03.
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2023.
Others
Others
Two projects, THE SCHOOL, A WORLD by Iga Łapińska and CLOSE by Hana Umeda, Dorota Sosnowska, are in IDFA competition sections. Congratulations!
Two projects of the Lodz Film School vnLab (Visual Narrative Studio) will be presented to the audience of IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam), one of the world's largest festivals dedicated to documentary cinema.
The 36th edition of the festival will take place in Amsterdam from 8 to 19, November.
THE SCHOOL, A WORLD
Iga Łapińska's interactive observational documentary will be shown in the IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling section, IDFA DocLab: Phenomenal Friction.
About the documentary:
Sławek runs around the fields with a metal detector. Adam breaks the European record with a curved barbell. Marzena is on Facebook in the barn. Only cows go to school now. Where? In Chlebiotki.
Chlebiotki is a village in eastern Poland. Only 60 people live here. On Sunday, they go to church and during the week they follow the usual pattern: half of the village does not talk to the other half. They plant thujas around their houses to isolate themselves from neighbours. In the evening, everyone is on the Internet. And everyone yearns for something.
There is an empty building in the middle of the village. It used to be a school, built as a community common initiative. But there are almost no children left in the village. So Wojtek bought the school building and has been trying to set up a business there for eight years now. So far, with no success.
THE SCHOOL, A WORLD is an interactive documentary based on observation, irritation and love. A separate chapter is devoted to each of the 8 characters. The narrative is conducted by sound - the main tool of immersion. The film's director grew up in Chlebiotki. She came back after 20 years to find traces of the past. She found the whole complete world. That's what this story is about.
More info about the project on:
vnLab website vnlab.org/pracownia-narracji-interaktywnych/szkola-swiat/
IDFA website festival.idfa.nl/en/film
CLOSE
Project CLOSE, dir. Hana Umeda and Dorota Sosnowska will be shown in the competition section of the IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction, IDFA DocLab: Phenomenal Friction.
CLOSE is an attempt to confront the ambiguous position of the contemporary traditional Japanese dance jiutamai. The Japanese dancer functions in the West as a visual object, deprived of subjectivity, locked in orientalizing categories determined not only by the male gaze but also by the white man’s gaze. By creating the effect of intimate closeness and giving the dancer/protagonist a voice through which the intimate confession and trauma of entire generations of women hidden in the dance can be expressed directly, Hana Umeda attempts to regain agency and subjectivity both for herself and for the entire multi-generational community of jiutamai dancers. The jiutamai dance which constitutes a silent confession is both a means of coping with trauma and a gag placed over the mouth; a means of self-expression and repression imposed by a patriarchal society.
More info about the project on:
vnLab website vnlab.org/category/pracownia-vr-ar/blisko/
IDFA website festival.idfa.nl/en/film
still 2 – THE SCHOOL, A WORLD
still 3 - CLOSE
THE SCHOOL, A WORLD
Iga Łapińska's interactive observational documentary will be shown in the IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling section, IDFA DocLab: Phenomenal Friction.
About the documentary:
Sławek runs around the fields with a metal detector. Adam breaks the European record with a curved barbell. Marzena is on Facebook in the barn. Only cows go to school now. Where? In Chlebiotki.
Chlebiotki is a village in eastern Poland. Only 60 people live here. On Sunday, they go to church and during the week they follow the usual pattern: half of the village does not talk to the other half. They plant thujas around their houses to isolate themselves from neighbours. In the evening, everyone is on the Internet. And everyone yearns for something.
There is an empty building in the middle of the village. It used to be a school, built as a community common initiative. But there are almost no children left in the village. So Wojtek bought the school building and has been trying to set up a business there for eight years now. So far, with no success.
THE SCHOOL, A WORLD is an interactive documentary based on observation, irritation and love. A separate chapter is devoted to each of the 8 characters. The narrative is conducted by sound - the main tool of immersion. The film's director grew up in Chlebiotki. She came back after 20 years to find traces of the past. She found the whole complete world. That's what this story is about.
More info about the project on:
vnLab website vnlab.org/pracownia-narracji-interaktywnych/szkola-swiat/
IDFA website festival.idfa.nl/en/film
CLOSE
Project CLOSE, dir. Hana Umeda and Dorota Sosnowska will be shown in the competition section of the IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction, IDFA DocLab: Phenomenal Friction.
CLOSE is an attempt to confront the ambiguous position of the contemporary traditional Japanese dance jiutamai. The Japanese dancer functions in the West as a visual object, deprived of subjectivity, locked in orientalizing categories determined not only by the male gaze but also by the white man’s gaze. By creating the effect of intimate closeness and giving the dancer/protagonist a voice through which the intimate confession and trauma of entire generations of women hidden in the dance can be expressed directly, Hana Umeda attempts to regain agency and subjectivity both for herself and for the entire multi-generational community of jiutamai dancers. The jiutamai dance which constitutes a silent confession is both a means of coping with trauma and a gag placed over the mouth; a means of self-expression and repression imposed by a patriarchal society.
More info about the project on:
vnLab website vnlab.org/category/pracownia-vr-ar/blisko/
IDFA website festival.idfa.nl/en/film
still 2 – THE SCHOOL, A WORLD
still 3 - CLOSE