Selection 11: Tejal Shah, Jozef Robakowski, Josiane Pozi, Dani & Sheilah ReStack, André Colinet
In the presence of Josiane Pozi and André Colinet
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.
In the presence of Josiane Pozi and André Colinet
A scene that’s at once seductive and repulsive, tender and obscene, aesthetically thrilling and grotesque. Surrounded by flowers, fruits, juices and other delicacies, Tejal Shah and Marylea Madiman, dressed in Indian traditional clothing, sit side by side. Shah remains passively seated while her partner brutally feeds her. The excessive eating creates an erotic tension and the interaction between the two blurs the line between sex and aggression. In a provocative way, the human condition, the relationship between violence and power, the body and identity are questioned.
A fictional telephone conversation between the filmmaker and his mother on her birthday. A performative reflection on the relationship between public and private spheres in which the maker turns his back to the camera, simultaneously shielding himself, and engages the viewer in the (im)possibility of bridging the gap between the man and his mother. Capturing the intimate conversation seems to be a way of keeping a personal memory alive while it merges with the viewer’s memory.
Polish spoken, English subtitles
In our over-technologised age, how can we capture our identity and our essential humanity to make clear to each other who we are? With a moving camera reminiscent of nostalgic home videos, Josiane Pozi answers this question by filming herself and her family. Everyday reality in a digital world is captured in an abstract and fragmentary way. The banal is elevated into something weighty and valuable, with intimate living room moments as a response to the stereotypical representations of the black female body in traditional imagery. Pozi paints a sometimes uncomfortable and rather unflattering picture of herself and her mother, zooming in on family relationships, annoyances, fun and caring for each other.
English spoken
Future From Inside is the final part of a trilogy about the brutality of parenthood, the balance between domestic and artistic labour, and queer desires. The films show the ReStack collaboration as it manifests itself in real life, the pain, discomfort, questions and pleasure involved in subversive parenting, spirituality, and all sorts of intimate encounters that are involved in the work. Through staged conversations between doubles of the couple about a mother’s wish, the film makes as much room for fiction as non-fiction, or at least as much room for poetry as reality. Images of extreme intimacy create moments of empathy and closeness between the viewer and the filmed, but they also show the tension and power differences that arise when real experiences are translated into images.
English spoken
Snowflakes and a little girl. An intuitive, but above all loving way of filming the subjects juxtaposes a sense of nostalgia with an idea of the future. While wandering and musing during a winter walk, a cycle of generations is captured in images.