For information in English, please scroll down

«Atlantic»
Harstad Kino
Kr 90,- / Gratis med festivalpass, men billett må hentes ut på Harstad Kino
Engelsk tale, ingen teksting

Denne prisvinnende dokumentaren handler om de største ressursene i Nord-Atlanteren - fisk og olje - og hvordan de påvirker kystsamfunnene i Norge, Canada og Irland. Vi følger skjebnene til tre små fiskerisamfunn, og den tar frem tre sterke og personlige historier fra den globale ressursdebatten. En av dem vi møter er fiskeren Bjørnar Nicolaisen fra Andøy.

Mens de store oljeselskapene flytter seg dypere inn i sine skjøre hav, og verdens største fiskeriselskaper presser fiskebestanden til randen, kystsamfunnene og de ressursene de er avhengige av nærmer seg et 'point of no return' raskt.

Filmet i noen av de mest avsidesliggende og fantastiske steder i Nord-Atlanteren, blant annet Vesterålen, og på nært hold med noen av havets mest fengslende personligheter,  utforsker filmen hvordan moderne samfunn må lære av fortiden , for å sikre en lysere fremtid.

En av produsentene bak filmen er Harstad-mannen Karl Emil Rikardsen, med sitt produksjonesfirma i byen; Relation04 Media AS.

Regissert og filmet av Risteárd Ó Domhnaill. Fortalt av den Emmy-prisvinnende skuespilleren Brendan Gleeson.

INFORMATION IN ENGLISH

Venue: Harstad Kino
NOK 90,- / Free with festival pass, but ticket will have to be collected at the venue.
English language

Narrated by Emmy-award winning actor Brendan Gleeson, Atlantic follows the fortunes of three small fishing communities - in Ireland, Norway and Newfoundland - bringing to the fore three very intimate stories from the global resource debate.

As the oil majors drive deeper into their fragile seas, and the world’s largest fishing companies push fish stocks to the brink, coastal communities and the resources they rely on are fast approaching a point of no return.

Filmed in some of the most remote and breathtaking locations in the North Atlantic, and at close quarters with some of the sea’s most captivating characters, Atlantic brings to the fore three very intimate stories from the global resource debate. It explores how modern day communities must learn from the past, in order to secure a brighter future.

Directed and Filmed by Risteárd Ó Domhnaill

For information in English, please scroll down

Harstad Kino
Kr 90,- / Gratis med festivalpass, men billett må hentes ut på Harstad Kino
Kortfilmprogram med påfølgende paneldiskusjon

I forbindelse med Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival har den Tromsøbaserte kuratoren Hanne Hammer Stien kuratert et todelt kunstprosjekt som består av bestillingsverket ‘du mah heures pah maj’ av Georgia Munnik og et program med filmer av Knut Åsdam, med påfølgende debatt under tittelen Arktisk urbanisme. Tema for kunstprosjektet er språk og arkitektur.

Knut Åsdam er blant annet opptatt av hvordan språk påvirker relasjonene mellom mennesker. Dette kommer til uttrykk i et filmprogram satt sammen spesielt for festivalen. Programmet består av de tre filmene Oblique (2008), Abyss (2010) og Egress (2013). Åsdam har lenge vært bosatt i London, og livet i det urbane europeiske samfunnet er et tilbakevendende tema i hans kunst. Han er opptatt av hvordan individer konstruerer og kontinuerlig forhandler sin identitet som en reaksjon på både de fysiske og de psykiske strukturene som vi omgir oss med, blant annet representert gjennom arkitektur og språk. Åsdam er bosatt i Oslo og han er professor på Nordland kunst og filmfagskole i Kabelvåg. Han holder for tiden på med en nytt filmprosjekt som finner sted i grenseområdet mellom Norge og Russland i Finnmark.

I tilknytning til visningen av Åsdams filmer arrangeres det en debatt med Knut Åsdam, samfunnsgeograf Tone Huse og filmviter Scott McKenzie. Debatten ledes av kurator Hanne Hammer Stien. Utgangspunktet for debatten er at Nord-Norge og Arktis omfatter urbane samfunn. Spørsmål som stilles er hvilken virkelighet er det som utspiller seg i de urbane samfunnene i Nord-Norge og Arktis? Hvilken betydning har språk og arkitektur i arktisk kontekst?

Filmprogrammet er listet nederst på siden.

INFORMATION IN ENGLISH

Venue: Harstad Kino
NOK 90,- / Free with festival pass, but ticket will need to be collected at the venue
Filmprogramme with following panel discussion.

As part of the Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival, Tromsø-based curator Hanne Hammer Stien has curated a two-part art project consisting of the commissioned work ‘du mah heures pah maj’ by Georgia Munnik and a programme of films by Knut Åsdam, followed by a debate entitled Arctic urbanism.

Knut Åsdam is amongst other interested in how language affects relationships between people. This is expressed in a film programme he has produced specifically for the festival.  The programme consists of three films: Oblique (2008), Abyss (2010) and Egress (2013). Åsdam lived for a long period in London, and life in the urban European society is a recurring theme in his art. He has a special interest in how individuals construct and continually negotiate their identity as a reaction to the physical and psychological structures surrounding us, represented amongst other things through architecture and language. Åsdam now lives in Oslo and he is a professor at the Nordland College of Art and Film in Kabelvåg. He is currently working on a new film project set in Finnmark County, in the border area between Norway and Russia.

The debate that will take place in conjunction with the screening of Åsdam’s films is based on the assumption that Northern Norway and the Arctic also feature urban societies. It will address the realities that unfolds in these communities. What significance do language and architecture have in an Arctic context? Human geographer Tone Huse and film scholar Scott McKenzie will participate alongside Knut Åsdam in the debate, which will be moderated by Hanne Hammer Stien.
 

