Whimsical, questioning and utterly absorbing, a collection of animated work delving into worlds of wonder, subversion, and Marxist mystery. Playing with form and overflowing with provocation, these works are fun and some re-construct ideas of animation, paying homage to experimentalists who came before.
This short film program includes the following films:
backflip
Nikita Diakur, Germany/France (12 min)
Given his own limited abilities and the present danger of physical injury, filmmaker Nikita Diakur decides to teach his computer-generated avatar to do a backflip; what follows is priceless.
Woman as Image, Man as Bearer of the Look
Carlos Velandia, Colombia (8 min)
Unpacking the male gaze by splicing together a staccato montage of found footage, which include images depicting the mother, the wife, and the object of desire, an ode to obsessive deconstructionism emerges.
Zoon
Jonatan Schwenk, Germany (5 min)
Salamander-like creatures copulate under the moonlight. A feast ensues, propelling a hungry group of two-legged forest dwellers to new heights.
Intermission
Réka Bucsi, Hungary (5 min)
Set to a minimalist score, simple dots and lines appear at first, then connect, meet, and separate again, as the forms become ever more complex with time, celebrating the joy of ornamentation.
Perforated Realities
Gustaf Broms, Sweden (16 min)
As identification with the self slowly dissolves, the borders between beings evaporate and the environment disintegrates. This mirrored photo performance, which could also be considered a kind of reverse-engineered stop-motion, takes frames away rather than adding them, forming a myriad of sentient beings.
Hardly Working
Total Refusal, Austria (21 min)
Total Refusal returns to MODES with new work following 2020’s dazzling live performance of Operation Jane Walk, and their anti-war masterpiece, How to Disappear. In the moments when the algorithm of their existence shows inconsistencies, the Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) of the popular action-adventure game, Red Dead Redemption, break out of their routines momentarily to display their faultiness and present something touchingly human.
Various
Various
2021-2022
Various with English subtitles
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NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.
Atonement
A former Marine suffering from PTSD seeks a meeting with the Iraqi family to which he did great wrong ten years earlier in the Gulf War. Atonement navigates challenging, politically-charged psychological territory with diligence and sensitivity.
The Pervert's Guide to Ideology
Slavoj Zizek re-teams with director Sophie Fiennes for another wildly entertaining romp through the crossroads of cinema and philosophy. From The Sound of Music to Titanic, Jaws to The Dark Knight, Zizek offers new ways to understanding Hollywood.
You Had to Be There
In a strange quirk of fate, the legendary Toronto '72 production of the musical comedy Jesus hit Godspell launched a constellation of comedy stars, all unknown at the time but now known to us as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, et al
House of Hope
"House of Hope" is the name of a Waldorf elementary school near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, founded by Manar and her husband Milad. This documentary follows their efforts to go about their lives before, during, and after the events of October 7.
Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie
Alex Gibney's doc relates the near-lethal attack on Salman Rushdie in 2022, the writer's painful rehab and recovery, and his reflections on life before, during and after the publication of The Satanic Verses.