Svengali

Madame Divorce in the 1920s, successful businesswoman in the 1930s. Caroline has always pushed herself beyond the boundaries that patriarchal society had set for her. In the 1980s, her grandson Stéphane leads a similar struggle: as a gay boy in an upper middle-class Swiss family, he seeks to escape the role of the conformist, masculine heterosexual. And as a 13-year-old, he begins recording himself and his surroundings with a video camera. From his extensive biographical image archive, as an adult director Stéphane Riethauser has gained a touching double portrait of himself and his flamboyant grandmother.

Santin A man stands in an empty space, no bigger than a transport container. Grotesque, comic and mesmerizing at the same time, the one-man-parade ends in a close-up of a single light bulb, high on the wall. In what kind of cell is he kept and who is in control of the music?

Where is my Body? This audiovisual remix tries to unveil the dogma intrinsic to the television melodrama and to that mediatic morality where many clichés take a clear form, spreading virally in societies that question little or nothing about the information that the world of entertainment imposes on them. (Collectif Jeune Cinéma)

Saugatucket Sequences shot between 1968 and 1975, re-examined twenty years later. Water is observed in different aspects and from different ways of seeing: From the calmness of a pond to the violence of the Atlantic Ocean hitting the coast.

If I Die, Please Delete ... "In the middle of a sleepless night a variety of digital devices provide comfort and distraction for a restless mind. But does it help?" (CIRCUIT) A faceless figure under the covers contemplates a life in a mediated world as the malaise of accounts, messages and missed connections keeps her awake.

A Screen Test for an Ada... This experimental screen test for an adaptation of the industrial-era ballet Giselle has been reimagined as an ecofeminist thriller. Weaving together digital footage, 16mm, VHS recordings, animation and deep AI, the screen test is a proposal for a hybridised world in a near future where multiple realities push to the surface.

Mariam Jafri vs. Maryam ... Delivered in poker-faced monotone, Maryam Jafri examines ownership in our age of image circulation. Step by step, with humour and persistence, she walks us through the licensing conundrum of her ready-made sculpture that transforms from object-for-sale into artwork-for-sale, photo-for-sale and finally a video-for-sale with superimposed watermarks.

Sou Hami, la crainte de ...

Single Copy An experimental biography of Chung-I, one half of a once-conjoined twin whose separation surgery at age 3 was broadcast live on Taiwanese television. Forty years later, artist Hsu Che-yu produces a digital scan and ceramic cast of the man's body in a playfully analytical take on doubling and copies.

Nol au balcon... Neighbors at first, Emma and Sacha became lovers in the attic room of the house that was divided between their two families. Their relationship led to the birth of a daughter, Paulette. But a few years later, they separated. Paulette lives with her mother and sees her father every second weekend. During the festive season, the divorce agreement requires that Paulette spend Christmas with her father’s family and New Year’s Eve with her mother’s family.