FILM PROGRAMME:

Oblique, Knut Åsdam (2008)

Urban environments, and their heterotopic sites, are locations for Knut Åsdam's investigations into social design, patterns of behavior and modes of subjectivity, with a particular focus on spatial identity's disorder and pathologies. Åsdam perceives a city as a machine of desire, its geography as a system of desire and its architecture as a generator of desiring practices. Usage and perception of public urban spaces, their structures of political power and authority occupy a central place in the artist's studies of identities.

Oblique, which premiered for Manifesta 7, is a hybrid narrative of cinema and architecture which quotes public or semi-public spaces within a city, building up a labyrinthine setting within the gallery space. The film, Oblique, is an articulation of identity in transition: the artist invites to a journey through a continuous “city” built up from cities and regions of diverse political, economic, cultural and social landscapes.

The characters are traveling in a suspended generic space in-between the realities of various places. Thus Åsdam animates representational systems and orders of belonging that map cross-regional tensions where complex identity factors are negotiated, and express the struggle between a desire to find a place within the language and a necessity to adapt to social changes. Asdam narrates spaces of intense psychological charge: newly built outer areas around the cities, construction sites, institutional and office buildings, transitory places, between growth and collapse, marked by quasi-contradictory processes of economic progress and development of slums, but at the same time, he constructs an objective critical space of political urgency.

Oblique was produced by Manifesta 7, FRAC Bourgogne, Galician Contemporary Art Center (CGAC) with the support from Office for Contemporary Art Oslo, Galleri SE Bergen, Galeria Juan Prats Barcelona and the Cultural Council of Norway.

In the collection of FRAC Bourgogne, Galician Contemporary Art Center (CGAC), Kunsthalle Bern, Bergen Kunstmuseum and Tate Modern

Abyss, Knut Åsdam (2010), 43 min

Abyss was filmed in various locations in East London, at the Thames Gateway and on the outskirts of the area where the Olympic Arena is being constructed.

The film portrays an urban reality characterised by migration and change – the movement of people, the movement of money and power, and the drift of the imagination. The 43 min experimental film and installation work is set within spaces of the modern city – markets, gyms, parking lots, parks, squares, streets and stores. The main character, O, negotiates her material world but the city’s economical, political and social demands appear to have been absorbed into her movements, speech and psychology. The urban sprawl that takes in the Olympic site and the Thames Gateway features the sorts of “composite architectures” that often provide the backdrop to Åsdam’s films. In Abyss, the cityscape is the other main protagonist of the film, one that the other protagonists are subjected to. The film drifts between a material world and its psychological effects, and gives keen attention to the physical and material environment of the city without privileging a realistic dramaturgy or narrative. The characters move through the public and private spaces of the contemporary city and interact with one another as if the economic, political and social dynamics of the city had inscribed themselves within their language, movements and psychological make-up.

Abyss was made possible by the support of the UK Arts Council, The Norwegian Film Institute and Bergen Kunsthall.
In the collection of The National Museum, Oslo

Egress, Knut Åsdam (2013), Norway, 41 mins

Egress is a narrative set in a gas station in the edgelands of Oslo. The main characters work at the bottom of the oil company hierarchy and are engulfed in the everyday and the dark economic and psychological shadows of their society. Egress is the story of a young woman who deals with her every day work situation with independence and stubbornness in her work and life in the periphery of the city. The film shows relationships between control and independence, about labour, class and work, but it is also a poetic film about a socially insecure edgeland of the city—and about a psychological flipside or cost of the everyday, somewhere near the bottom of the huge economic ladder of the oil industry which secures Norway's stability. Egress' world is a world of social instability and economic insecurity as part of a society undergoing major changes. Egress is shot entirely on "location" in Oslo's Groruddalen, mainly between an apartment complex and a gas station. The film is an experimental fiction built up from documentary material which mixes the environment- and character-based to talk about contemporary society.

knutasdam.net

For information in English, please scroll down

Harstad Kino
Kr 90,- / Gratis med festivalpass
Engelsk, med engelske undertekster

Regi: Anna Rose Holmer, USA, 2015, Alder: 12 år
Dette er en vakker, skjør og spennende utforskning av dramafilm-sjangeren, med sterk symbolikk. Den vekker oppsikt blant kritikerne i USA, der den får svært gode kritikker. Den 11-årige Toni tilbringer mesteparten av sin fritid med å trene boksing med sin bror da hun plutselig blir fascinert av en tett sammensveiset jentegjeng som trener på dans i den samme treningshallen. Toni gjør alt for å være en del av jentegruppa, men etter utbrudd av mystiske besvimelser blant jentene, tviler hun på sin egen iver og aksept. Spørsmål rundt kjønn, rollemønstre og identitet blir tatt opp i denne «coming-of-age» filmen, som har noe så uvanlig som en kvinnelig regissør og hovedrolleinnehaver, og alle skuespillerne er afro-amerikanske.  
Så langt skal den ikke på norske kinoer, så dette er en unik sjanse til å se filmen. 

INFORMATION IN ENGLISH

Venue: Harstad Kino
NOK 90,- / Free with festival pass

Dir: Anna Rose Holmer, USA, 2015, Age limit: 12 år

While training at the gym 11-year-old tomboy Toni becomes entranced with a dance troupe. As she struggles to fit in she finds herself caught up in danger as the group begins to suffer from fainting spells and other violent fits.

OPEN CALL PROGRAMME
Venue: Harstad Kino
Kr 90,- / Gratis med festivalpass, men billett må hentes ut på Harstad Kino
NOK 90,- / Free with festival pass, but ticket will have to be collected at the venue
Engelsk, ingen teksting / English language, no subtitles

På denne aller første utgaven av AMIFF fikk vi hele 125 innsendte filmer, det aller meste kunstvideoer, fra rundt om i hele verden. Festivaldirektør Helene Hokland, sammen med festivalkunstner Georgia Munnik, har gjort et utvalg, som dekker et bredt spekter av geografi, alder, og form for uttrykk - og som holder et godt kunstnerisk nivå. Georgia’s interesse for språk, og Helene’s sans for det sanselige, kommer til uttrykk i utvalget

On this very first edition of AMIFF we received 125 submitted films, most were art videos from around the world. Festival Director Helene Hokland, along with festival artist Georgia Munnik, have made a choice, which covers a wide range of geography, age and form of expression - and hold a good artistic level. Georgia's interest in language, and Helene's interest in the sensous, are expressed in the sample.

