Category: Room 404

Film essays by vnLab at the Camera Action Festival

The 14th edition of the Kamera Akcja Festival, an event dedicated to film criticism, will feature new productions created at the Film Essay Studio. The Action Education series accompanying the festival will include screenings, meetings and the premiere of the vnLab digital publication.

 

  • October 13, 5:00 pm, Essay on Method meeting. Premiere of the digital publication on the gestures of the film essay 

Stanislaw Liguzinski and Michal Matuszewicz, directors of the Film Essay Studio, will present the digital publication Essay on the Method, edited by Stanislaw Liguzinski and Ariel Avissar. This anthology of ten texts is the result of a joint journey that filmmakers, artists, scholars and members of the vnLab Film Essay Workshop working group took between March 2021 and December 2022. 

Venue: Museum of Cinematography, free admission.
More information: https://kameraakcja.com.pl/wydarzenie/akcja-edukacja-esej-o-metodzie-premiera-publikacji-cyfrowej-o-gestach-eseju-filmowego/

 

  • October 14, 1:00 pm, screening of the essay Solaris Mon Amour, directed by Kuba Mikurda, 2023. 

After the screening, there is a meeting with the filmmakers – Kuba Mikurda, Laura Pawela, Marcin Lenarczyk, hosted by Kaja Klimek. 

Venue: Cinema of the Film School, free entrance.
More information: https://kameraakcja.com.pl/pokaz/solaris-mon-amour/

 

  • October 15, 5:45 pm, screening of essays produced at the Film Essay Workshop. 

The program includes: 

– A short conversation between brother and sister, by Temra Pavlovi?, Stefan Pavlovi?, Poland, Netherlands 2023, 27’21”
– Room 404, dir. by Elysa Wendi, Lee Wai Shing, Poland, Hong Kong 2023, 29’40”
– Non Duality, dir. by Tomasz W?gorzewski, Poland 2023, 25”
– Wanda, dir. by Anna Baumgart, Poland 2023, 20’53”
– Subtotals, dir. by Mohammadreza Farzad, Poland, Germany, Iran 2022, 16′ 

Venue: Kinematograf Cinema, Museum of Cinematography, admission free.
More information: https://kameraakcja.com.pl/pokaz/akcja-edukacja-eseje-z-pracowni-vnlab/

Room 404

The Implementation of the new security law in 2020 marked a major historical shift for the people of Hong Kong. This 2-year process brought on the reality which was not expected to have materialized until 2046. This harsh, unexpected acceleration fueled feelings of anxiety and distress. The fear of prosecution mixed with the impulse for self-censorship, the desire to leave wrestled with a sense of loss. Room 404 is an essayistic response to the documentary Room 525 shot by the same artists during the art residency in Hong Kong back in 2019 while the social unrest was growing. The film marks the transition from documentary to essay, from the real space of room 525, to the reality marked by the most common error of the digital age 404: File Not Found. The desire to express the objective truth of the situation which drove the makers experiencing the calamity as it unravelled, gives way to doubt that permeates the situation, which emerges in the post-calamity state.

Elysa Wendi – a Singaporean artist and filmmaker based in Hong Kong. After dancing for ten years professionally, she began experimenting with choreographic ideas with the medium of film, performances and curatorial projects. She is a co-founder of Cinemovement, a platform facilitating the creation of dance films in laboratory settings through cultural exchanges. Interested in the abstraction of memory from place, time and biographical traces, Wendi explores these themes in her live and film works. Her short film 1958 Delivery has been lauded for its artful juxtaposition of photography, history and performative rituals, and won the best experimental film award at the 2018 South Taiwan Film Festival. She recently received best documentary award from Hong Kong ArtHouse Film festival for Forgive and Not to Forgive.

Lee Wai Shing – A Hong Kong independent filmmaker. His involvement with Chinese Independent Documentary Lab from 2016-2018 has exposed him to many independent documentary possibilities. His latest documentary film Family Family Day which was made with the support of HKU Documentary Seed Grants, has won the Gold Award (Open Category) in the 24th ifva Awards in Hong Kong. He is currently working as an editor for documentary film projects with other directors as well as working on his experimental film works.