The Spaces Between Cities

<body> <img src="images/TSBCflyer.jpg" width="800" height="800" border="0" alt="The Spaces Between Cities" title="The Spaces Between Cities"><br clear="all"> <h4>directors lounge screening:</h4> <h3>the spaces between cities</h3> <p>Thursday, 25. February 2016 <br> 21:00 <br> Z-Bar <br> Bergstraße 2<br> 10115 Berlin-Mitte</p> <p>Directors Lounge Screening presents a collaborative project of twenty independent, experimental filmmakers: The Space Between Cities. Presented by Berlin Filmmaker Insa Langhorst.</p> <p>Last year, Salise Hughes founder of EXcinema, Seattle, commissioned an exceptional project to bring together filmmakers, resulting in twenty films by international experimental filmmakers spread across four continents which were then combined as one feature length road film. The Spaces Between Cities is a collaboration made in the form of an exquisite corpse. Each film connects randomly to the next by way of a series of prompts creating a continuous road trip, or journey that will connect these different parts of the world.</p> <p>The Spaces Between Cities may be seen as an anthology film, the parts of which have been combined in curiously associative ways, linking different places and times. However, it is peculiar, how the references seem to be similar in respect to the tradition of avant-garde film. For sure, this must be connected with the selection of the artists, and with the platform on which the open call was announced: Frameworks. Many of the films have an analogue feeling to them, even though only about half of the films have been shot on analogue material. Found footage films are also included in the sequence of films. The focus of the films is less on narrative content, but on pure observation, on simple gestures, and on passages. At the same time, the film as a whole is a passage of different but similar cinematic imaginations, connected with places between cities, landscapes, streets, roads, small towns or periphery, hidden corners and connected with daily life. It shows the point of the view and experiences of city dwellers, and it is drawn from an urban perspective alltogether. The narration tells about humble dreams, small beautiful moments, human encounters and about simplicity. Even though the film does not talk about the big challenging problems of our time, it still is remarkably contrasting to the spectacular and commercialized images of the so called "big cinema". </p> <p>The project, initiated by Salise Hughes, is also strongly connected with the online platform Frameworks. Not only because of the open call on Frameworks. Some of the most important filmmakers connected with this network are taking part. And it reflects on the international connections between filmmakers, who otherwise often fight on solitary grounds, not being as prominent in their own local community or city as one should think.</p> <p>The idea of Salise Hughes was to create a collaborative work using the concept of Exquisite Corpse, which initially is a game, or a technique the surrealists made popular, and which usually leads to deliberately absurd images when used on drawings or collages. Salise has adapted the rules for her film and has given "prompts" as instructions for the filmmakers for the beginning and ending of each episode. These may be as simple as "barking dog" or "girl with a bike". These instructions were then given by a chance operation using the numbers of a list. The resulting films however are less connected with surrealist absurdity as one could expect. Instead, besides the given prompts, it seems there are even more key motives connecting the episodes and thus concluding in a joyfully associative work whose meandering form is truely worth to follow.</p> <p>Filmmakers: Amy Bassin, Mark Blickley, Stephen Broomer , Charles Chadwick, Pip Chodorov, Konstantinos-Antonios Goutos, Pablo Molina Guerrero, Salise Hughes, Douglas Katelus, Anna Kipervaser, Kate Lain, Insa Langhorst, Jesse Malmed, Milan Milosavlijevic, Reed O'Beirne, Arto Polus, Ben Popp, Blanca Rego, Margaret Rorison, Dustin Zemel, Robert Zverina</p> <p>Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr. Insa Langhorst will be present for Q&A.</p> <p><b>Artist Link:</b><br> <a href="http://excinemaseattle.blogspot.de/2015/12/the-spaces-between-cities.html" target="_blank" title="EXcinema Seattle">http://excinemaseattle.blogspot.de/2015/12/the-spaces-between-cities.html</a></p> <p><b>Press Links:</b><br> Z-Bar - <a href="http://www.z-bar.de/" target="_blank" title="Z-Bar">http://www.z-bar.de/</a><br> Directors Lounge - <a href="http://directorsloungeblog.tumblr.com" target="_blank" title="Directors Lounge Magazin">http://directorslounge.net</a><br></p> </body>