黑料不打烊

A selection of local and international short films articulated along the theme of identity and otherness. These experimental works, a blend of fiction, animation and documentary, explore different modes of narration, and play on audience alienation and involvement. Bertold Brecht鈥檚 V-Effekt was a determining factor in the evolution of art in the 20th century and drew on the notion of estranging the spectator through atypical and perturbing mechanisms. As opposed to the classical cinema, where the spectator is lulled into an almost dream-like altered state of consciousness, these distancing texts break from the illusion of reality by disrupting the flow of fiction. Characters staring into the camera challenge and address us directly, break open the 鈥渇ourth wall鈥�, that crucial boundary separating the world of fiction (diegesis) from the real world. The audience is then no longer a passive receptor but must participate in the creation of meaning through a genuine dialogue with the work.

If it could be said that all narrative art since Brecht must position itself somewhere between the two extremes of this narrative spectrum, the selection of films at hand focuses on works that explore the more radical end of the continuum. Modulated along a series of sub-themes, these films depict the quest for personal and collective identities; challenge a priori notions of sexuality and gender roles; and reach out to the spectator beyond the fourth wall of the screen. The title of the programme itself is a quotation of Belgian director Chantal Akerman鈥檚 seminal 1975 film 鈥淛e tu il elle鈥�, an avant-garde work on the search of self as well as a striking illustration of the gaze theory and scopophilia in cinema.

Artists: Andrew Kavanagh, Isobel Blank, Umesh Kulkarni, Ayisha Abraham, Eva Vikstr枚m, Brian Comerford and Neoconjob, Humphrey J C Millett, Super Preachers and Karl Orff, Jesse McLean, Robert-Jan Lacombe, Adam Rosenberg, Scott Camac and Nick Flight, Edmund Dixon Jung and Haw Chan Jung, Bill Taylor, Trafalgar, Apiyo Amolo, Jean-Gabriel 笔茅谤颈辞迟, SaintSantana, Michael Truog, and David Varela.