Over to the Field Station!

by

750 betpraam

Dear reader – long time, no post!

Sadly, the years of covid-19 have put the public activities of the Sunshine Socialist Cinema on hold. In the mean time, our sister project – Field Station 293 – has opened, and it’s right next door to the old cinema. The Field Station screens art videos and art films, together with its’ collection of landscape images, so our regular visitors might be inclined to give this new project a try, even though it’s a different experience to the outdoor cinema.

Films on view at the Field Station this season are: Windjarrameru, or The Stealing Cunts (2015) by Karrabing Collective, and Gallivant (1996) by Andrew Kötting.

More info on the Field Station can be found at faltstation293.org

Films Of 2019 (VI): Triple Chaser, By Forensic Architecture

by

trpchas 5

“Rendering images of our model against bold, generic patterns, known as ‘decontextualised images’, improves the classifier’s ability to identify the grenade.” Image: Forensic Architecture/Praxis Films, 2019

In Triple Chaser (2019) film director Laura Poitras and the research group Forensic Architecture document the development of a machine learning system. They use this technology, computer vision classifiers, to search through a multitude of filmclips from various sources online in order to identify teargas grenades manufactured by Safariland, a company owned by billionaire philanthropist Warren Kanders. The teargas grenade is called Triple Chaser. In the film, Forensic Architecture documents and provides evidence for the use of this grenade by police against protesters and by military against civilians.

trpchas 1

“During the process of training a ‘computer vision’ classifier, bounding boxes and ‘masks’ tell the classifier where in the image the Triple-Chaser grenade exists.” Image: Forensic Architecture/Praxis Films, 2019

The film Triple Chaser was made to be included in the now ongoing Whitney Biennial, an exhibition at the Whitney Museum. Warren Kanders served as vice chaiman on the board of the museum, but has recently resigned after the biennial was boycotted by several of the included artists.

“The film at the Biennial is split into chapters that trace the history of Safariland, as well as the effects of tear gas on the human body, and known instances when it has been used to suppress dissent, including the use of tear gas in the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Turkey. It also lays out the role that Kanders plays in Sierra Bullets, a company that produces ammunition that has been used by Israeli Defense Forces, and details the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights’s use of the Forensic Architecture’s research to put pressure on Kanders’s company.” – Quoted from Artnet.com, May 13 2019.

trpchas 3

“We asked activists around the world to find, and film, examples of the Triple Chaser grenade. We used photogrammetry to turn those images into a precise 3D model.” Image: Forensic Architecture/Praxis Films, 2019

Forensic Architecture (FA) is a research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London, consisting of architects, artists, filmmakers, journalist, software developers, scientists, lawyers, and an extended network of collaborators from a wide variety of fields and disciplines. Founded in 2010 by Prof. Eyal Weizman, FA is committed to the development and dissemination of new evidentiary techniques and undertakes advanced architectural and media investigations on behalf of international prosecutors, human rights and civil society groups, as well as political and environmental justice organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’tselem, Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and the UN, among others.

More info at

https://forensic-architecture.org/

Films Of 2019 (V): The Woolworths Choir Of 1979, By Elizabeth Price

by

woolw 5

Still from The Woolworths Choir Of 1979 by Elizabeth Price (c)

‘My work is about people and histories, but not individuals – it’s about people as collective forces or voices and how we emerge as such through material culture.’ – Quote by Elizabeth Price from HERE, a Baltic Centre of Contemporary Art exhibition guide 2012).

 

twist.tif

Still from The Woolworths Choir Of 1979 by Elizabeth Price (c)

The Woolworths Choir Of 1979 by Elizabeth Price is an associative exploration of the stories of a fire in the department store Woolworths in Manchester, in which ten people died. The video is set up as a stream of visuals and ideas, flowing through three parts which in turn (1) sets up the stage or the auditorium for a drama, then (2) introduces a choir to narrate the drama, and finally (3) presents the tragic event which the drama is based on.

