Michael Brynntrup | film video etc

International Media Art Festival Chiangmai 28. März - 15. April 2003 March 28th - April 15th, 2003 Aktueller Deutscher Experimentalfilm [beim IMAF] Recent German Experimental Film [at IMAF] (curated by Michael Brynntrup)

Programm 1 | program 1

Konfrontationen, Irritationen, Sehnsüchte |
Confrontations, Irritations, Longings
(12 videos | 86 min | 1996 - 2002)

The first part of this program illustrates the tension between fact and fiction, or image and imagination. Here are poetic, documentary and narrative formats; many of these videos include dancing people, who are sometimes observed by hidden camera, sometimes choreographed with pleasure. These are films somewhere between ready-made, ready-to-wear, and pop-obsession.
In the second part of this program are videos distinguished by reduction and minimalism in form. Their commonality is a focus in form and content on a specific phenomenon, using a concentrated look (even if this look might seem strange and foreign). The program ends with two videos which each bear an almost passionate melancholy. They fix their eyes towards a future expectation, even if it's already gone by.
(MB) {translation: Wayne Yung} [deutsch]

Is it possible to film wonders? The camera shows pilgrims, who watch a window of a school in a small town in the East of Poland, where several people already believed to have seen the Virgin Mary.

Stanislaw Mucha: Born in 1970 in Nowy Targ, Poland. After taking final school examinations he studied acting at the “Ludwik Solski" Drama School in Cracow, graduating with an M.A. in 1993. Then joined Cracow´s ´Old Theatre´. Studied film directing at the Konrad Wolf College of Film and Television at Potsdam-Babelsberg from 1995-99. Was a fellow of the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart in 1999.

Real or set up? The camera as a voyeur in an extraordinary situation and level of intimacy. A fragment of the Berlin Fuck Parade, the anti-parade in response to the Love Parade.

Matthias Fritsch: Born in 1976; he works with video since 1997. For his works he got some prices in germany and italy. After learning carpenter he is studying "interaktive Videodesign" in Berlin. In a group of other filmentusiasts he is organising the Independent Film- and Videofestival "Circles of Confusion". (for more information see: www.circles-of-confusion.de)

In no 17 you'll meet a Norwegian girl as she contacts a bemused American tourist on the streets of Trondheim. She invites him to come home with her. He is offered tea and something to eat. Soon she starts to complimenting him on his physique. She makes him show his muscles and dance for her.

Jannicke Låker is a Norwegian video artist, who works and lives in Berlin. She has been working with video since 1995 and has until now done about 15 pieces. Her work has been described as a mixture between fiction and documentary.

so many times you're -- doing the same thing / and waiting for -- something happening / open the door -- what are you waiting for / projection-reflection -- connection-action / if you act and do -- something wrong / don't believe you cannot -- go on / cristallisation -- imagination / realisation -- solvation / reality-phantasy -- talk to me / I try to get in contact with Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon, it is a game between reality and phantasy.

Annette Hollywood: Born in 1969; 1988-91 wood sculpturist, 1992-99 studied fine arts at the Braunschweig School of Arts, 2000 Master's degree; 2000 New York University.

Ron & Leo are twins, lovers, furry animals and a pop group in a crisis. The video shows their fights at the press conference, the artistic attempts of a solo carreer etc like a melodramatic musical. The computergenerated set has been constructed textures and elements found in public spaces and metro stations.

Oliver Husain studied fine arts and film in Baroda (India) and Offenbach (am Main) until 1998; since then, he´s been doing performance art, music videos a monthly radio show; his cubicle/studio is located on the tenth floor of an officetower in downtown frankfurt.

A short story about new bodies, the power of denial and a state of no sunshine. - Two infantile bodies are floating in a cyberspace ball. They are simultaneously connected with two subconscious bodies in the background. The attempt of unification and metamorphosis is interrupted by one part, mean-while the other part is liberated. A glance over the shoulder means destruction. The sources for the soundtrack are fragments of the childhood voices of early Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder songs.

Bjørn Melhus studied film and video at the Braunschweig School of Arts (Germany) and the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles. In 2001 he received a one year residency at the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York. He works with film, video and installation since 1986.

Frank Bretschneider
BLUE TIME | BLUE TIME
4:50 min | 2001 | DV | col | sound (stereo) | Berlin

BLUE TIME is part of a series of nine films, created for the live performance of "Balance" (a cooperation with Taylor Deupree, N.Y., released on Mille Plateaux). Actually they aren't films or music videos, but visual realizations of frequency- and amplitude behavior of the music. As they are quite reduced, the form chosen for the visuals was as similiar. Just like the music, the visuals were created by the aid of a computer.

