RITUALS, HABITS & DEVIATION

Our ways of being are interrogated in this series of films, which question how we conform, rebel or simply disengage. Ordinary life is restaged in a nocturnal Dutch shop in the present day; a camera manual from a century ago guides us through the works of an amateur filmmaker in fascist Italy; a group of performance artists find humour and playfulness in the Norwegian countryside; a young German woman becomes a voyeur, whilst ostensibly searching for love. All of these films capture the struggles of life as it is, yet also point towards a freer, more honest existence, still within our reach. 

Second Hand Stories

Danielle van Vree / 2024 / Netherlands / 24:47

Second Hand Stories takes place in a second-hand store. A place full of objects; bits of life left behind by their owners. During the night we discover fragments of stories that could have been lived by all of us. Here we discover our relationship to the other and the patterns we develop within these relationships. It is a film about the rituals we use to shape our lives, or the patterns we get stuck in that leads to stagnation.

A Companion for Amateur Cinematographers: Vol. I

Federico Di Corato / 2024 / Italy / 20:00

Set against the backdrop of Italy in the years of the fascist dictatorship, a man of means, yet unknown to history, scrutinises the world through his small cine camera. Guiding him and teaching him is a manual; the buds of ideology are detectable beneath the seemingly impartial tone it uses to describe technique. But in his films, the ineffable signs of resistance still rise to the surface.

Scenes, Overheard

Parlour Collective: Jack Catling, Matthew Galpin, David Stearn, Pavana Reid / 2024 / UK / 19:32

A series of scenes mis-heard between the town and it's surrounding landscape unfold, creating an odd dialogue that drifts between the two.

Risky Reality

Rebekka Sceleji (née Scheib) / 2024 / Germany / 29:23

To escape loneliness in her impassive life, Leni hacks into her neighbors' computers and witnesses an escalating conflict between the two parties. Leni is searching for love in her reality-distant life. She is caught in her digital sphere. Therefore, she deliberately invades the intimate zone of Jussuf, for whom she feels erotic needs, and repeatedly observes him through the camera of his laptop. In the process, she becomes a silent witness to a conflict between Jussuf and another neighbor.