Cinema programme (see full text further down the page):

Ursa Major, Daniel Paida Larsen, Norway, 2014, 3’46
From Light and Shadows, Alexander Nevill, UK, 2016, 3’10
Unspeakable things, Tatiana Istomina, Russia/US, 2015, 11’18    
Inverted Views,    Eili Bråstad Johannessen, Norway, 4’35
Other than what I am, Calder Harben, Canada/Norway, 6’        
Sone we kept, some we threw back, Minna Rainio & Mark Roberts, Finnland/US, 7’15
Death Diaries: Graceful Degradation, Mariana Rocha and Marcelo Kraiser, Brazil 10’
Speech Memory, Caroline Key, Korea/US, 23’
Stretch    Çağıl Harmandar, Turkey/US, 2’16    
Auroville Dream (Tales From the City), Sandra Crisp, UK, 5’22    
Geneva. Chapter one, Valentina Besegher Germany, 6’53
 

Disse vil vise ute i bybildet og muligens i butikker i sentrum:

Arkivet 1982-2013 (The Archive 1982-2013), Beate Persdotter Løken, Sverige/Norge, 09:21 min
Spinning, Madelen Eliasson, Sverige/Norge 15 sek loop
Unveil, Wendimagegn Belete Masresha, Etiopia/Norge 20 min loop

LONG TEXT:

Programme for the cinema screening:

Rivers Run (Ursa Major), Daniel Paida Larsen, Norway, 2014, 3’46
Ursa Major is an experimental documentary series that over ten short episodes included various people who live in Arctic and that examines how they interact and relate to the Arctic and the changes now taking place there. In recent years, the Arctic has seen growing interest from the international community. The climate changes, ice melts and access to natural resources have become easier. The change has created interest among all of Nations political and military bodies of multinational firms and research field. How does this affect the life, values and interests of people who live there? How do I change the landscape and nature? Ursa Major will through a poetic and experiment approach show the Arctic in a new way. This film, Rivers Run, is the first filme mae in the series. It was filmed at the major cultre project SALT, while it was in Nordland County. The film includes an interview with the American artist and musician Lonnie Holly, while visiting SALT.

About the artist:
Daniel Paid Larsen is active as a filmmaker and artist, based Tin, Oslo and Milan. He has in recent years been behind directing, camera and production on a number of documentaries, music videos and art films. As an artist, Daniel has exhibited and performed his works in numerous galleries nationally and internationally. He has a master's degree in visual arts with emphasis on film and photography from the university of art in Berlin and Kunsthochschule Bremen.
film.billionsofmillions.com/

From Light and Shadows, Alexander Nevill, UK, 2016, 3’10
Light pours through a window mimicking the progression of sunlight throughout a day. Ambient cityscape sounds rise and fall with the passage of illumination. French and English narration collides during this reflection on the symbolic power of light and shadow.

About the artist:
Alex Nevill is a Dublin based cinematographer and moving image artist. Alex received first class honors for his undergraduate degree at the University of Gloucestershire in 2011 and then completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Scotland Screen Academy in 2014. He is currently studying towards a practice based PhD in the Centre for Moving Image Research, UWE for which he received an AHRC studentship. His work has been exhibited at the BFI London Film Festival and awarded at Edinburgh International Film Festival, European Independent Film Festival and Aesthetica Short Film Festival among others. Alex previously held positions at Southampton Solent University, the University of Gloucestershire and currently teaches at Ravensbourne alongside his practice.
www.alexnevill.co.uk     

Unspeakable things, Tatiana Istomina, Russia/US, 2015, 11’18    
“Unspeakable things” is a story told by a woman of South Asian descent living in Canada, who points out things that may not be named or discussed in different cultures. The video is part of Scary Stories – an experimental video project, which develops in the intersection of art, social practice, oral history and digital media. The project’s participants are invited to tell a a “scary” story and discuss anything that concerns them in their own lives or the life of the society; their stories are accompanied by digital drawings created by other participants. Recorded at different locations, the films create a collective narrative of contemporary world, with its diverse cultural landscape and ongoing social, racial and economic tensions.

About the artist:
Tatiana Istomina is a Russian-born multi-media artist and writer living in New York. Her projects have been featured in exhibitions and screenings across the US and abroad; venues include Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, the Drawing Center, the Bronx Museum, Gaîté Lyrique, and Haus der Kulturen der Wel. Istomina is a recipient of several awards including the AAF Prize for Fine Arts, Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, the Chenven foundation grant, and the Spillways Fellowship. She holds a PhD in geophysics from Yale University (2010) and MFA from Parsons New School (2011).

Inverted Views, Eili Bråstad Johannessen, Norway, 4’35
Reflections on memories and our inner landscape. From Reisa with love. Filmed in Nordreisa, Northern Norway.

Eili works as an artist/filmmaker and lives in Nordreisa and Berlin. She studied art photography and digital medias at Robert Meyer Kunsthøgskole/NISS (Oslo) and film in Nordland Kunst og Filmfagskole. She combines working with experimental and more traditional film. On Inverted Views she's worked with the japanese visual artist Hiroshi Aoki (Tokyo/Berlin) and french sound man Nathanel Gustin (Based in Tromsø).

