The 2nd edition of Slow Film Festival took place on the 1st and 2nd of September 2018. Programme highlights included an artist in focus screening of James Benning’s L. Cohen; an exhibition of the work of Graeme Cole; and competition shorts from filmmakers including Cristina Haneș, João Salaviza and Wang Chun Hong.
Amateri, or The Lost Innocents by Graeme Cole
(Croatia/UK | 19:59 | Video)
A desperate videophile of the future roams an abandoned city in search of off-line VHS footage with which to soothe her prosthetic eyes - whose license has expired, making them criminally allergic to internet.
Antonio & Catarina by Cristina Haneș
(Portugal | 40:00 | Digital)
A 70-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman share a candid and twisted relationship with a deadline. Trapped in one room, Antonio and Catarina are negotiating the terms of their relationship.
Double Reflection by Wang Chun Hong
(Taiwan | 40:22 | Digital)
Wang confronts his youth. Life is boring and seems to be endless. The only thing he can do is survive each day. On New Year’s Eve, he briefly returns to his senses while watching fireworks burst. During these vanishing moments he most strongly feels his own existence. Wang’s work records the connection between himself and photography. Through the kino-eye he reconstitutes himself as a subject. Fiction and Reality merge with self-performance, and boundaries blur.
Epizoda ? by Graeme Cole
(Bosnia & Herzegovina / UK | 39:09 |" Video)
A TV detective who's lost the plot drives aimlessly around the city. Negotiating time and space seem achievable next to solving a murder in a factory, the only witness a robot with the ability to get under the skin with its only two programmed lines: “That interests me” and “What are you afraid of?”
Greenland by Oren Gerner
(Israel | 17:00 | Digital)
The house is a space where past, present and future mix into a chronicle of separation. Oren returns to his family home to pack his belongings and move to a new apartment with his girlfriend. During the day, Oren’s liminal place - between child and adult, between intimacy and alienation – is exposed.
High Cities of Bone by João Salaviza
(Portugal | 18:59 | Digital)
Karlon, born in Pedreira dos Húngaros (a slum on the outskirts of Lisbon) and a pioneer of Cape Verdean creole rap, runs away from the housing project to which he had been relocated. Nights of vigil are spent under a sweltering tropical heat. Among the sugarcanes, a murmur is heard. Karlon hasn't stopped singing.
How Do You Thirst? by Joshua Gleason
(US | 23:16 | DV Tape)
A dialogue-free meditation set amid a growing water crisis, a lonely Japanese woman living abroad takes in a stranger whom she finds passed out in the stairwell of her apartment complex. She waits for the young man to wake, hoping someone can quench her unbearable thirst.
Investigations of a Dog by Aleksandra Niemczyk
(Bosnia and Herzegovina | 25:00 | Digital)
A young man, frustrated by his grim existence, decides to lie down by the river and test whether society will take care of him or let him die. Exposed to the hospitality of the elderly couple who find him, he discovers new purpose in assuaging their loneliness – but they, too, have their limits.
L. Cohen by James Benning
(US | 48:00 | Digital)
A view of an Oregon farm field, observing a solar eclipse and incorporating a Leonard Cohen song.
Murmurs by Graeme Cole
(Bosnia and Herzegovina / UK | 72:42 | Video)
Hana is an ASMR artist, creating intimate videos for millions of online followers – and she hasn’t left her house for 18 months. Ed is a remote security image analyst, and Hana’s first online hook-up. When Ed arrives at Hana’s home, they begin to nurture an awkward togetherness. But for these lonely weirdos, building trust might take more than endless days of cooking and fucking.
One and Many by Jonas Bak
(Cambodia | 25:00 | Digital)
A fly is trapped behind a window. A man lives in a new city. People’s worlds are crammed together, yet they are galaxies apart. Flies are drawn to a streetlight. Alone and together. One and many.
90 Second in North Korea by Ranko Paukovic
(Netherlands | 14:48 | Digital)
Lovers riding on bicycles through the forest, school children crossing the street, men playing football on the beach, women playing in the shallows with inflatable toys, a father carrying his young child. This is the other side of North Korean life, a world away from the army parades, paranoid leaders, oppression and fear.
SFF 2018 Interviews
2018 Jurors
Scott Barley | Emre Çağlayan | Sebastian Cordes | Pilar Palomero | Rachel Pronger | Giuliano Vivaldi