Cinematic films and performance documentation have often been separated categorically. Yet, Carolee Schneemann’s films push against these distinctions, whether by painting with her camera or mirroring back moments in time.
Translation: ‘Moon, Sun, Water, Fire; Blood on the Field: A Collection of Materials’ by Manfred Blank
Translated by Florian Weigl Previously re-published as Un receuil de matériaux in a French translation by Danièle Huillet in Cahiers du cinéma Nr. 305 (11/1979) Moon, Sun, Water, […]
Neocolonial Grip: Ousmane Sembène’s ‘Tauw’ (1970) + Djibril Diop Mambéty’s ‘Le Franc’ (1994)
Currency takes even more of a centre stage in some of their lesser-known shorts steeped in acute political commentary: Le Franc (1994) and Tauw (1970) respectively, which delve deeper into many of the context-specific issues of cash—and lack thereof—in Francophone Africa, exposing the incomplete nature of the decolonial project.
Master and Slave (Masculine) Morality: ‘Nishant’ (1976)
Anand Sudha writes about oppression and revolution in Shyam Bengal’s Nishant.
Bodies De/Materialising: “Passion – Pause – Desire” in Frieda Liappa’s ‘Love Wanders in the Night’ (1981) and ‘The Years of the Big Heat’ (1991)
Ioannis Andronikidis traces the importance of passion, pause and desire through two works by the Greek filmmaker, referencing Audre Lorde, Clarice Lispector and Alain Resnais along the way.
Essay: A Time For Many Words – Canon Formation, National Unity and ‘The Travelling Players’
Invariably, any appraisal of Theodoros Angelopoulos’ 1975 film The Travelling Players makes note of its length—230 minutes, to be precise—as well as it’s ostentatious style—it consists of just 80 shots, almost all of which are sequence shots and hardly any are tighter than a medium close-up.
Essay: There’s no democracy of hands but there are many hands in a democracy: ‘City Hall’ (2020) and ‘Her Socialist Smile’ (2020)
To look at the design and flaws of American politics and democracy, Wiseman chooses an entire city and its system as his focal point. Gianvito, on the other hand, chooses a single individual, whose life nevertheless encapsulated a tumultuous early 20th century.
Compilation: Dogme Year Zero
Hello and welcome to the first-ever crossover episode between Ultra Dogme and Cinema Year Zero.
Essay: Staying Safe Online
From the early 1990s onwards, film and television were trying their best to keep pace with the emergence of the world wide web, its growing popularity beginning to be attached at the hip with its democratization.