 

woolw 1

Still from The Woolworths Choir Of 1979 by Elizabeth Price (c)

Elizabeth Price won the Turner Prize in 2012. Quoting the website of the Tate Museum: “The three sections are linked by recurring images of hand gestures. It begins with a photographic montage of ecclesiastical architecture and digitally animated plans describing an archetypal choir area in a church. Arcane words and definitions, particular to the institution and extracted from essays on churches, narrate the images like a PowerPoint lecture. This bulleted and didactic tone is punctuated by loud rhythmic claps, finger clicks and sung chords. An animated posture and twist of a wrist of a church floor effigy takes the film into the second part which expands on the meaning of a choir as a group of multiple voices. Internet clips of female pop performances, including 1960s American group Shangri-Las and their song Out in the Streets, focus on gestural arm movements and synchronised dances of singers and backing vocalists, layering and assembling them into a unified cacophonic dance and chorus prophetically insisting ‘WE KNOW’. In the final episode the sinuous gestures of the dancers cut to flames, billows of smoke and images of a trapped woman waving for help through a barred window. A range of footage drawn from public archives of the devastating fire that killed ten people at the Woolworths department store in Manchester in 1979 fluctuates between eye witness and survivor accounts, news reports (the first narratives of the event) and material relating to the public inquest that effected change in fire laws in Britain, interjected with text from the chorus. A reconstruction plan of the source of the fire – a storeroom stacked with flammable soft furnishings – brings the work full circle by recalling the rectangular enclosure of the church choir lined with pews.”

 

woolw 4

Still from The Woolworths Choir Of 1979 by Elizabeth Price (c)

 

Films Of 2019 (IV): Grosse Fatigue, By Camille Henrot

by

2

Still fom Grosse Fatigue, by Camille Henrot

Quoting from the Guggenheim website:

“Over the course of thirteen minutes, the video tells the story of the creation of the universe through a cascade of images that pop up, collide, and implode across a computer screen. Set to a soundtrack of a rapid-fire spoken-word poem, written in collaboration with poet Jacob Bromberg, the narrative blends scientific histories with creation stories from a variety of major religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism), faiths (Freemasonry, Kabbalah), and indigenous traditions (Dogon, Inuit, Navajo). Highly subjective and intuitive, the work relates the vastness of the universe to the expansive arena of the Internet and points to the impossibility of a unifying system of knowledge.”

7

Still fom Grosse Fatigue, by Camille Henrot

Quoting from the König Galerie website and Lousie Simard:

“This video installation unfolds to the rhythm of fluid superimpositions, juxtapositions and associations of images and words in a series of pop-ups and open windows on a screen. The thirteen-minute piece is accompanied by a narration written in collaboration with the poet Jacob Bromberg and spoken by Akwetey Orraca-Tetteh. Like all of Henrot’s works—films, drawings, sculptures, collections of images and objects—Grosse Fatigue speaks of her interest in anthropology, philosophy, literature, music and metonymical relationships. Henrot produced Grosse Fatigue during a residency at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.”

5

Still fom Grosse Fatigue, by Camille Henrot

All images are © 2019 ADAGP Camille Henrot. Courtesy the artist, Silex Films, and Kamel Mennour, Paris.

 

 

Films Of 2019 (III): The Big Store, By Lars Arrhenius And Johannes Müntzing

by

en-dag-paa-varuhuset2_lille

Videostill from The Big Store, by Lars Arrhenius and Johannes Müntzing

The Big Store is an animated film which takes place at the department store NK in Stockholm, during the minutes surrounding the murder of the Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in 2003.

The murder was filmed by surveillance cameras, but in the animation produced by Lars Arrhenius and Johannes Müntzing, shoppers and flaneurs in the department store appear as skeletons on an X-ray screen, and no consumer objects are visible.