Other than what I am, Calder Harben, Canada/Norway, 6’    
I carry the memory of a dream, vividly impressed onto the body my waking self. In the dream, I am no longer in my current body - I am entirely salmon. Everything I know about being and sensing in my human body, is suddenly alien. This experience of otherness, of liminal embodiment, is recounted through connected memory experience of almost drowning as a child. Scenes were filmed at a fresh-water salmon farm in Kirkenes, and Havbruksstasjon in Troms. My (our) perceptions are embodied by all the senses available to me (us). I (we) see, smell, touch, taste, move- a stream of sensation, forming my (our) perception of the world. I am interested in how I (we) use these perceptions to form narratives between 'self' and 'other', how I (we) relate with everything around us - an attempt to understand embodiment. It is our embodiment that shapes our interactions in the world; political, sensorial, ecological, cultural and collective perceptions. OTHER THAN WHAT I AM focuses on experience of being embodied as other, pushing the limits of what my body is and can be.

About the artist:
Gestures of relation, under the conditions of duration and embodiment: the emotional, political, social, material ecology of individual and social bodies in time and space. The work takes the form of installations, sound, text, video and crafted objects. I am interested in the value of intimacy, intuition and, queerness as working methods to open bodies (human bodies, ecologies of bodies, more-than-human bodies). My recent work takes interest in cultural ideas of doubles and doubling, marine acoustic ecology, interconnection and communications, and the thresholds of perceptibility. In 2014 I co-initiated The Queer Ecologies Network with artists Elin M. Ø. Vister (NO) and Maja Moesgaard (DK), and, in 2015, 'IMA READ' artist collective with Georgia Munnik (SA) and Madelen Eliasson (SE), based in Tromsø, Northern Norway. I co-edited “DO YOU READ ME?” which was awarded ‘Art Publication of the Year’ by the Ontario Association of Art Galleries. My work has been exhibited recently as part of the group exhibition Det Ku’ Være Politisk at Janusbygningen (DK), as well as Helsinki International Artist Project (FL), Tromsø Kunstforening (NO), Small Projects (NO), Tegnerfobundet Gallery (NO), and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery (CA).
www.calderharben.com

Some we kept, some we threw back, Minna Rainio & Mark Roberts, Finnland/US, 7’15
Some we kept, some we threw back” draws a parallel between the migration of Finns to Minnesota in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the migration today. The film depicts a man in contemporary times, making preparations for a sauna in the backwoods of Northern Minnesota. As he carries out his mundane tasks — chopping wood, pumping water, lighting the sauna fire — a woman narrates a series of experiences dating from her childhood when she and her parents left Finland to start a new life in America. The woman recalls the reasons her parents left their home country: famine, unemployment, political persecution. She reveals how her family and other Finns were treated upon their arrival in the U.S: they were called “Dirty Finns” and told to go back to where they came from. Through its use of a dramatized narrative, the film illustrates that not so long ago, the countries that are today receiving refugees were once themselves subject to similar circumstances that lead people to leave their homes in a desperate attempt to find a better, safer life.

About the artists:
Minna Rainio and Mark Roberts collaborate to produce research-based multi-channel moving image installations and short films that investigate the impact of social and political power on individual experience and history, and its manifestation in physical spaces. Their art has dealt with issues such as Finnish-Russian border, refugees’ experiences in Finland and the international trafficking of women. Their most recent works investigate climate change and global inequality. Rainio & Roberts have exhibited widely in Finland, Europe, United States and South America. Their films have also been shown in numerous international festivals and shown in competition in the Official Selections of Interfilm (Berlin), Punto de Vista (Spain), LISFE (Leiden), and FIFE (Paris). Rainio and Roberts both studied photography in England. Roberts has also studied Film Scriptwriting in the University of Salford, Greater Manchester. Rainio gained her doctorate in arts in 2015 from the University of Lapland. During 2009-2011 Rainio held the position of Visiting Associate Professor in Photography at the University of Minnesota.
rainioroberts.com

Death Diaries: Graceful Degradation, Mariana Rocha and Marcelo Kraiser, Brazil 10’
A tail about memory and mourning and the need to tell the story of a trauma-causing event and of one’s reactions to suffering. An orphic ritual of bereavement where the problem of death is posited as a problem of language, of solitude, of thought and is transferred into a reflection on oneself. In the infinite time of dying, all possibility becomes impossible, and the subject is left passive and impotent.

About the artist:
Mariana Rocha is a visual artist, performer and lawyer. She is a PhD candidate in Literary, Musical and Visual Thought at The European Graduate School EGS (Switzerland). She has a BA in Fine Arts from Escola Guignard (UEMG/Brazil), specialized in drawing and sculpture; has a MA in Performance Art from Faculdade Angel Vianna (RJ/Brazil) and a MFA from Plymouth University (UK) and Transart Institute (USA/DE). Her work is interdisciplinary and has been shown in Brazil and abroad. She is part of the performance duo Rocha & Polse, and researches the body and its relation to sound, movement, weight and decay. She lives and works in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and Copenhagen, Denmark.
www.mariana-rocha.com

Speech Memory, Caroline Key, Korea/US, 23’
Father and daughter discuss the lives of past generations to form a posthumous portrait of the filmmaker's grandfather, Key Jin Yun. A deaf-mute Korean born in Japan during its occupation of Korea, Key Jin Yun, was raised fully integrated into Japanese society, learning only written Japanese and Japanese sign language. In 1945, with Japan's defeat and the end of the occupation, he and his family returned to Korea. Speech Memory examines the impact of immigration and cultural assimilation through the details of Key Jin Yun's life, revealing the shifting complexities of language, national identity, and memory.

About the artist:
Caroline Key is a Korean-American filmmaker and video installation artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She received her MFA in Film/Video from the California Institute of the Arts, her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was a participant in the Whitney Independent Study Program. Her works employ a range of cinematic practices- 16mm film, alchemical film processing, documentary, animation, and digital graphics. These films and videos investigate the construction and negotiation of identities rooted in conditions of alterity. Her works have shown internationally at festivals and galleries, including Arsenal Cinema in Berlin, the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum, and the New Museum in New York.
problempictures.net

Stretch, Çağıl Harmandar, Turkey/US, 2’16
This film is about the strange morning rituals, between asleep and awake.

