WHO IS HAORAN?
in competition at the 59th Locarno International Film Festival

WHO IS HAORAN? by Yishu Yang – China – 2006 – 72 min
Production: FanHall Studio WORLD PREMIERE – FIRST FEATURE

A documentary about illegal wrestling matches in China. The bouts are organized on a daily basis in practically every provincial city in the huge country. The young wrestlers are angry, violent and always ready for a fight, in a rebellion against society which however leads nowhere. Despite the title, it is unimportant who HaoRan is, or whether he appears in the film. HaoRan is a metaphor which demonstrates the fragility of the world created for themselves by the wrestlers, and the vacuity of their violence.

I mentioned Fanhall Studio, founded by Zhu Rikun, curator of our forthcoming presentation of independent Chinese documentaries, already as a major instance for the independent chinese cinema here.
An interview with Zhu Rikun, conducted by Marina Foxley, can be found in our Directors talk (also en français)
In march Dream Walking (Meng You)by Huang Wenhai, another production by Fanhall Studio received the Great Prize of the festival "Cinema du Reel" held in Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Here´s wishing for a similiar result in Locarno :)
merci Marina

related: Fanhall Studio and Dream Walking

tonight´s the night

Directors Lounge presents: a summer evening with Tobias Schmuecking

still taken from Auermuehle, 2003, Super-8 / 16mm, 6 Min

No better way to spend a hot Berlin night than to see great films about pools and diving girls. Join us tonight for a summer evening at Z Bar in presence of the artist.

july 20th 9pm
Z Bar Bergstr. 2 10115 Berlin, open from 8pm on

Gamers Todd Deutsch

Gaming is an overwhelmingly male subculture dominated by tech savvy brashness and role-playing games known as first-person shooters. Avid players take over empty storefronts and set up temporary computer networks for 2 days of nonstop video combat. The events are called LAN parties and resemble a cross between the rebellious bravado of a biker rally and the adolescent nerdiness of Boy Scout camp. Gamers often exist on contradictory fringes of mainstream culture. Their association with violent games brands them as time bombs dangerously close to becoming sociopaths, while their image as computer geeks and loners depicts them as sympathetic and endearing underdogs.
Todd Deutsch

Gamers by Todd Deutsch
via

Directors Lounge presents:a summer evening with Tobias Schmuecking

july 20th 9pm at Z Bar Tobias Schmuecking will be present

still taken from Ein Zeitraum im September, 2004, Super-8 / DV, 28 mins

It is the significant atmosphere of that place, that makes wonder. The place seems to have its own distinct time, which is independent of the (main) characters - or, to be more precise, the place actually seems to be the main character, encapsulating the protagonist (or viewer) in its diegesis.
Tobias Schmuecking tells stories by using images. He creates specific time-spaces with his subjects that contain their own dynamics, different from linearity or cyclic repetitions, across the timeline we are used to experience. Space, place and encounters do not appear alien to us, but seem to be rather familiar from previous occasions, back then in dream time, or in a different film.
These everyday places, such as a caravan on a hill or a public pool, stay in my memory, like those places of my own blissful experiences.
Klaus W. Eisenlohr




still taken from Auermuehle, 2003, Super-8 / 16mm, 6 Min

Z Bar Bergstr. 2 10115 Berlin, open from 8pm on

Space Invaders humanized



Guillaume Reymond took 67 pixels, ehmm people, to realize a short stopmotion movie of space invaders, the human version
see the video here or, smaller, here (QT)(sometimes down)
via

Tobias Schalken





more here and here

The slow inevitable death of american muscle


by Jonathan Schipper. Two cars are slowly crashed into one another of the course of a month. The movement is so slow as to be invisible.(These are models for a full sized piece yet to be constructed.)
vvia