Open Air Film Night*
With a selection of films and videos by current fellows of Akademie Schloss Solitude
Friday, June 14, 2013, from 10 p.m. on
With films and videos by Reza Haeri, Geumhyung Jeong, Shirin Sabahi, Juna Suleiman
A program by
Akademie Schloss Solitude / Chronicles of Work and
Württembergischer Kunstverein
PROGRAM
* in case of rain the program takes place in the Kunstverein's Glasbox
Geumhyung Jeong, RECORD STOP PLAY, 2011
Geumhyung Jeong, Munbangu (Stationery), 2011
Shirin Sabahi, We Came Here to Swim, 2012 + We Fell Into The Water Staying Dry, 2013
16mm on DVD, B/W, silent, each ca. 3 min.
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We Came Here to Swim (2012) and We Fell Into The Water Staying Dry (2013) are two films independent of each other and yet, they are entangled by the characters of each film, recounting on the time they spent together on a film set. In the first film, the director reflects on her endeavors at finishing her film despite unusual circumstances. In the latter film, the cameraman speaks of the journey that led him to work in the film industry. Separate and together, the two films raise questions of communicability in relation to imagination invested in the work of art as well as the occupational hazards and the inherent unease of day-to-day creative labor.
Juna Suleiman, Hiam, 2013
Video, 23 min.
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Hiam Jarjoura is a simple 83 year old woman living a simple life in Nazareth, Israel. The news of wars and upheavals flickering on her TV set come second to her main conflict, which is to preserve her strength through the afflictions of aging. In an intimately and sensitively crafted portrait of her life – sighs and murmurs, body and mind, skin and bones – the film follows Hiam in her lonely but adamant clinging to life.
Reza Haeri, Final Fitting, 2008
Video, 35 min.
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A documentary about Mr. Arabpour, the master tailor and craftsman, and the proprietor of the most famous tailor shop in Qom (Iran). He is in his eighties and for the last several decades has been the official tailor to the most important religious leaders of the country, starting with the late Ayatollah Khomeini to the current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, as well as for the former president, Mohammad Khatami. His international clientele includes such prominent figures as Imam Musa Sadr of Lebanon.
Reza Haeri, All Restrictions End: the Politics of Clothes, 2009
Video, 30 min.
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All Restrictions End: the Politics of Clothes is an experimental documentary dealing with contemporary Iranian history, focusing on the evolution of clothes and fashion. With clothing as the leitmotif, the filmmaker provides the history of Iran, the country of his birth, where beheadings and hangings are commonplace occurrences. It is an endless series of confrontations between groups that all want something different for their country. Clothing remains the point of departure in the stories about Iran, a land that has tottered for centuries between East and West, the present and the past, freedom and repression. In Baudelaire's words, fashion is the mirror of the times, and that makes it a great metaphor for what is going on in a country.