Museum of Impossible Forms is delighted to present a set of 13 short films, curated by Danai Anagnostou.
This trans-national set of films offer a critical cross-section of experimental cinematic practices today. Offering a meandering choreography of subjects, the films focus on bodies that orbit several paths of intimacy, yearning and inspiration.
By shifting away from the dominant perspectives of commercial filmmakers and festival selections, Danai offers to redirect our gaze to the presence of otherwise Untitled Bodies – another map in ‘The Atlas of Lost Beliefs’.
The screening as a gathering encourages interactions and bonding between filmmakers, audiences, those interested or experimenting with the medium.
Danai Anagnostou is a producer for film & media art based in Helsinki and the co-founder of Kenno Filmi. Her latest works are The Killing of Čáhcerávga directed by the Miracle Workers Collective’s and The Journey to CharBagh directed by Abdullah Qureshi. Danai writes and publishes essays responding to the hegemonic structures that inform the film industry from an intersectional feminist point of view.
Schedule:
16:00 doors open - coffee & tea.
16:30 introduction to the selection process and the films
17:00 screening part 1
18:15 break - vegeterian snacks are served
19:00 screening part 2
20:30 discussion & feedback
Amanda Nell Eu - Vinegar Baths
Year of Production: 2019
Malaysia
Running Time: 17’
Malaysian w/ English subtitles
Horror/supernatural
The short film Vinegar Baths is a story about a woman’s relationship with her body, using the penanggalan, a banshee-type ghost with a detached female head found in Southeast Asian folklore, as the narrative’s main subject.
Gabriela Gažová - M
Year of Production: 2018
Slovakia
Running Time: 22’
Slovak w/ English subtitles
"M" is about two fourteen year old friends, Johnny and Romi, rock music, periods, differences between girls and boys and skipping school.
Gökçe Erdem - Titanyum
Year of Production: 2018
Turkey
Running Time: 15’
Turkish w/ English subtitles
A promising young figure skater in 1990s Turkey has to overcome the self-doubt that is jeopardizing her performance.
Ida H. Eldøen - Half Wall
Year of Production: 2018
Norway
Running Time: 7’
Norwegian w/ English subtitles
When the topic of home renovation comes up, a gay couple, find themselves in a heated and deeply serious discussion over something trivial as a bathroom wall.
Jordan Wong - Mom’s Clothes
Year of Production: 2018
USA
Running Time: 5’ 35’’
Language: -
A nonfiction reflection on being out of the closet. As a queer person of color, it's taken me a long time to be as comfortable as I am through navigating forms of intimacy, gender, and self worth. It doesn't always get better, but you're beautiful however you decide to present, including the choice of garments you decide to wear.
Karissa Hahn - Please Step out of the Frame
Year of Production: 2018
USA
Running Time: 4’
Language: -
PLEASE STEP OUT OF THE FRAME. uses Super 8, a desk, and a laptop to create a playful choreography of body and screen.
Liene Linde - Awkard Sex Scenes Part.1 (Septiņas neveikla seksa reizes)
Year of Production: 2016
Latvia
Running Time: 26’
Latvian w/ English subtitles
A young film director attempts to make her first film using her own sexual experience as an inspiration. As a result, the re-enactment of the awkward sex scenes gets mixed with the awkwardness of the low-budget filmmaking process.
Lud Mônaco - Rough Cut of Love
Year of Production: 2016
UK
Português & English w/ English subtitles
Running Time: 7’ 13’’
Alessandra is a young Brazilian immigrant employed at a factory in North London. A working class heroine, she grafts hard to keep her position. Alessandra laughs, smokes and eats four Donuts a day from IKEA round the corner to help her keep going. She fears the day when the machines will come and she will either be promoted to machine operator or made redundant.
Malena Szlam - Lunar Almanac
Year of Production: 2014
Chile & Canada
Running Time: 4’
Language: -
Lunar Almanac traces the observational points of the lunar cycle in a series of visual notations. Using single-frame and long-exposure photography, the unaltered, in-camera editing accumulates over 4000 layered field views of half-moons,
new moons, and full moon.
Nikoleta Leousi - 37 Days
Year of Production: 2019
Greece
Running Time: 23’
Greek w/ English subtitles
When Maria, a young pregnant woman is fired, she goes on a birth strike.
P Sam Kessie - body and form
Year of Production: 2016
USA
Running Time: 2’
Language: -
Motivated and inspired by the choreocinema, this experimental video pairs an eerie soundtrack with a monochromatic and static body snapping into color, and through editing, studies the displaced movements of a disjointed form expressed through repetition, reflections, and opposites.
P Sam Kessie - bodyshutter
Year of Production: 2018
USA
Running Time: 5’
Language: -
A hybrid visual "dance for screen" piece that experiments with 16mm film and video editing techniques against a distorted soundtrack; exploring a body in motion against the element of light, as it transforms into a camera shutter
Payal Kapadia - The Last Mango before the Monsoon
Year of Production: 2015
India
Running Time: 19’
Marathi w/ English subtitles
Two technicians set up cameras in a forest to capture animal activity at night. A woman moved away from the forest a long time ago. She yearns for her late husband and the forest.
Museum of Impossible Forms is a cultural space, located in Kontula, Helsinki. It is a contested Space and it represents a contact zone, a space of unlearning, formulating identity constructs, norm-critical consciousness and critical thinking. Impossible Forms are those that erase and facilitate the process of transgressing the boundaries/borders between art, politics, practice, theory, the artist and the spectator. For 2019-2020, Museum of Impossible Forms operates under the curatorial theme of ‘The Atlas of Lost Beliefs (For Insurgents, Citizens and Untitled Bodies)’
Museum of Impossible Forms is a safer space. It follows safer space policies to create a welcoming, inclusive, awesome environment.
Events at the Museum of Impossible Forms are completely free and accessible without prior booking.
Museum of Impossible Forms is accessible by lift with thresholds up to 4cm on the way. The toilet has no thresholds but is not spacious enough to meet accessibility standards. The nearest accessible toilet is located at Kontula metro station.
For directions, please refer to this Map.