Category: Essay Film Studio

Subtotals by Mohammadreza Farzad – a meditation on the uncertainties of life

Do you keep a record of your gray hair?
The number of crushes you had on women?
The number of houses, you have owned or rented?
The number of kisses, you have exchanged?
The number of times, you’ve flown in your dreams?
Maybe you have counted, maybe not.
Anyway, does counting make a difference
in a life lived beyond numbers?

Subtotals (Majmouan) is a film about the aftermath that can never be applied to one’s life as a product. Inspired by a short story of the same title by Gregory Burnham and Autoportrait by Edouard Leve, composed fully of 8mm home movies of Iranian society, Subtotals is a meditation on the uncertainties of life that doesn’t hand out any bills.

Subtotals is the first project developed in the context of the Essay Film Studio of the vnLab in Lodz Film School. The world premiere of the essay took place at the IFF Berlinale 2022 as part of the prestigious Forum Expanded section, and the Polish premiere at the Millenium Docs Against Gravity festival. The film essay won the Golden Apricot award at the Yerevan International Film Festival.

Mohammadreza Farzad  was Born in 1978 in Iran, Teheran. He started his career as a poet and literary translator. Dozens of books have been published with his translations. His career as a documentary filmmaker started with Into Thin Air and Blames and Flames which premiered at Berlinale, Forum Expanded section. Farzad has been a PhD student at the Film Factory headed by the legendary Hungarian auteur Bela Tarr. His subsequent works premiered at dozens of national and international film festivals and gained numerous awards. Forget-Me-Not Egg (2013) was first shown at Thessaloniki Film Festival, Wedding: A Film (2015) premiered in the “Next Masters” section of the Leipzig Documentary film festival. He has been invited as a jury member to film festivals such as CPH: DOX, Jihlava, Pilsen, DokuBaku, Cinema Verite. He is currently working on his first feature film produced by Radovan Sibert of Pink Production. Majmaouan (Subtotals) is his third-time participation in Berlinale Forum Expanded.

 

 

 

Interactive Narratives and Essay Film Studio at 39. Kasseler Dokfest

During Kasseler DokFest, we will present the activities of our two Studios.

The Interactive Narratives, Digital Scientific Publications and UX Studio is dedicated to the study and development of new forms of narratives aris- ing from the use of digital interactive technologies in documentary film and related forms such as film essay. The Studio was founded on observation of transformations in the area of in 21st century doc- umentary which became a field of experimenta- tion with audiovisual language and creating new models of narration as well as a place where film meets with other media: photography, literature, animated film or computer games. In the result of diverse experimentation within the documen- tary, media and digital technology, interactive documentary forms evolved. These constantly question and shift traditional roles of the author and the viewer. According to the Studio composing viewer’s emotional engagement in the interactive form demands not only good storytelling but also creating the whole new world to explore. This re- quires working in a brand-new environment which include interface and user experience designers as well as coders and creative technologists. The Studio will present excerpts from the interactive narratives produced in the studio and a fragment of the i-doc SCHOOL, THE WORLD SCHOOL, THE WORLD by Iga Łapińska and Ewa Jarosz – the larg- est production of the Studio so far.

The aim of the Essay Film Studio is to radically expand the research workshop, to develop new methods and new forms of thinking – thinking with images, sound and editing. It is an attempt to reinvent the form of the film essay by drawing on contemporary forms of audiovisual communi- cation, the genres, languages and conventions of contemporary cinema and the Internet. As part of the Essay Film Studio, this year a first series of workshops was organized, led by the world’s foremost experts in the field of essay film, includ- ing Laura Mulvey, Mike Bal, Cathrine Grant, Kevin B. Lee, Chloé Galibert-Laîné, Assaf Gruber, Eyal Sivan and in which selected participants from all over the world could work on their projects. As a result, the Essay Film Studio now serves as the production home for several essay film projects, including the award-winning film “Subtotals” by Mohammadreza Farzad, Mike Bal’s “It’s About Time! Reflections of Urgency” and, yet to pre- miere, “Solaris mon amour” by Kuba Mikurda. The participants of the seminar were also asked to contribute an anthology about the method, in which the gestures of many essayists are ana- lyzed. During the session representatives of the Essay Film Studio will present excerpts of the film projects and take part in a panel discussion about making and producing essay film as an epistemic practice. The films produced by Essay Film Studio are subsequently presented at festivals.