About the artist:
Çağıl was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1992. She was accepted into the School of Museum of Fine Arts in 2011. During a short leave of absence (2012-2013) she attended the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts Academy, Istanbul. In her exchange semester in the junior year Çağıl studied with the Film Animation Video department at the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence. Her animations have been featured in several animation festivals including: The Melbourne International Animation Festival, Melbourne, Australia, and Primanima Animation Festival in Budapest, Czech Republic.

Auroville Dream (Tales From the City), Sandra Crisp, UK, 5’22
A journey through contrasting hybrid locations using multi-layered 3d models that rapidly transform over time. Urban visuals merge with dislocated YouTube videos; disembodied voices; futuristic tree-clad architecture; Geodesic domes and a complex unpopulated landscape with an ambiguous spherical central form. All emphasize the fragmentary nature of found online material and today’s saturation of images and information.

About the artist:
Sandra Crisp (b. Wirral UK) studied art Foundation at Chester College of Art. She earned a BA (Hons) Graphic Design/ Printmaking Leeds Polytechnic (1989) and MA Fine Art Printmaking Wimbledon School of Art (1993). She has exhibited widely nationally and internationally and taught in various London-based colleges. Awards include; (2016) Sluice-Screens prize shortlist (2013) Printmaking Today (2005) Zenith Julian Trevelyan, Curwen & Printspace prizes (2004) RK Burt (1995) and Artichoke (1996). Her work has been included in the following exhibitions; (2016) EMAF European Media Arts Festival, Germany (2016) Sluice_Screens prize
www.sandracrispart.com     

Geneva. Chapter one, Valentina Besegher Germany, 6’53    
Initial phase of a film series, but originally conceived as an installation, Geneva / Chapter One classifies sequences of traces, practices or phenomena connected to the presence in its ex-static sense by means of an exchange of references on a two-channel video as a prelude to the loss of an interpretative code.

About the artist:
Valentina Besegher (1976, Milan - Italy) is an avant-garde filmmaker, live video performer and visual artist. She lives and works in Berlin.
www.besegher.com

Films outside in the town:
Arkivet 1982-2013 (The Archive 1982-2013), Beate Persdotter Løken, Sverige/Norge, 09:21 min
I made this movie because in whole my life I had such good memory. I have remembered everything, even my friends memories. But suddenly I started to feel like I mixed my own memories with people around me, so I stared to make a huge map of the all years I have lived and organized my memories. Finally I picked four memories that felt like they formed my life and who I am and made them into an animated film. The first scene is about me as a baby and my encounter with some badgers. The second scene is about me sleepwalking. The third scene is about being bullied and how the safe haven of your home gets intruded. The fourth scene is about me finding some peace up north and end up in a bizarre accident. I have made everything in this film myself, even the music and this was my first longer animated film. If my film gets chosen I will add english subtitles.

About the artist:
A Swedish/Norwegian artist born in Solberga, outside Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1982. Background is in the field of theatre as a lightning designer, prop and puppet maker, and set designer. Studied prop making and special effects at Nordiska Scenografiskolan/Luleå University of Technology from 2004–2006, and I went to Konstnärlig Idégestaltning at Göteborgs Konstskola from 2012–2013. In 2008, she received Anders Sandrews Scholarship for Young Adults in Theatre and Film. Currently, the spring of 2016 she graduated from the bachelor program at Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art, in Northern Norway. In her artistic practice, she likes to create a world her own; to fill this world with stories and characters, and play around with them. That the work can exist in this created world is important, be it an animated movie, an animal tassel, a unicorn discussing myths about virgins, or a name generator for imaginary-real places. I use my established tools from my theater background, and I take them with me into my practice to create narratives, small stage sets and worlds. I like to think of my studio and universe as a burrow, populated by dolls and small animals, where I can explore possibilities for different scenarios. I often work quickly and impulsively; I capture the idea when it passes my mind, and I play with it until it becomes what I want.

Spinning, Madelen Eliasson, Sverige/Norge 15 sek loop
What is there to do in a small town? This video loop shows an animated Volvo 745 making donuts on an empty parking lot. A common scene in small and /or peripheral places.

About the artist:
Madelen Eliasson Born 1986 in Älvsbyn, Sweden. Is an artist based in Tromsø, Norway. She has a Bachelor degree from Tromsø Academy of Contemporary art and are currently working at the artist-run gallery Kurant Visningsrom and at the Culture House Tvibit in Tromsø.

Unveil, Wendimagegn Belete Masresha, Etiopia/Norge 20 min loop
The background for the work is a war that happened in Ethiopia between 1935 and 1941 which had a significant impact on history, and yet it’s been mostly forgotten. Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Benito Mussolini wanted an empire and revenge for Italy’s defeat at Adowa in 1896, and decided to invade Ethiopia. Unlike all the other African countries, Ethiopia was never colonized. The Ethiopians said no to colonialism and resisted the invasion with antique rifles and traditional weapons.
During those 5 years Ethiopians were brutalized and killed in the hundreds of thousands. The sacrifices that Ethiopians made and the solidarity shown during the war is the foundation for every other African anti-colonial movement, black movement, black panthers etc. This story happened long before the speech of Martin Luther King: “I have a dream”; even before Rosa Parks refused to obey a bus driver to give up her seat in the colored section to a white passenger. This is a story that the Ethiopians won in the end, setting an example for the rest of the world, to those who seek freedom.
With the collected footage videos from several sources I have finally come up with this video installation. The whole body of the video installation work includes cropped videos of portraits of 3000 unanimous Ethiopian patriots, presented together in a continuous loop.

