Graduating as a master filmmaker with an online shop for performance art? That is possible with the Master's programme that the Film Academy is now offering for the fifth year alongside the regular course. Not a direct advanced course, but rather a burst of inspiration for filmmakers (or other artists) who already have experience and want to broaden their horizons. This year a company of very diverse background and nationality. Titled 'The Master and the Giant', this graduation programme pays a small homage to the filmmaker and photographer who died in 2001 Johan van der Keuken.
The work of the new masters will be given extra public exposure during the Film Academy's graduation week this year. That means film screenings, presentations, lectures and installations in EYE and the neighbouring Tolhuistuin.
The level of experimentation here is considerably higher than in ordinary undergraduate courses. Cross-border explorations are encouraged. Sometimes a master off with a finished film, like last year's Margot Schaap with the boldly playing with time 'Een dag in 't jaar' (soon in cinemas). At least as often, the result is a work in progress or the presentation of a project plan in search of a producer. A few examples.
E-mail museum
Nina Jan (writer, director and performance artist from Slovenia) has devised 'the Museum of (un)sent emails'. Intriguing, especially for its apparent simplicity, or, some might think, naivety. Something between research into communication and instant poetry. I can't really put my finger on it yet. I would say, watch here itself.
At Nina Jan's you can also order à la carte performances in a online shop.
VR
Not yet seen it myself, but undoubtedly compulsory viewing for those who want a taste of the cinema of the future. Momchil Alexiev (film and theatre maker, Bulgaria) explores the role of the viewer and immersion in 360-degree cinema. Put on those Virtual Reality glasses!
Tilting perspectives
Rosanne Pel and Mirka Duijn (both Dutch) show the first raw footage of two seemingly promising film projects to which producers are being sought. Duijn discovered a village in China where tourists are led to believe that this was the real lost paradise Shangri-La from James Hilton's fantasy novel 'Lost Horizon'. What makes it especially fascinating - the inhabitants of that region are also starting to believe it themselves.
With her feature project 'Light as Feathers', Pel responds to the fact that sexual abuse is usually presented in films as a sudden violent outburst. As something exceptional. While, according to Pel, the shocking thing is precisely that sexual violence is so commonplace. In the black tragicomedy she has in mind, she wants to tilt our perspective. A 15-year-old boy manages to manipulate a neighbouring 12-year-old girl into sex, until it comes to light and turns the village community upside down. In Poland, Pel already found the non-professional actors she wants to work with.
The first test shots look eerily authentic.
Exciting.
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