November 19

39th Kasseler Dokfest

1:30 pm

For more information follow the link.

Subtotals was awarded with the Golden Apricot for best short film at the Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival. 

Congratulations!

 

Subtotals

Director and screenwriter: Mohammadreza Farzad
Sound design: Hasan Shabankareh
Editing: Amir Adibparvar
Music: Afshin Aziz
Post-production: Hamidreza Fatourehchia
Produced by Lodz Film School Executive Producer, Road River Films
Producers: Krzysztof Franek, Kuba Mikurda, Stanisław Liguzinski, Afsun Moshiry, Dagna Kidoń

“Subtotals” at international film festivals

We’re pleased to announce international film festivals, where our production from Film Essay Studio – “Subtotals” by Mohammadreza Farzad will be presented.

Berlinale, Berlin International Film Festival • Forum Expanded. Germany (2022)
Millenium Docs Against Gravity Film Festival • Poland (2022)
Oberhausen International Short Film Festival • Germany (2022)
New Horizons International Film Festival • Poland (2022)
Golden Apricot International Film Festival • Yerevan. Armenia (2022)
MDOC Melgaço International Documentary Film Festival • Portugal (2022)
DokuFest International Documentary and Short Film Festival • Kosovo (2022)
Melbourne International Film Festival • Australia (2022)

“Subtotals” (Majmouan) is an essay film about an accounting never being applied to one’s life’s products. Inspired by a short story of the same title by Gregory Burnham and the novel “Autoportrait” by Édouard Levé, and wholly composed of 8mm home movies of Iranian people, Majmouan is a meditation on the uncertainties of a life that doesn’t hand you any bills.

Subtotals

Director and screenwriter: Mohammadreza Farzad

Sound design: Hasan Shabankareh

Editing: Amir Adibparvar

Music: Afshin Azizi

Post-production: Hamidreza Fatourehchia

Produced by Lodz Film School Executive Producer, Road River Films

Producers: Krzysztof Franek, Kuba Mikurda, Stanisław Liguzinski, Afsun Moshiry, Dagna Kidoń

“Subtotals” at IFF New Horizons!

 

After the world premiere at the IFF Berlinale, “Subtotals” from our Film Essay Studio will be presented at the IFF New Horizons.

“Subtotals” is a film about the aftermath that can never be applied to one’s life as a product. Inspired by a short story of the same title by Gregory Burnham and “Autoportrait” by Edouard Leve, composed fully of 8mm home movies of Iranian society.

Subtotals is a meditation on the uncertainties of life that doesn’t hand out any bills.

 

Screenings:
25.07 4:15 pm
28.07 7:15 pm + filmmakers Q&A
30.07 1:15 pm + filmmakers Q&A

 

Subtotals | Sumy częściowe | Majmouan

dir. Mohammadrez Farzad

prod. Lodz Film School, Road River Films

Polish premiere of “Subtotals” at the Millenium Docs Against Gravity festival!

 

After the world premiere at the IFF Berlinale, “Subtotals” from our Film Essay Studio will be presented at the Millenium Docs Against Gravity festival. “Subtotals” is a film about the aftermath that can never be applied to one’s life as a product. Inspired by a short story of the same title by Gregory Burnham and “Autoportrait” by Edouard Leve, composed fully of 8mm home movies of Iranian society, Subtotals is a meditation on the uncertainties of life that doesn’t hand out any bills.

 

“Subtotals” will be presented in the best shorts competition.

More information on the festival website.

 

Subtotals | Sumy częściowe | Majmouan

dir. Mohammadrez Farzad

prod. Lodz Film School, Road River Films

“Subtotals” Mohammadreza Farzad
Premiere at IFF Berlinale 2022
The first project developed in the Essay Film Studio of the Lodz Film School.