Frank Bretschneider: Frank Bretschneider - born 1956 in obercrinitz/erzgebirge; lives and works as musician in berlin; numerous musik-cds (komet and_or_vs. bovine life, bip-hop; balance, mille plateaux; curve, mille plateaux) and live performances (frequencies, frankfurt/m;steirischer herbst, graz; mutek, montreal; ars electronica, linz; sonar, barcelona; documenta X, kassel); 1996 co-founder of rastermusic/raster-noton.

This video work is composed out of approx. 80 scenes from feature and documentary films framing the architecture of New York City as a backdrop. Almost all of these movies posses the attempt to stir excitement into their stories by simply including the pompous Manhattan cityscape featuring wild camera angles.
Others of these short zoom shots and pans, that were originally intended to indicate a location change in the film narrative , are now juxtaposed with each other. They are entering into a dialogue that results in a hybrid, distorted image of New York City.

Caspar Stracke: is a Video Artist from Hamburg, Germany, living and working in New York City since 1993. Until 1996 he worked in the realm of Experimental Film before he religiously converted to Digital Media. His films, videos and installation work has been shown in numerous exhibitions, retrospectives and festivals in the US, Europe and Japan.

PA TAK is a love declaration to three writers and their special relationship to sound recording machines: Rainer Maria Rilke - phonograph; William S. Burroughs/Gysin - tape recorder; Thomas Pynchon - brain recorder.

Hanna Nordholt and Fritz Steingrobe: live and work in Hamburg. Diverse co-operated short films since 1985.

Three cameras on one, two, three floors of a staircase, in one time at one place, in one, two, three times at one place, in one time at one, two, three places, in one, two, three times at one, two, three places.

Volker Schreiner: since 1980 objects and sculptures; since 1988 video works; since 1993 lectures and seminars, 1993 lectureship Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, 1994-98 lectureship Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, 2000/01 associate professor Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig

With phone personals, databases, and internet searches, a young man uses digital technology to remember boyfriends past, in the search for boyfriends future.

Wayne Yung: was born in Edmonton Canada in 1971, and has since lived in Vancouver, Hong Kong, Berlin and Hamburg. As a writer, performer, and video artist, he has explored issues of race and sexuality from a queer Chinese-Canadian point of view. His videos have screened around the world, and was featured in solo exhibitions at Toronto Reel Asian Festival (1999), Seoul Queer Film Festival (2000), Toronto Inside Out Festival (2001), and Vancouver Out on Screen Festival (2001).

We look at a flock of sheep that stares at us. The view doesn't change. In the lower half of the picture we can recognize a digital clock that shows the count-down. The distance between the sheep and the viewers cannot be bridged over despite the intensive sight-contact. Do both sides stare at each other or do they observe an object that lies between them- maybe the projection spot? Sheep and on-looker (viewers) stare at each other really tense without being able to get into contact. The flock remains automative, chewing, grazing and staring.

Maxi Bade was born in Munich in 1975. The year 1995 he spent in the Ukraine. East Europe is the topical base of his work. He receives a grant of the German Academic Exchange Service in 2000 and goes to Tomsk in Siberia. Mainly he works installative with photographs, video and performance. Maxi Bade lives in Berlin.

Programm 1
Konfrontationen, Irritationen, Sehnsüchte |
Confrontations, Irritations, Longings

Der erste Teil dieses Programms beleuchtet das Spannungsfeld zwischen 'fact und fiction' bzw. 'Bild und Abbild'. Hier finden sich poetische, dokumentarische und narrative Ansätze; in vielen dieser Videos tauchen 'Tanzende' auf, die entweder mit verdeckter Kamera beobachtet oder lustvoll choreographiert werden. Filme zwischen 'ready-made'-Konfektion und 'pop-Obsession'.
Die Videos im zweiten Teil des Programms zeichnen sich durch Reduktion und Minimalismen in der Formsprache aus. Ihnen gemeinsam ist der formale und auch inhaltliche Fokus auf ein spezifisches Phänomen (das im konzentrierten Blick auch befremdend wirken mag). Das Programm endet mit zwei Videos, denen eine fast leidenschaftliche Melancholie zu eigen ist. Sie richten ihren Blick voller Erwartung in die Zukunft, auch wenn diese schon vergangen ist.
(MB)