En dag på varuhuset_001 copy

Videostill from The Big Store, by Lars Arrhenius and Johannes Müntzing

poster

Poster for The Big Store, by Lars Arrhenius and Johannes Müntzing

 

 

Films Of 2019 (II): Where The Border Runs, By Knutte Wester

by

Här är Gränsen på Moderna Museet

Installation view from Moderna Museet: Where the Border Runs, by Knutte Wester

An undocumented refugee limps about in a muddy field somewhere in Sweden and shows us a border. The border appears real, almost like a national border, and crossing it might have disastrous consequences. He tells us that he has lived inside the border for four years. There is something incomprehensible about the border, it seems taken out of nothing.

Här är gränsen STILL 01

Videostill from Where the Border Runs, by Knutte Wester

“You see over there? Back there’s where the border is.” A child moves around in the Swedish countryside and points out an invisible border. It frames the safe areas in the vicinity of a place where he lives with other undocumented immigrants. The film’s aesthetics are pared-down and unsentimental. The boy talks about his situation without a trace of bitterness. “Sure, it would be great to go in to town and eat a hamburger, but you have to wait your turn”, he says. – Quoted from the website of Moderna Museet.

Where the Border Runs is a film with direction, camera, sound, editing and music by Knutte Wester.
Grading was done by Simon Tingell.
Sound was mixed by Boris Laible.
The film was produced with support from Film i Västerbotten.

Här är gränsen STILL 02

Videostill from Where the Border Runs, by Knutte Wester

 

 

 

Films Of 2019 (I): Procrastination, by Björn Perborg

by

Procrastination_still_introtext

Videostill from Procrastination,  by Björn Perborg

Procrastination is a pretty universal phenomenon. The possibility of instant satisfaction often appears far more attractive than some vague reward in the future. That is why many of us suddenly start to do the dishes, vacuum clean or tidy up the flat when we really should be preparing for an approaching deadline.

In this film the artist Björn Perborg reveals how his plans for a two month residency in Copenhagen turned into something else and how he, in the end, had produced nothing but a short film about procrastination.

Procrastination_still01

Videostill from Procrastination,  by Björn Perborg

Narration performed by Andrew Mottershead

Featured music is Nightclub 1960 by Astor Piazzolla, performed and recorded by Björn Perborg

Theatrical mix / Mastering by Niklas Skarp

Procrastination_still03

Videostill from Procrastination,  by Björn Perborg

Björn Perborg is a Swedish contemporary artist and filmmaker, best known for his playful sculptures and animations, lined with humour and astonishment before what is taken for granted or considered normality.

Björn Perborg was born in Västerås, Sweden. He currently lives and works on the island of Orust. After music studies in Örebro and Moscow, he switched to fine art and graduated from the Valand art academy in Gothenburg in 2003. Björn has also studied filmmaking at EICTV on Cuba and at Wits School of Art in Johannesburg.

Björn’s short films and video installations departs either from his own experiences, observations or from found stories. Larger solo shows include »Geschichten aus dem Koffer« at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, 2009, and the retrospective »Being Björn Perborg« at Konstnärshuset in Stockholm, 2014.

 

Program 2018: The Fiesta!

by

As previously stated elsewhere: On Saturday August 18 we’ll be presenting the first ever film festival in Katrineholm. Five films shown, plus various bobs and bits in between. The clips, pics and bits of chitchat we will use during presentation and audience interaction have been re-mixed from previous screenings this summer – the Disastrous screening and the Election Special screening. And the festival is influenced by comments and thoughts from those previous audiences, even down to the selection of films.

Knotweed 2

The Giant Knotweed Panflute Ensemble by Ingela Ihrman

The Giant Knotweed Panflute Ensemble by Ingela Ihrman will be screened continuously from 17.00 in one of the greenhouses. Quoting from the artists website:

“The Giant Knotweed is a garden escapee with Japanese roots that Environmental Protection Agencies in Europe and North America classifies as an invasive specie. Companies in these regions use poison, dynamite and excavators to help land owners in despair who want to get rid of “the growing curse of the Giant Knotweed”. By making pan flutes of it’s hollow stems, I suggest a different relation to the Giant Knotweed, based on mutuality and creativity.

