Be-Mag 3: Under Wraps

Women Who Made the Movie... Examines the careers of women who made a lasting contribution to film history as directors: Alice Guy Blaché, who in 1896 directed what is arguably the first plot-driven film; Ida Lupino, who also had a long career as an actor; Ruth Ann Baldwin, who directed numerous early westerns; Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's film propagandist; as well as Dorothy Davenport Reid, Lois Weber, Kathlyn Williams, Germaine Dulac, Cleo Madison and many more. Film clips, stills, and other archival materials bring their work to life.

Fishing for Atlantic Her... The fishing boat S. S. Langevaag sets out to the rich fishing grounds outside Aalesund on the West coast of Norway. The nets are set and pulled with a catch of about 250 000 Atlantic herrings. Everything is done by hand and very demanding. The herrings are shaken from the nets and taken ashore in baskets. Most are salted in barrels, while some are packaged in crates with ice. At the end of the film, we can see a panoramic view of Aalesund and its surroundings from the mountains above the city.

Dallas is a Fire Dallas is a Fire works with an archive of local Dallas news from the year 1970. The loop of anti-Blackness circles and circles through the film, looking at the ways that history repeats itself through words, gestures, and actions.

Graf Dracula Junior In 1981, Jean Van Halsing has been studying the legend of the Prince of Darkness, Count Dracula, for five years. As chance would have it, this legendary figure ends up in his neighborhood of all places and instigates a lot of trouble full of bites and throat bites. Over the next years they will meet again and again without finding a solution for each other or even for themselves. Will the nasty cycle ever come to an end?

Sent to Lie Three films reflecting upon the way in which image and speech control relate to one another. Dallas is a Fire exposes the racist speech in the archives of the Dallas TV in 1970. Sent to Lie investigates the surveillance methods applied to the Qom indigenous community with the argument of preventing COVID-19. In Non-Stop, there’s an attempt to build over history and beyond the inaccessible images

Seasick Mal di mare is a gasp of air, a shout sung in waves moving through a body nauseated by the confrontation with the violence of the ever swirling world. This improvised singing tries to break the invisible glass that separates the gaze and the realities of those who can observe from afar and those who are observed, but who are mostly prevented from returning such gaze. Who/what’s missing in the room? The film was shot during the 2019 Venice Biennale and built around a performing action carried out by the filmmaker himself in the exhibition space.

Kits Beach Soundwalk “About ten years ago I produced and hosted a program on Vancouver Co-operative Radio called Soundwalking, in which I took the listener to different locations in and around the city and explored them acoustically. Kits Beach Soundwalk is a compositional extension of this original idea. The recording on which this piece is based was made on a calm winter morning, when the quiet lapping of the water and the tiny sounds of barnacles feeding were audible before an acoustic backdrop of the throbbing city. We explore the world of high frequencies, inner space and dreams.”

Listening Vancouver composer and sound ecologist Hildegard Westerkamp was the only woman to participate in the original version of the World Soundscape project that not only brought new ears to city life, but laid the foundation for noise bylaws/pollution standards, radically upending traditional notions of music and the role of the composer. Hildegard has brought the art of sound walking to groups around the world, and she has formulated a deep feminist ecology rooted in the body. The film offers a place for the viewer to listen, the necessary precondition for personal and societal change.

Luz Oferenda "LUZ OFERENDA (OFFERING LIGHT) is a quantum leap towards the future where sound and images are interconnected. Cutting-edge 3D computer animation fuses with dramatic music to create a journey that defies the imagination. A small whisper beckons you to return home, to the present, where the only true reality exists to offer your light. Acclaimed computer animator Beny Tchaicovsky's surrealistic, fantastical images."

Tug Two lovers sitting on a now deteriorating edifice, which by day looks like a pockmark in the middle of a park bustling with construction work. But it’s night-time and the lovers are quiet and too exhausted to look back, or ahead. The dust of the day hasn’t settled yet but the present already feels as elusive as memory.