skakmat

When Sam invites their closeted crush Vince to Jennifer’s apartment, the night quickly unravels into debauched hostility. Vince’s simmering rage causes rifts within the fragile safety of Jennifer’s home.

Australia is considered a dream destination for many in Israel, despite Australia’s vast distance away. Filmed six months after the October 7th attacks, nine Israeli-Australians reflect on the home they left behind, and what has been lost and gained, offering diverse perspectives and sharing stories, which are different and yet strikingly similar.

Lilith is disturbed by her brother’s request that she defend him in court against the accusation of sexual assault made against him by one of his ex-partners. At a family dinner, Lilith is anything but reassured by her brother’s behaviour.

Fanny is a bookseller by day and a soft-hearted person the rest of the time. She is in love with her friend Louise, and to repress the sadness of this impossible love, she has a series of one-night stands with uninteresting men. One evening, at a literary gathering she’s hosting, she invites Louise to come along. Fanny may be about to have a bingo.

Following her parents’ divorce, a young girl and her mom are evicted from their home and forced to navigate their new life in a motel.

When a besotted groom is at the altar about to marry the lobe of his life, he then discovers his bride’s and her family’s eccentric traditions to his own discomposure.

When an influencer finds her content manipulated without her consent by A.I., she has to face the dire consequences, all because she did not read the terms of service.

A profoundly moving documentary that delves into the depths of grief and the relentless pursuit of inner peace. The film offers a raw and intimate look into the life of Christi Bundukamara, following her through 45 days of her grief journey – a significant and recurring number in her life.

The growth and struggles of Akari, a third-generation Korean born the year of the Great Hanshin Earthquake. A post-disaster story based on people living in Kobe.

Guided by strangers, a woman searches for her mother in an ancient Mediterranean town.

“Happy ending” is part of the ongoing project “Glossolalia”, which proposes the construction of a shared place through the subversion of the road-movies’ individualistic tradition. Taking as a motto a fiction about a couple who finds an idea of home in their car trips, the video explores a place of duration within the non-representable space beyond the resolution of a happy ending (a convention that marks the end of the dramatic interest of a story). Through repetition and loop, it plays with the archetype of the tunnel (space of passage and transformation), remaining in an intermediate state, between escapism and ecstasy, light and darkness, speed and continuity. Unforeseen elements such as reflections and optical effects, radio sounds and interferences, laughter and breathing, become symbols of being on a journey, where directions are influenced by improvisation and attention is tuned, permeable to the elastic time of a shared experience.

First 2 minutes of the film: Black board with white title. A short control signal of 440 hz of square wave is heard. A blue screen with a slight grain appears. After a few seconds the first drum beat can be heard. The sound is abrupt but transient of a bass drum is more of 808 (even 606) than 909. At the same time, the colour changes tracing the volume. There is a sudden jump to red and a return to blue passing through different hues of both colours. Beat continues. The rhythm is irregular, its intervals resembling a Geiger counter reading, contradicting the intentions of whoever programmed it[…]

An homage to Stan Brakhage’s “Mothlight” (1963) and cybernetic computer art, made with errors produced by deliberately breaking contemporary ‘generative AI’ video tools.

One two three four.

“Entre tu ojo y el mío” is a film made during the years 2023-24 from the obsession with confusing my father’s face with that of his pet, Theo. For a while I was observing the relationship that both had, coming to think that the distance between one animal and the other was not so great.

Caraqueña & nomad by nature, Maria has lived and worked in 9 cities in the last 20 years. Artist & organizer she merges creative expression, critical thought and self ♫ proposing participatory, collaborative/experimental experiences that incorporate performance video/sound.

Midsummer is a cyanotype, sun-printed film. The film was conceived during Juhannus, the celebration of the longest day of the year in Finland, when the sun doesn’t set for 24 hours. The light of the sun is both material and collaborator in creating this film-poem.

What if the rock could be a lens? And if it’s not a question of if, but when? Braided Sand engages the geologic materiality of imaging and communication technologies. There is no lens without sand, which itself is the result of millions of years of geologic activity. Filmed at a sand mine, a glass factory, and a nanotech laboratory, the film moves between observation and abstraction, juxtaposing human and geologic timescales, plunging the viewer into churning industrial environments to lay bare the weighty earthly bases of seemingly invisible and immaterial infrastructures.

Slideshow reveals moments in time in the lives of strangers. Strangers to me, but maybe not to each other. Found in a Berlin flea market in the 1990’s, these slides originated in the DDR (East Germany):an embossed DDR decorates the top of many of the vivid plastic slide frames. The slides’ photographic images were made of ephemeral materials. As objects, they have a certain graphic power, especially when illuminated on a light table. Scattered among the boxed-up slides were also a few educational slides highlighting working sites. Additionally, there seem to be a few commercially produced images of soldiers, the border—these were in cardboard slide frames and may have been produced by West German companies. Time and place are suggested—sometime before 1989, when the wall came down. Working with the slides, I came to feel that I knew some of the people. Many emerged across multiple slides. But I can only know their traces.