In April 2015 eight people living in Malmö visited the place next to a highway where the knotweed stems that I made the flutes from once grew. Each member of “The Japanese Knotweed Panflute Ensemble” choose a flute and spent time in the shrubbery. The situation resembled a plant meditation or a “jam session” where perception and breathing was as important as playing tunes on the flutes. We closed our eyes, filled our lungs with air and listened to the roar from the highway and other sounds together.”

Knotweed 5

The Giant Knotweed Panflute Ensemble by Ingela Ihrman
.

Program 2018: We Just Do As We’re Told

by

The Swedish employment agency has registered 400 000 unemployed, and there are 40 000 jobs advertised – what then is the true function of the employment agency? And how do the people who work at the employment agency feel about the meaning of their work?

Vi Bara Lyder _ foto Fredrik Wenzel copy

Vi Bara Lyder, foto Fredrik Wenzel

In 2015 sociologist researcher Roland Paulsen published his study of the Swedish employment agency in the format of a reportage book, Vi bara lyder (We just do as we’re told). The book was turned into a script for Malmö Puppet Theatre, and the play Funktionell Dumhet (Functional stupidity) debuted the same year. In the play, the authentic lines from Paulsen’s study were voiced by cardboard puppets. Now the play has been filmed, and edited into a 30 minute documentary, by director Erik Holmström and filmmaker Fredrik Wenzel.

Vi Bara Lyder Roland foto Fredrik Wenzel

Vi Bara Lyder, foto Fredrik Wenzel

What is the true function of the employment agency? Well for one thing, they have provided us with a number of statistics which we will go through in connection with the screening on Thursday!

Vi Bara Lyder Väntrum foto Fredrik Wenzel copy

Vi Bara Lyder, foto Fredrik Wenzel

Program 2018: Are You Team Aniston Or Are You Team Jolie?

by

Screening in Höja on Thursday 19 July, and it’s an Election Special! Come by and help us make sense of this thing? We can talk about pizzas and personal voting, about hope found in demographics, about morality in the face of material reality.

Among the films shown will be Team Jolie by Hannah Black.

Hannah Black_Team Jolie 002.png

Hannah Black, Team Jolie, 2014 (still). Courtesy the artist and Arcadia Missa.

In the video Team Jolie we get to consider a number of statements which at first seem like arguments pro and con the two actresses Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie – not just regarding which of the two is a better soul mate for Brad Pitt but also everything concerning what they mean and stand for as icons. Are you Team Aniston or are you Team Jolie?

Hannah Black_Team Jolie 001.png

Hannah Black, Team Jolie, 2014 (still). Courtesy the artist and Arcadia Missa.

Rather than recounting a sexist media narrative, Team Jolie becomes both a poetic reflection and a theoretical analysis, point by point and line by line. Quoting from the script of the film:

Single bass beat. [Image of Jennifer Aniston’s left eye and text that reads “Team Aniston”]

I wanted to like her but I couldn’t. I could not stand her desire to be liked. I punished her minutely by withholding my affection as if this could do anything but affirm her power. Her achievement was the mirror of an indescribable failure. Even though when it became clear that although she was a machine for producing affection, she too had failed to be loved, I was not sure that I could forgive her the ease that she had previously been.

Single bass beat. [Image of Angelina Jolie’s lips and nose and text that reads “Team Jolie”]

Because pain is for everyone, she represented the fierce enjoyment of pain with whatever necessary emptiness in present social conditions. Someone who once really made me suffer or who was the premise for suffering I somehow may have wanted sent me some lines from Marx where Marx seems to suggest that in communism we might experience pain and pleasure differently. I was pleased to see a solution to the problem of who in communism would work in the sewers—perhaps even the smell of shit will be experienced differently then. Perhaps, like animals, we will no longer be alienated from what Benjamin calls “the most lost forgotten land of our own bodies.”