http://celinejulie.blogspot.com/2007/06/matthias-mueller-and-bavo-defurne.html
This is Celinejulie’s reply:
--I also wish there were more avant-garde films shown in Bangkok. I think the chance for Bangkokians to see non-mainstream films depend on who is the cultural attache or who is in charge of the cultural affair of each foreign embassy at the moment. I think positions like these are replaced once every three or four years. Whenever these positions are taken by people who love art films, art films from that country would be shown in Bangkok. As for now I have to thank a lot for anyone who is in charge of the cultural affairs at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok, because there have been many video installations from Australia shown in Bangkok during the last few years. Before that, there were none of these Australian video installations shown in Bangkok in the 1990’s.
Unfortunately, while Bangkokians are exposed to many good films from Australia during 2000’s, Bangkokians have much less chance to see good films from Germany during the same period. In the 1990’s, the Goethe Institute in Bangkok showed German films nearly every week. We used to have a chance to see about 40 good German feature films every year. But in 2000’s, the Goethe Institute in Bangkok changed some policies. Now we can see only 10 German feature films every year. I feel very sad about this, because this policy doesn’t apply worldwide. You can compare the cultural program of the Goethe Institute in San Francisco with the one in Bangkok, and you will know how sad I feel.
The Goethe Institute in San Francisco’s website:
http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/saf/enindex.htm
The Goethe Institute in Bangkok’s website:
http://www.goethe.de/ins/th/ban/enindex.htm
However, as for me, the current problem is not only the availability of the avant-garde films shown in Bangkok, but also the availability of my free time to see them. Now many experimental films are shown in ubuweb, but I don’t have enough time to see them.
--I hadn’t heard of Arthur Lipsett before, but after I read your article, I think he must be very interesting. I also hadn’t known about your avant-garde blog-a-thon before. I think this blog-a-thon is really great. I will try to read most of these avant-garde articles when I have time.
--My found footage films wish list:
1.Films by Douglas Gordon
I have seen only one film of his: “10MS-1” (1994), and I haven’t watched the Zidane film he did with Philippe Parreno (though this one is not found footage). From what I read, I think Douglas Gordon’s projects are very interesting.
2.INTERVISTA (1998, Anri Sala)
http://www.frif.com/new99/intervis.html
Description of this film from FIRST RUN ICARUS FILMS’ website:
“In the process of moving house with his family, Anri Sala, an Albanian art student, discovered a twenty-year-old 16mm newsreel film, containing images of a congress of the Albanian Communist Party. In the film a young woman, a leader of the Communist Youth Alliance, is seen making a speech, and later giving an interview. But Anri could not make out what she was saying, because the sound had been lost.
With the passing of years this woman had left behind the hopes and fears, ideals and disappointments, deceptions and rebellions of her youth. She was his mother, Valdet.”
3.THE FLAMETHROWERS (Owen O’Toole + Alte Kinder + Schmelzdahin)
http://www.filmalchemist.de/schmelzfilms.html
Description of this film from Juergen Reble’s website:
“The original material of this film triptych (which was later transferred onto one 16-mm filmstrip) was an almost burnt print of Pather Panchali by Satyajit Ray. The American artist Owen O'Toole sent this film to the members of Alte Kinder asking them to react on it artistically
- the beginning of a transatlantic co-operation of filmmakers. The Bonn based artist's group Schmelzdahin created the third and final part of this game of visual associations. (Alte Kinder, 1990)”
4.NEGATIVE MAN/GIVE AIDS THE FREEZE (Cathy Joritz)
Information about this film comes from the website below:
http://astroqueer.tripod.com/bio/biaf.html
“Irreverent and amusing reappropriation of old 1950s b/w films in which Joritz has scratched devils and safe sex messages over the original images of deadpan preaching psychologists.”
--I also noticed that you mentioned Thomas Koener in your blog on Juergen Reble. I like Koener very much. I had a chance to see only one of his films. I saw SUBURBS OF EMPTINESS (2003, Thomas Koener, A+) in January this year. It is my most favorite film of that month, and it will surely be in my top ten most favorite short films of this year.
