12: Lav Diaz
SELECTION 2015
A dialogue between new audiovisual works, older or rediscovered films and videos by artists and filmmakers who work in the expanded field of moving image practice.
Courtisane is een platform voor film en audiovisuele kunsten. In de vorm van een jaarlijks festival, filmvertoningen, gesprekken en publicaties onderzoeken we de relaties tussen beeld en wereld, esthetiek en politiek, experiment en engagement.
Courtisane is a platform for film and audiovisual arts. Through a yearly festival, film screenings, talks and publications, we research the relations between image and world, aesthetics and politics, experiment and engagement.
SELECTION 2015
A dialogue between new audiovisual works, older or rediscovered films and videos by artists and filmmakers who work in the expanded field of moving image practice.
A terrible typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) has left a city on the coast in a state of post-apocalyptic chaos. Freight ships were thrown from the sea and lie around between what remains of houses and shacks, and countless people tragically lost to the waves. In the middle of it all a group of children are creating a new world for themselves. Diaz’ characteristic, cinematic signature – the long and hypnotic scenes held in patiently observing black and white images – is present in every composition and every instant. A sublime, cinematic report from a devastating corner of reality.
The children, as they cope with the disaster, are scavenging for food and materials, telling stories, playing amid the looming ships run aground on the town’s main street, and diving from others that still sit in the sea. Storm Children – Book One is a moving reflection on human resilience, and shows the filmmaker’s deeply rooted sense of community and his connection with the past and the future generations of his country.