“Subtotals” (Majmouan) is an essay film about an accounting never being applied to one’s life’s products. Inspired by a short story of the same title by Gregory Burnham and the novel “Autoportrait” by Édouard Levé, and wholly composed of 8mm home movies of Iranian people, Majmouan is a meditation on the uncertainties of a life that doesn’t hand you any bills.

The film is shown in the Berlinale interdisciplinary section Forum Expanded, which programme reflects on the medium of film, socio-artistic discourse and a particular sense for the aesthetic.

Subtotals (Majmouan)
Directed by Mohammadreza Farzad
Produced by Lodz Film School Executive Producer Road River Films

Screenings of “Subtotals” at Berlinale 2022
Premiere:
13.02, 14:00 Kino Arsenal 1
Following shows:
14.02, 20:00 Werkstattkino @ silent green
19.02, 14:00 Werkstattkino @ silent green

The film is also available as part of the Berlinale European Film Market for holders of industry accreditation.

The Essay Film Studio of the Visual Narratives Laboratory vnLab of the Lodz Film School announces a competition for participation in the artistic and research programme in 2021-2022

The vnLabEssay Film Studio announces a competition for participation in the artistic and research programme of the Studio in 2021-2022.

We invite artists interested in creating essayistic film forms to participate!

In order to participate in the competition you must:

  1. Read the RULES of the competition
  2. Stage I: Fill in the APPLICATION FORM
  3. Stage II: Prepare and send to konkursy@vnlab.org the documents required in the regulations
    curriculum vitae with information confirming the necessary experience for the realization of the project
    b. a portfolio of past creative work
    c. documentation of the project which the candidate plans to develop as a part of the programme

Continue reading “The Essay Film Studio of the Visual Narratives Laboratory vnLab of the Lodz Film School announces a competition for participation in the artistic and research programme in 2021-2022” →

Seminar with Eyal Sivan

A double seminar led by documentary filmmaker, lecturer and film essayist Eyal Sivan was held in April. The first part was attended by about 180 listeners, while the second part was attended by a working group of 12 people to whom Eyal Sivan offered to make short film abstracts on essay projects they were developing.

Eyal Sivan was born in 1964 in Haifa, Israel and grew up in Jerusalem. After working as a professional photographer in Tel Aviv, he left Israel in 1985 and settled in France. Sivan has directed several acclaimed political documentaries, as well as produced films by other filmmakers. His films, screened and awarded at major festivals around the world, focus on individual stories and social memory. Sivan’s best-known films include “The Specialist – Portrait of a Modern Criminal” (1999), “Route 181 – Fragments of a journey in Palestine Israel” (2003) and “Jaffa, the orange’s clockwork” (2009). Sivan is the founder and artistic director of the Paris-based production company Momento! and the film distribution agency Scalpel, as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of “South Cinema Notebooks” – a journal on cinema and politics published by Sapir Academic College in Israel, where he regularly teaches. In recent years, Sivan has been a lecturer in media production at the School of Arts and Digital Industries (ADI), at the University of East London (UEL), where he co-led the MA program in Film, Video and New Media, and a professor at the Netherlands Film Academy. Sivan currently works with the University of Exeter in the UK and is a member of the editorial board of La Fabrique Editions in Paris.

The next seminars, hosted by film scholar, film critic and film essayist Catherine Grant, will take place on May 4 and 17.

The call for seminars at the vnLab Film Essay Studio has ended

The organizers received a dizzying number of applications – 270 people from all over the world expressed their desire to participate in the meetings! Thirteen filmmakers from France, India, Iran, Israel, Columbia, Mexico, Serbia, UK, USA and Poland have qualified for the workshop group which will develop their film essay projects over the next ten months in collaboration with guest tutors such as Eyal Sivan, Mark Cousins, Catherine Grant and Johan Grimonprez. The remaining candidates will be able to participate in the seminar as free listeners (with access to the whole seminar day) and observers (with access to the master class). Additionally, they will all have access to a platform where they will be able to publish and comment on each other’s essay and film works. The first seminar, hosted by director, lecturer and theorist Eyal Sivan, will take place on April 6.