Social & External
From the first camera to 45 billion cameras worldwide today, the visual sociologist filmmakers widen their lens to expose both humanity's unique obsession with the camera's image and the social consequences that lay ahead.
Digital images decomposing in rain-like effects. A visual poem, trying to capture the poetics of a cinematic rain shower into the structure of its images. Still images from the 1982 science fiction film noir classic Blade Runner become animated, a frozen memory of two lovers is washed away in time.
A kaleidoscopic montage, interpreting the poem "Our Punjabi Market" by Kuldip Gill depicting the vibrance of the Punjabi Market at 49th and Main in East Vancouver, BC.
A ferry drifts along the Weser. Slow 16mm images of boats, railings, industrial shores, and cranes—scarred and clouded by the river itself, hand-processed with its water, marked by sediment and rust—dissolve into Annina Mossoni’s text: some people want the world on a string.
Sitting Idle (2021) is a meandering, meditative visual poem that follows the life of a nameless character over the course of a year - as he traverses across the country, meeting and living with friends along the way. Luke Olutunmogun presents an unconventional plot-free narrative that acts as a visual longitudinal study and diary - exploring feelings of loneliness, alienation, and jadedness amid the death throes of a decaying urban landscape.
Occasionally, "your own" life is only based on the lifes of the rest. The human being, cutted off from the cultural and social, finds things in common with the other of the antipodes. An essay of the common and the different. The protagonist writes a letter and digress and imagine, with what isn't theirs. Taking it, transforming it and turning into another part of their body.
Philophobic delves into the complexities of modern relationships, offering a glimpse into the emotional journey of a young woman navigating love and fear. Through the lens of her bedroom and the use of viewmaster reels, viewers witness her struggle to reconcile her longing for connection with her deep-seated fear of vulnerability. As she grapples with her emotional detachment, Philophobic prompts reflection on the fragile nature of Gen Z relationships and the universal quest for validation.
Light is information, a signal more lasting than recollection. If there’s anyone out there to receive the message. Isolated in a sealed apartment, a lone observer regards an outside world outside become increasingly unreal or unreachable. Archaic illuminations, old slides and the pin-lights of the camera obscura, crawl across the walls. Connections fray. Time loses meaning. A science fictional essay film, or its inverse. A rumination on optics, memory, data, and endings.
A poetic coming-of-age, in which the characters drift through memories, searching for a place in a world that constantly casts them aside. It’s an intimate, indie-aesthetic story about reminiscences preserved on camera, lost and regained bonds and people learning to grow up within a space lacking both home and the assurance that anyone is waiting for their return.
A granddaughter gives a new meaning to her grandma's death through previously unspoken memories.
A filmographic essay featuring lines from "Bonedog" by Eva H.D. A pathos on memory, travelogue consciousness and the divets remaindered from environmental displacement.
An experimental visual poem about a sick lonely old man stays in his big empty house, dreaming of a glorious life that he could have. In this dream, he plays a Rubik's Cube, which connects the memories of his prime in a paralleled universe, the chapters of love and pain.
Using Varsha Panikar's poetry series by the same name, it follows the journey of a poet as they rediscover love, passion, and identity after encountering their muse.
While working with wet plate collodion Ruhter came up with an idea to show the world the beauty of these objects in a size that was deemed impossible. This led him and the Silver & Light Team to a forgotten town on the edge of the Salton Sea called Bombay Beach, located in California’s Imperial Valley. The idea was to create a camera out of an abandoned house. The structure would serve as the framework for the camera. Instead of focusing on the decay from the outside, this house camera allowed a view from the inside into someone’s dream. Once the giant lens was placed on the front of the house, images of Ted, a 100 year old resident who recently found himself homeless, were projected in, breathing new life into this abandoned structure and once again making it a home. During this brief moment in time when Ted’s photograph was captured, he was present in both places. In reality, he was homeless in the outside world.
Tender caresses and enveloping embraces are portals into the life of Mack, a Black woman in Mississippi. Winding through the anticipation, love, and heartbreak she experiences from childhood to adulthood, the expressionist journey is an ode to connection — with loved ones and with place.
Fed up with surviving on social crumbs, he takes a surreal flight to find a hidden truth. In a dull world, we need color, but what if this colorful idealization turns against you?
