BIFF Shorts: Experimental

Art and language, poetry and prose – hand-drawn, in pixels, and on celluloid. 92 minutes.

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"Applause"

Guilherme Daniel (Dir), 14 minutes, Portugal, New York State Premiere

A message of praise to the President concludes a Party assembly, sparking apotheotic applause.

In the middle of the crowd inquisitive eyes of the State Police look for the slightest sign of dissent, and the ovation does not cease.

A Mailuki Films release.

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"With Love and Sincerity"

Phil Hastings (Dir), 3 minutes, USA, US Premiere

Director Phil Hastings in attendance.

A declaration of self-worth and a proclamation against abusive relationships in whatever form they appear.

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"artifacts of you, artifacts of me"

Brecht De Cock (Dir), 9 minutes, Belgium, New York State Premiere

In a reconstruction of his father's death, the director combines animation, live action and photogrammetry, among other techniques. This intensely personal film deals with the universal topic of loss in a way that shows the power of contemporary artist animation and pushes the medium to its limits.

Accompanied by a haunting soundtrack, composed by Ismaël Iken (Kiche).

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"istén:'a"

KJ Edwards (Dir), 3 minutes, Canada, New York State Premiere

A poetic retelling of a visit from the artist’s mother, istén:'a looks to dream-space as a meeting place for us and our late loved ones who we are always tethered to.

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"Amplifying Feedback Loop"

Vanessa Sweet (Dir), 3 minutes, USA, Buffalo Premiere

Director Vanessa Sweet in attendance.

Unfolding visual poetry loops and transforms, advocating for the need for sustainable futures and community action.

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"The Foundry"

Robert Machoian (Dir), 6 minutes, USA, Western New York Premiere

A cinematic poem with no dialogue, where images of the people working in a Nephi, Utah, foundry convey the multifaceted metaphor of life as a pressure machine.

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"Saha: The Book of Earth Mediums"

Elia Vargas (Dir), 9 minutes, Ghana/USA, World Premiere

Director Elia Vargas in attendance.

An experimental video made in collaboration with Leonard Atawugeh Kubaloe that presents four vignettes exploring alternative formulations of media cultures in northern Ghana, including shea oil light fuel, “Kayayo” women, and juju (Ghanaian magic). The video argues for a nature-cultural lens of media art in northern Ghana, specifically that media art practices occur outside of the sphere of Western and humanist binary conceptions of life practices.

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"Cancer Alley"

Pamela Falkenberg + Jack Cochran (Dirs), 9 minutes, USA, World Premiere

Co-directors Pamela Falkenberg + Jack Cochran in attendance.

A collaboration with renowned poet Lucy English that combines footage shot on location In Cancer Alley with images of nature, especially cypress groves, which are as fragile and as threatened as the Cancer Alley communities. The visuals are accompanied by a poem about what it is like to live in the small towns near the Mississippi River, between East Baton Rouge and New Orleans, which are now dominated by more than 200 chemical plants and oil refineries, sometimes literally located in residents' back yards. The cypress trees can live for more than 1000 years, if they are not chopped down for cypress mulch or their habitat destroyed. Human lifespans are much shorter, but we may not survive as a species unless we stop living as if all that matters is today, and learn to think on the time scale of the trees.

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"Sin título"

Ignacio Tamarit (Dir), 2 minutes, Argentina, US Premiere

Focusing on the theme of Health, this short film is composed of archival images from the Archivo de la Radio Televisión Argentina (RTA), voiceover, and the filmmakers' personal footage in order to achieve a piece that without exposing a message or story in a traditional way, generates a strong contradictory and mobilizing feeling.

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"Bezuna"

Saif Alsaegh (Dir), 8 minutes, USA, New York State Premiere

This short explores the complexities of fleeing a war-zone through the analysis of peripheral details. Through interweaving narratives, the film presents the raw and broken feelings of a child and a cat whose lives will never be the same.

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"Fluid"

Carleen Maur (Dir), 7 minutes, USA, New York State Premiere

A film centered on a body losing another body through a winding pathway of forests two cyclists chance one another. It thinks about the naturalized camouflage alongside ones own agency to not be seen.

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"no regrets"

Emeline Mann Sanchez (Dir), 6 minutes, USA, New York State Premiere

In this award-winning short documentary, visually altered imagery of posterized patches of colors and duotone effects allow the viewer to get a sense of an otherworldliness that the subject in the documentary, an elderly woman with dementia, might have.

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"Che"

Ignacio Tamarit (Dir), 17 seconds, Argentina, US Premiere

Che is an interjection and a popular Argentine expression. It is used to get someone's attention without using their name (che kid! or che, come here!) or to emphasize something (che, how expensive!).

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"The Voice in Isabel Fleiss's Office"

Jim Haverkamp (Dir), 6 minutes, USA, New York State Premiere

A woman with an unusual malady--cobweb buildup in the throat--receives an even more unusual treatment in this adaptation of a surreal poem by North Carolina writer Virgil Renfroe.

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"Cinzas e nuvens / Extended Presences"

Margaux Anne Ali Dauby (Dir), 12 minutes, Belgium/Portugal, New York State Premiere

Following several women in their seasonal work as fire watchers in Portugal, the film comes close to their breathing – to the passing of time and to solitude, from within.

Festivals: Cinéma du Réel

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