About the artist:
Wendimagegn Belete is born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His passion for the visual arts grew through high school and led him to enroll at Addis Ababa university ale school of fine arts and design. He graduated with a great distinction (Outstanding student of the year 2012) in department of painting. He is currently working in painting, video, performance, and installation. After his graduation he consequently exhibited his works at several exhibitions, in Ethiopia and internationally. Currently, he is a master’s student in Tromsø academy of contemporary art, Norway.

For information in English, please scroll down.

"The Knife that Killed Me"
Harstad Kino
Kr 90,- / Gratis med festivalpass, men billett må hentes ut på Harstad Kino
Engelske undertekster

Regi: Marcus Romer, Kit Monkman. 2014, UK. Universal Pictures. Spilletid: 97 min. Aldersgrense 15 år.

Dette er en visuelt unik film som er skutt foran et 'grønt lerret', og det visuelle utrykket er noe så sjeldent som en blanding mellom et dataspill og et teaterstykke. Filmen er en ungdomsfilm, men er verdt å se for voksne også, mye på grunn av det unike visuelle uttrykket, men filmen er også sterk og engasjerende, og til ettertanke.

Marcus Romer er regissør, forfatter og filmskaper, og kommer på AMIFF og presenterer filmen "The Knife that Killed Me" som han regisserte sammen med Kit Monkman. Marcus spesialiserer seg på å utforske digitale uttrykksformer i teater og film. Les mer om Marcus under.

Handlingen i filmen:
Paul Vardeman flytter og starter på en ny skole der han blir involvert med "The Freaks", outsiders som ikke passer inn. Samtidig tiltrekker han seg oppmerksomheten til skolens bølle, Roth. Konfrontert med økende press fra begge gruppene, må Paul bestemme hvor hans vennskap ligger, en beslutning som kan koste livet.

I forbindelse med sitt besøk på AMIFF, gir Marcus et lukket skuespillerkurs til elever på teaterlinja på Harstad Folkehøgskole og siste året på teaterlinja på Heggen vgs.
 

INFORMATION IN ENGLISH

The Knife That Killed Me
Venue: Harstad Kino
NOK 90, - / Free with festival pass, but ticket will have to be collected at the venue
English subtitles

Director: Marcus Romer, Kit Monkman. 2014 UK. Universal Pictures. Runtime: 97 min. Age limit 15 years.

This is a visually unique film that is shot in front of a 'green screen', and the visual expression is something as rare as a mix between a computer game and a stage play. The film is for teenagers, but is worth seeing for adults too, largely because of the unique visual expression, but also because the film is strong and engaging, and it gives food for thought.

Marcus Romer is a director, writer and filmmaker, and comes to AMIFF and presents the film "The Knife That Killed Me" which he directed together with Kit Monkman. Marcus specializes in exploring digital forms of expression in theater and film.
 

ABOUT MARCUS ROMER

Marcus is a director, writer and filmmakr, currently Creative Director of ArtsBeacon UK, delivering Live to Digital projects.

Prior to this he was CEO and Artistic Director of Pilot Theatre, where he directed many award winning theatre productions. These included Lord of the Flies, Antigone, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Romeo and Juliet, Looking for JJ. He also pioneered live streaming and webcasting from 2008.

As a filmmaker he wrote the screenplay and co-directed the feature film ‘The Knife That Killed Me’ which was released by Universal Pictures in 2015. He recently co-produced ‘The Works’ starring Ralph Fiennes, which is on BBC iplayer as part of Shakespeare Lives season

He is a published playwright and his work has been translated and performed across Europe and the USA

Marcus is a regular speaker and presenter on the use of digital technology in the Arts, and has spoken all over the world, most recently for Innovation Norway in Tromsø in January 2016.

www.marcusromer.com

For information in English, please scroll down.

Harstad Kino
Kr 90,- / Gratis med festivalpass, men billett må hentes ut på Harstad Kino
Engelsk underteksting

I denne dokumentaren møter vi en liten gruppe i Nunavut, i den Arktiske delen av Canada, som forbereder seg på en banebrytende LGBTQ Pride feiring. Filmen utforsker hvordan kolonisering og religion har ydmyket og slettet de tradisjonelle forestillingene om seksualitet og familiestruktur til Inuitene og hvordan, 60 år senere, en ny generasjon av Inuiter aktivt fjerner skammen om sin fortid.

Les en artikkel om dokumentaren i High North News her.

Regi: Mark Kenneth Woods og Michael Yerxa. Canada, 2016. Spilletid: 71 minutter. Film Språk: Engelsk, Inuktitut. Med, Jack Anawak, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, Jesse Mike, Nuka Fennell, Allison Brewer, Maureen Doherty, Jerald Sabin, Suzanne Schwartz, Kyla Gordon, Kieran B. Drachenberg, Catherine Lightfoot, Michelle Zakrison, Miali Buscemi, Franco Buscemi, Paul Okalik. Original musikk fremført av Iviok. Distributør: V tape, Canada. Ingen aldersgrense.

Information in English:

"Two Soft Things, Two Hard Things"
Venvue: Harstd Kino
NOK 90,- / Free with festival pass, but ticket needs to be collected at the venue

In this feature documentary, you meet a small group in Nunavut, Canada, preparing for a seminal LGBTQ Pride celebration in the Arctic. The film explores how colonization and religion have shamed and erased traditional Inuit beliefs about sexuality and family structure and how, 60 years later, a new generation of Inuit are actively ‘unshaming’ their past.

Read an article about the film in High North News here.