This film is a tribute to the influential artist and mentor, William Pope.L, following his passing on December 23, 2023. The narrative begins with a timelapse of a spathiphyllum plant, named WILLIAMBABE, purchased on the day of his death, symbolizing the quiet persistence of life and memory. The film transitions into a space shaped by two of Pope.L’s works, Cliff (2012) and Better (2013), evoking a haunting yet reflective atmosphere. Central to the film is the use of hand-drawn lettering, meticulously created in a darkroom. This process, a ritual of sorts, involves inscribing Pope.L’s words directly onto unexposed film strips, which are then used in the Bolex camera for shooting. This act of embedding his words within the very medium of the film transforms the project into a vessel for his essence. The film invites viewers to reflect on how an artist’s spirit lingers in the spaces and lives they’ve touched, creating a lasting imprint.

Inspired by a Bill Viola essay which relates three different kinds of ‘video black’ to closing one’s eyes, sleeping, and dying, this work thinks those states of darkness through rapidly failing and increasingly unsupported electronic equipment. Briefly remembered fantasy images, soft crackles of chromatic snow, and explosions of violent feedback form a death dream of analog video.

The shape of light that seeps through the trees and the texture of the sand that passes through them.

A film where an alley acts as a calendar, charting the progression of a year. Mixed into the linearity is a rolodex of the everyday in no particular order.

The film weaves “Poem for Three Voices” by Bhanu Kapil and dropped frames of a VHS tape of “New York: A Documentary Film” by Ric Burns to comment on the tape’s decaying state and somatic experience of living in New York.

This video was shot while digitizing an analogue film. As sunlight passed through the reel, reflections danced across the table. Video effects transform light into shapes and audio into soundscape.

An explorer from the past (or present) arrives in the Galapagos Islands for the first time to have a tactile encounter with rocks and tortoises. In the darkness of the volcanic tunnels the beasts transfigure freely. Giant tortoises hold the mystery of the universe in the scars on their backs, and to their misfortune they are also a coveted food for hungry sailors who prowl the Pacific Ocean aimlessly.

When ten-year-old Wei discovers a lost and vulnerable lizard in his school toilet sink, he hides it in his locker to protect it from his boisterous classmates and the mysterious janitor, Uncle Willy. In his new lizard friend, who he names Giri, Wei discovers a newfound sense of comfort and companionship that had eluded him before, and it propels him to question the substance of his current friendships.

bombs like fireworks, the artifice of televised war in a soft, black sky, perforations of light in the film’s velvet for any serious reflection the sidereal CONSIDER in memory of the fallen in Gaza, the stars.

The sounds of construction pervade Singapore’s neighbourhoods. One afternoon, a man wakes up to his fiancee starting to smoke again. Their conversation about it delves into a general unhappiness over their wedding photography, when a moment of her silliness becomes a moment of judgment by him. Talking about photography in general, the two of them come to terms with the nature of their relationship. They decide to call off their engagement. Months later, she makes their bed and sits alone.

Alex investigates the sudden, quiet death of Aunt Mimi, a migrant worker. Through family voice messages and interviews with neighbors, the film uncovers Mimi’s life, her struggles, and the events leading to her death. Empty spaces once filled by her hint at a life cut short. These images serve as an ode to her and to the migrant workers that have lost their lives in this City of Gold.

Paris, a city known for its love and light is now one of numbness and despair for Dian, an Indonesian woman who has been struck down by the death of her child. She is not alone, yet, her displacement is now more evident than ever. In the midst of her banal grieving, Dian goes through a contemplation of the spiritual—one that becomes a grounding factor in kickstarting her journey in facing her human heartache.

Almost every pet owner must cope with the loss of their beloved animal companions. Healing from pet loss grief can be an overwhelming and isolating experience. Unfortunately, despite the emotional toll of this, it is often poorly understood, and many may be dismissive of it. “Beyond the Rainbow Bridge” is a 16-minute documentary that explores the journey of pet loss grief through the personal stories of several pet owners.

A jaded, young slacker remorselessly steps on a snail in the street. Unbeknownstto him, karma has a transformative punishmentin store.

The Weaponization of Menstruation. When a girl feels her first period coming, she armours up ready to fight it in hopes of avoiding the arrival altogether.

Chi-Lun, 27 years-old, loves trains. He is on the autistic spectrum. Studying maps and videos of transport systems in operation, he is well-versed in the transport routes of Taiwan. He, his sister and father are making plans for a train trip to Hualien after the easing of the pandemic. With a set destination in mind, he has to try to convince them. During the trip, his expressions are as fleeting as the view outside of the train window.

A cow appears in the dormitory, leaving the migrant workers confused. Amidst the events, Murthi, their lorry driver, discovers an uncanny connection between the cow and his best friend, Murugan.