My most favorite list for this year so far:
Most favorite film of January:
SUBURBS OF EMPTINESS (2003, Thomas Koener)
Most favorite film of February:
SORRY (2007, Noraset Vaisayakul)
This is a Thai video installation.
Most favorite film of March:
MUANG SAMUT (A TOWN BY THE SEA) (2007, students in the faculty of communication arts, Chulalongkorn University)
This is a short Thai documentary about Burmese immigrants in Thailand and the injustice and prejudice they face. It made me cry.
Most favorite film of April:
FIREFLIES (2007, Chawit Waewsawangwong)
This is a Thai short experimental film. It is like a music video for a techno song. The color, the sound, and the rhythm of this film are very powerful to me.
Most favorite film of May:
AMOUR D’ENFANCE (BOYHOOD LOVES) (2001, Yves Caumon, France)
--I also like the fact that Thomas Koener has his own website. This website makes it very easy for us to know what he did in the past and what he is doing at the present.
I think I should make a list of the websites of some of my favorite directors, and I will try to put the links to these websites on my blogroll when I have time, so it will be easy for us to check for the information on their current projects.
WEBSITES OF MY FAVORITE DIRECTORS:
1.KHAVN DE LA CRUZ
http://www.kamiasroad.com/khavn/
2.ALEX DAVIES
http://schizophonia.com/
3.THOMAS KOENER
http://www.koener.de/
4.CHRISTELLE LHEUREUX
http://christelle.lheureux.free.fr/sommaireEngl.html
5.GEERT MUL
http://www.geertmul.nl/
6.PHILIPPE PARRENO
http://www.airdeparis.com/parreno.htm
7.JUERGEN REBLE
http://www.filmalchemist.de/
8.CHRISTOPH SCHLINGENSIEF
http://www.schlingensief.com/index_eng.html
9.ULA STOECKL
http://www.ula-stoeckl.com/
10.SZUPER GALLERY
http://www.szuper.org/
This is a photo from BELOVED (2006) project by Geert Mul:
2 comments:
One thing that might make you feel a little less deprived when comparing Goethe-Institut programs in San Francisco and Bangkok: a lot of the San Francisco programs, especially the ones that aren't co-presentations with other institutions off-site, are DVD projections.
Thank you for consoling me, Brian. Now I guess the Goethe Institute may really have some budget problems. I guess they show movies from DVDs in order to cut the budget, and they show movies from film prints whenever the program is co-sponsored by other institutes.
Alliance Francaise in Bangkok also show movies from DVDs now, but they still show movies from film prints from time to time. Actually, I don’t mind seeing films from DVDs, if the showing doesn’t run into these following problems:
1.Sometimes the DVD gets stuck (I don’t know if I use the right English word) during the show, and the show has to stop, and the audience would not know the ending of the film. I hate this DVD problem very much. I don’t know what is the use for the advance of technology if they create problems like this. I had this problem from time to time, including when I went to see KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS (1998, Michel Ocelot) at Alliance Francaise and when I went to see SCHIZOPOLIS (1996, Steven Soderbergh) in a university. KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS dvd got stuck before the last 5-10 minutes of the film, and SCHIZOPOLIS got stuck during the last third of the film. This kind of problem leaves the viewers in emotional devastation. It feels as if you are making love to someone but get interrupted before you reach that point.
Thinking about this problem, I wonder what the viewers would feel like if they are watching A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT (2004, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, A+) but the DVD gets stuck before the last scene of the film. That would make some viewers scream out loud and feel very very bad, I think. Because for this movie, the emotions get build up continuously, and I remembered that I felt tremendously eager to know the fate of Manech (Gaspard Ulliel). I nearly cried when I watch the last scene of this film.
2.The projector gives a lousy picture. I think this problem occurred at the Goethe Institute in Bangkok during 2001-2002. There was a Gay and Lesbian Film Festival held there in 2002, and I remembered that most films shown in this festival were from DVDs, but the projector gave a very lousy pictures. The pictures were very blurred. However, I guess the Goethe Institute bought some new projectors after that, because the picture quality was improved in later years.
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