2016, Canada. Documentary, Feature, Runtime: 71 minutes,
Film Language: English, Inuktitut with English subtitles

Directed by
Mark Kenneth Woods and Michael Yerxa

Featuring, Jack Anawak, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, Jesse Mike, Nuka Fennell, Allison Brewer, Maureen Doherty, Jerald Sabin, Suzanne Schwartz, Kyla Gordon, Kieran B. Drachenberg, Catherine Lightfoot, Michelle Zakrison, Miali Buscemi, Franco Buscemi, Paul Okalik
Distributor: V tape, Canada

Original Music performed by
Iviok

For information in English, please scroll down

Feminist Video Art
Harstad Kino
Kr 90,- / Gratis m/festivalpass, men billett må hentes ut på Harstad Kino
Engelsk språk, ingen teksting

Dette kortfilmprogrammet viser et bredt spekter av feministisk eksperimentell film av noen av de mest anerkjente videokunstnerne i verden i dag. Filmene er laget av unge og eldre internasjonale kunstnere, og programmet inneholder både ny og eldre film. Filmene tar opp et bredt spekter av problematikk relatert til kjønn, sex, makt, etnisitet, kropp, økologi og språk – alt fra kvinners synspunkt.

Programmet er kuratert av festivaldirektør, Helene Hokland, og filmene vil innledes av henne. Filmskaper Lucy Clout fra London besøker festivalen, og vil delta på en Q&A med Helene som en del av programmet.

Se filmprogrammet listet under.
 

INFORMATION IN ENGLISH

Feminist Video Art
Venue: Harstad Kino
NOK 90,- / Free w/ festvial pass, but ticket needs to be collected at the venue
English language, no subtitles

This short film programme shows a wide range of feminist experimental film by some of the most important video artists in the world today. The films are made by young and older international artists, and the programme includes both new and older films. The films investigate a wide range of issues related to gender, sex, power, ethnicity, body, ecology and language - all from women's point of view.

The program is curated by festival director, Helene Hokland, and she will introduce the films. Filmmaker Lucy Clout from London visitis the festival and will participate in a Q&A with Helene as part of the program.

“Notes on Gesture” Martine Syms, 2015, USA. Språk: Engelsk. 10'30
Distributor: Video Data Bank
Inspired by a riff on a popular joke “Everybody wanna be a black woman but nobody wanna be a black woman,” Notes on Gesture is a video comparing authentic and dramatic gestures. The piece uses the 17th century text Chirologia: Or the Natural Language of the Hand as a guide to create an inventory of gestures for performance. The piece alternates between title cards proposing hypothetical situations and short, looping clips that respond. The actor uses her body to quote famous, infamous, and unknown women. She repeats and interprets each movement several times, switching from a physical vernacular to acting techniques likes blocking and cheating.

“SHE WHOSE BLOOD IS CLOTTING IN MY UNDERWEAR” Vika Kirchenbauer, 2016, Tyskland. 3'29
This is a video made by the artist Vika Kirchenbauer for her music/performance project COOL FOR YOU. Following her research on enhanced vision via infrared technology in modern warfare, here she utilises these technological means to discuss intimacy, the body, physical relations between bodies as well as the privileged gaze of the spectator.  The idea of transparency has found ways to diffuse into nearly all realms of life. Knowledge about the other is the currency that economies of love and war operate on. Given that an image/reality split has already become our every day’s natural task, she is interested in working with technologies that register more than what the human eye can capture as a form of enhanced voyeurism.

"From our own correspondent" Lucy Clout, 2015, UK. 9'57
Distributor: Lux London
From Our Own Correspondent' bear's the name of an archaic BBC Radio program in which BBC foreign correspondents tell stories about their embedded local lives. Featuring interviews with news journalists, bloggers and feature writers, Lucy Clout's video interrogates the interview relationship/process itself. Particular attention is paid to the blankness and self-assertion the interviewers regards as necessary to their jobs. Set within an aggregate of hotel rooms and corridors -transposable private and professional settings- 'From Our Own Correspondent' uses the potential for pleasure, horror and utter nothingness that is abundant in those spaces. The work examines the spoken, bodily and written construction of the professional encounter and the way in which the performance of various work and personal roles/desires blend into each other both online and psychically.

"Pulling Up Roots" Cecelia Condit, 2015, USA. 7'36
“This is the emotional journey of a woman who is navigating the tenuous strain between the past and the future. Filmed in an abandoned housing project in Western Ireland, she uproots exotic plants and flowers, as one might collect stories and memories one can’t understand. Condit’s operatic songs and childlike rhymes give a sense of naiveté and strength that comes from her solitude. From a playful skip around the yard, to a moment where profound sadness gives way to unexpected laughter, she explores an entire lifetime of emotions in mere minutes.”
Distributor: Video Data Bank

"Subatlantic" Ursula Biemann, 2015, USA. 11'24
“Appealing concurrently in this video essay to various meanings of the term “Subatlantic”—a climatic phase beginning 2500 years ago, as well as the submerged regions of the Atlantic—Biemann immerses her camera deep in oceanic waters to ponder upon the entanglements of geological time with that of human history.”
Distributor: Video Data Bank

“Birthday Suit - with scars and defects” Lisa Steele, Canada, 1974, Språk: Engelsk. 13’23
Distributor: V tape
"On the occasion of my 27th birthday I decided to do a tape that chronicled my passage through time. I have always been clumsy, tripping, dropping, falling with alarming regularity. This tape accepts the extent of the consequences." L.S.
An historically important work, who is, as quoted by film historian Catherine Russell a “counter-image to the emergent critique of the female body in narrative cinema”.

For information in English, please scroll down

Videokunstarkivet
Harstad Kino
Kr 90,- / Gratis med festivalpass, men billett må hentes ut på Harstad Kino

Videokunstarkivet var et treårig pilotprosjekt (2012-2015), initiert og støttet av Norsk kulturråd. Formålet var å lage en modell for et arkiv og kompetansesenter for norsk videokunst. Piloten er i disse dager i siste fase av en grundig statlig evaluering, som sannsynligvis vil føre til permanent drift fra 2017.

Per Platou var leder for Videokunstarkivet i prosjektperioden, og vil presentere ideene bak og dilemmaer knyttet til prosjektet samt vise noen utvalgte norske videoverk fra 1970- og 80-tallet.