“Sad Birds Still Fly” is a documentary exploring the beauty and challenges of local and migratory birds in Singapore, impacted by urbanisation. Presented as a radio podcast with bird calls and ambient sounds, it immerses viewers in the habitats these birds call home. Featuring insights from bird photographers, ecological experts, and ornithologists, the film highlights critical issues like bird collisions, deforestation, and extinction threats. Ultimately, it delivers a message of hope for protecting and coexisting with nature and wildlife.

“Homecoming” is an intimate short film about Jie, a woman returning home to Singapore for her younger sister’s wedding. Through a voicemail she leaves on the night of her arrival, we uncover the bittersweetness of this occasion: Jie, the eldest daughter, longs to support her sister, but must do so whilst confronting her fraught relationship with her estranged mother.

“Butoh,” literally “dance of darkness,” is an avant-garde form of dance from Japan that few know about, and even fewer practice. As its only practitioner in Singapore, Xue tells us how she fell in love with this obscure, yet liberating, art form.

The Creatures of Yes first feature length film, COME ON BACK! The Movie. It is the culmination of a storyline that has been years in the making; a beloved character was put to death by the censors of film and television for living openly as a homosexual in 1975, and now the inhabitants of The Village of Yesterday’s Promise are attempting to bring him back with science, sorcery, or by any means necessary.

Struggling with the news of his son’s interfaith engagement, a religious father seeks solace in his estranged brother.

Itay and Bar are in an open relationship. One day, Itay comes home and sees bar sleeping with who is supposed to be their surrogate. Itay is jealous, and tests how much he himself can resemble the woman Bar wants.

Distraught from his recent breakup, Ram storms out of therapy after confronting his therapist Rinat’s perceived ineffectiveness. However, an unexpected terror attack nearby forces Ram back. Amidst the city’s lockdown, the two realize they’re going to spend the next hours together, creating conflict between Ram, who is stuck with the woman he feels bears the responsibility of keeping him sane, and Rinat, who faces the challenge of maintaining her professional facade.

A Haredi woman’s visit to a Tel Aviv adult store sparks an unexpected journey of self-discovery, where she challenges social norms, embraces her desires, and transforms into a confident, self-accepting individual.

Jaxon Moore’s struggling arcade bar faces a financial crisis and potential shutdown this holiday season. When his estranged sister Tina, once a rising singer, dies in a car accident, Jaxon is contacted to take legal guardianship of her daughter, Harmony, or she’ll enter foster care. Tina left a trust fund for Harmony, accessible by her guardian. Seeing a lifeline for his business, Jaxon steps up to care for Harmony, but her estranged father reappears, seeking custody to claim the money for his music career. Harmony, however, only longs for her mother and the holiday traditions they shared, especially their love for singing together.

After a personal tragedy, a father and son stay at a secluded cabin during a hunting trip when they discover a mysterious set of rules and are forced to face their fears and attempt to survive.

Nicholas and Hazimah are athletes in Singapore with special needs. Nicholas was born with Autism, while Hazimah has Global Developmental Delay (GDD). Competing at the highest level, both Nicholas and Hazimah qualified for the Special Olympics in 2023. The competition was both a test of mental and physical strength, not just for them, but for their mothers as well. Here are their stories.

Is a parent’s love truly unconditional? Joy and Jordon are the youngest of five siblings, and the only two left living with their aged parents. In between family meals and confessionals, we discover the four perspectives of living in a multigenerational household. With topics such as generational trauma, parental expectations, and familial sacrifices, we unveil a tale of love and neglect within the Gan Family.

After returning from her studies in the US, Shannon reconnects with her friend Casandra. They meet at Shannon’s home and soon find themselves scrolling through job portals together, only to grow increasingly disillusioned with the job market. As they navigate the challenges of reuniting after a long time apart, their shared concerns about their careers and futures bring them closer, rekindling their bond.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where fossil fuels have run out, humans must run on treadmills to generate electricity and hit mandatory output targets. An 18-year-old girl who often struggles to hit her output targets meets a disillusioned 30-year-old man, who wants to escape this life. Through their journey, she begins to wonder about the meaning of being alive.

After returning from her studies in the US, Shannon reconnects with her friend Casandra. They meet at Shannon’s home and soon find themselves scrolling through job portals together, only to grow increasingly disillusioned with the job market. As they navigate the challenges of reuniting after a long time apart, their shared concerns about their careers and futures bring them closer, rekindling their bond.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where fossil fuels have run out, humans must run on treadmills to generate electricity and hit mandatory output targets. An 18-year-old girl who often struggles to hit her output targets meets a disillusioned 30-year-old man, who wants to escape this life. Through their journey, she begins to wonder about the meaning of being alive.

What stands behind the Black Square, painted in 1915 by the obsessive artist Kazymyr Malevych? For his competitors, a fraud, for the Soviet regime, a secret code, for one woman, a love letter, for the people of Ukraine – a prophecy…