Artists’ film programme: part 2

 

Booklet with the programme is available here (in Estonian and English)

On 16 and 17 November, the Tallinn Photomonth artists’ films programme Polar Coordinates will take place at the cinema Sõprus. Ten films from eight countries will be screened during the two-day programme with themes ranging from intimate family relationships to geographic explorations and telepathic cinema. The film programme is curated by the Estonian artist and filmmaker Piibe Kolka and New York based critic and film curator Genevieve Yue. This is the first time that the programme takes place in collaboration with the Black Nights Film Festival PÖFF.

Tallinn Photomonth’s film programme Polar Coordinates, which is part of the PÖFF Expanded programme, focuses on artists’ films that are the product of a variety of collaborations. “Unlike mainstream films, which are typically made by enormous crews, experimental or artist films often imply the painstaking work of a solitary maker. This year’s Photomonth film programme explores works that were created through various partnerships and dialogues in order to reflect upon the different forms of creative collaboration. Authors of many of these films are partners beyond filmmaking duos: they are families, romantic partners, scientists, and activists,” explains the artist and filmmaker Piibe Kolka, one of the curators of the programme.

The second program, A Question that Can Be Answered Yes or No, traverses the world, collapsing vast distances of time and space through trajectories of desire. Whether working in close quarters or at a far remove, these explorers share with each other their discoveries, frustrations, and joys. There is a yearning for communication that finds an expression in experimental devices, shared motions, and the subtle discrepancies of perspective.

Part II of the Tallinn Photomonth’s film programme, A Question that Can Be Answered Yes or No:

– The Measures, Jacqueline Goss and Jenny Perlin, 2011, United States, 47 min, 16mm on HD, in English.
– New City of Friends, Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, 2021, Ukraine, 9 min, HD video, in Ukrainian, with English subtitle.
– similar image, fantastic little splash, 2021, Ukraine, 9 min, HD video, no dialogue.
– DISTANT FEELER. Goliatus & Carábida (1977–1997), OJOBOCA, 2022, Germany, 36 min, performance, in English.

The second evening of screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the artists and curators. Additionally, a public lecture on the subject of feminism and film materiality will be held by Genevieve Yue, one of the curators of the film programme, in the main auditorium of the Estonian Academy of Arts on 20 November at 17.30.

The first part of the Photomonth film programme, Frame that Holds Us, takes place on 16 November from 19.00 to 20.45 at the cinema Sõprus. The first program arises from the intimate spaces of the home, which, in these artists’ conceptions, can mean a physical space, a relation among people, or the recesses of the mind. These are inside-out home movies, playing on the conventions of their traditional forms, depicting unconventional domestic scenes, moments of strife as well as joy. The intimate spaces alternate with “views from the windows,” both literally but also as a framing of one’s world from a remove, an experience made globally familiar by the recent years of confinement and seclusion.

Piibe Kolka is an artist, filmmaker and film worker with a background in anthropology. She is interested in artists’ moving image as a personal enquiry into the bodily, temporal and rhythmic aspects of social realities. She works with video, sound, and performance, artistic research and curatorial practices. She has co-curated artist film programs for Kumu Art Film Festival (2016 and 2018) and at the international group show Point of No Return at NART art residency (2021).

Genevieve Yue is an associate professor of culture and media and director of the Screen Studies program at the New School. She has programmed films at Anthology Film Archives, Metrograph, MassArt, and other venues. Her essays and criticism have appeared in Mubi, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, and Reverse Shot, and she is author of Girl Head: Feminism and Film Materiality (Fordham University Press, 2021). She is based in New York City.