Ett av disse verkene ble laget av kunstneren Ann-Elise Hyndøy Pettersen som døde brått i 2013, 65 år gammel. Hun var en original, en outsider i livet og i kunsten - en skoltesamisk feminist som laget frigjorte, radikale og provoserende uttrykk, bl.a. innenfor video, foto og performance. Ann-Elise etterlot seg et kråkeslott fullt av ferdige og uferdige kunstobjekter, videokassetter, fotografier, brev og annet som kan defineres som “jutegnask”.

Undersøkelsen av Hyndøy Pettersens arv sett fra et arkiveringsperspektiv tar opp dilemmaer som oppstår når man skal lage et mest mulig utfyllende og spennende bilde av en kunstner og et menneske som skapte svært forskjelligartede uttrykk gjennom livet. Hvordan velger man arbeider, anekdoter, kontekster, biografisk og kunstnerisk materiale? Hva inkluderes og hva må utelates?

Titler til visning:

Marianne Heske: “A video point of view”, U-matic 1977 (3 min)
Terje Munthe: “Video Audio Ago”, U-matic 1983 (3 min)
Kjell Bjørgeengen: “Video Distinctions”, U-matic 1985 (4 min)
Ann-Elise Hyndøy Pettersen & Anne Berit Nedland: “Katteperformance/Skulpturer på by’n”, U-matic 1985 (11 min)
Morten Børresen: Toilet Mirror”, VHS 1983 (5 min)

Stillbilde fra “Katteperformance/Skulpturer på by’n”, Ann-Elise Hyndøy Pettersen, 1985

INFORMATION IN ENGLISH

Videokunstarkivet, Norway
Harstad Kino
NOK 90,- / Free with festival pass, but ticket needs to be collected at the venue

Videokunstarkivet (Video Art Archive Norway) was initiated by the Norwegian Arts Council in 2012 with the ambitious aim of finding all Norwegian video art produced since the mid-1960s, digitising old cassettes and tapes and developing an open source DAM tool to systematise information, digital files, copyrights and more.

Today, more than 2,000 works by over 500 artists are registered in the database. The principle of „open entry“ has been crucial and has resulted in many newly discovered works that weren’t recognised in their own time and change the view of existing video art „canons“.

The presentation at AMIFF will talk about the process of setting up an archive from scratch, and show some examples of unseen treasures. The presentation is held by Per Platou. is an artist and curator based in Oslo. He has worked with electronic media, sound art, radio, film and theatre. He has been curating a number of exhibitions, symposiums and screenings in Norway and internationally. Platou has been directing the Videokunstarkivet pilot project since 2011.

Programme:

Marianne Heske: “A video point of view”, U-matic 1977 (3 min)
Terje Munthe: “Video Audio Ago”, U-matic 1983 (3 min)
Kjell Bjørgeengen: “Video Distinctions”, U-matic 1985 (4 min)
Ann-Elise Hyndøy Pettersen & Anne Berit Nedland: “Katteperformance/Skulpturer på by’n”, U-matic 1985 (11 min)
Morten Børresen: Toilet Mirror”, VHS 1983 (5 min)

Still photo from“Katteperformance/Skulpturer på by’n”, Ann-Elise Hyndøy Pettersen, 1985

For information in English, please scroll down.

Heart of a Dog
Harstad Kino
Kr 90,- / Gratis med festivalpass, men billett må hentes ut på Harstad Kino
Norske undertekster

Man trenger ikke å være hundeelsker for å la seg fascinere av Laurie Andersons personlige og hjertevarme filmessay om menneskets beste venn.
Det som i utgangspunktet er en fortelling om hennes avdøde, pote-malende og pianospillende terrier Lolabelle, rommer en strøm av refleksjoner rundt eksistensielle temaer som kjærlighet, drømmer og tap, og ettervirkningene av terrorangrep.
 
Nesten 30 år etter hennes forrige spillefilm Home of the Brave, er avantgarde-musikeren og filmskaperen Laurie Anderson tilbake med en film som ikke lar seg kategorisere. HEART OF A DOG befinner seg et sted mellom et lekent dikt, en nydelig komposisjon og et vakkert kunstverk - mellom drøm og virkelighet.

Regi, manus og musikk: Laurie Anderson, 2015, USA. Skuespillere: Archie, Gatto, Lolabelle, Little Wille, Nitro, Etta, Laurie Anderson, Sjanger: Dokumentar / Eksperimentell: Språk: engelsk. Distributør: Arthaus. Lengde: 1 t. 16 min. Sensur: Tillatt for alle

INFORMATION IN ENGLISH

Heart of a Dog
Venue: Harstad Kino
NOK 90,- / Free with festival pass, but a ticket will have to be collected at the venue
English language, with Norwegian subtitles

Acclaimed musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson presents her meditation on love and death as relates to her dog in this playful, lucid and heartbreaking nonfiction feature. Dedicated to Anderson’s late husband Lou Reed (who floats almost unseen throughout), Heart Of A Dog takes as a jumping off point the recent passing of Anderson’s beloved terrier Lolabelle. Touching on what her love for her dog means to her by processing her childhood, music, and her life as an artist, Anderson draws upon her childhood experiences and political beliefs as she lovingly tries to help Lolabelle's spirit face the immediate tribulations it will experience immediately after death. Aided by a beautiful use of her own compositions, animation and 8 millimeter film from her family archive, Anderson creates a gorgeous tapestry on love and loss - reminding us that every love story is a ghost story.

Director, screenplay and music: Laurie Anderson, 2015, USA. Starring: Archie, Gatto, LolaBella, Little Wille, Nitro, Etta, Laurie Anderson, Genre: Documentary / Experimental Language: English. Distributor: Arthaus. Length: 1 hr. 16 min. Censorship: Allowed for all