Catalogue International Film Festival Rotterdam 2013 by International Film Festival Rotterdam

Spectrum Shorts

Close Encounters: Peripheral Images and Histories of the Present 2 For an explanation of the content, see the compilation programme Close Encounters: Peripheral Images and Histories of the Present 1. Public SCREENINGS Sat 26-1 19:45 LantarenVenster 6 Sun 27-1 22:00 LantarenVenster 6

Gazing at the Catastrophe

Spectrum Shorts

Night Visitor: The Night of Counting the Years Maha Maamoun Historically, the term ‘Night Visitor’ referred to undercover police investigators who would attack houses and arrest political activists under the darkness of night. On this occasion, the roles are reversed, and the hunted become the hunters. The video uses material that documents the recent Egyptian revolution, shot by the protagonists while storming the state security offices and later posted on the internet. Egypt, 2011 | colour, video, 8 min, no dialogue Prod: Maha Maamoun | Ed: Maha Maamoun | Print/Sales: Maha Maamoun

Ali Cherri

In Gazing at the Catastrophe, Ali Cherri reflects on how suffering has become increasingly integrated into his daily life. Witnessing of atrocities, Cherri argues, seems to be an inevitable condition of modernity. The knowledge of war gained by those who have not experienced it firsthand is informed exclusively by mediated images found on the internet or in the media. Lebanon/France, 2012 | colour, video, 5 min, silent Prod: Imane Farès | Prod Comp: Galery Imane Farès | Sc: Ali Cherri | Cam: Ali Cherri | Ed: Ali Cherri | With: Ali Cherri | Print/Sales: Galery Imane Farès | www.alicherri.com

Home Video No. 1 Gaza (They Accepted the Pleasures of Morning) Basma Alsharif In an attempt to describe everyday life where people are struggling for the most basic human rights, Home Video No. 1 Gaza... introduces us to the Gaza Strip as a microcosm for a decline in civilization, finding perspective in a domesticity that is complicated, derelict, impossible to separate from its politics. WORLD PREMIERE

Crop

Palestine, 2013 | colour, video, 15 min, Arabic

Marouan Omara, Johanna Domke

Crop is an experimental documentary film. By putting images of Egypt’s political leaders into historical perspective, the film reveals how the notion of image ‘framing’ has been utilised by state-controlled media up until the present day. The soundtrack is composed of interviews with writer and media theorist Maria Golia and photographer Yasser Alwan. WORLD PREMIERE

Prod: Basma Alsharif | Sc/Cam/Ed/Prod Des/Sound Des/Music: Basma Alsharif | With: Huda Abdel Shafi, Osama Abu Middain | Print/Sales: Basma Alsharif | www.basmalsharif.com

Time Laughs Back at You Like a Sunken Ship Basim Magdy The film is about our understanding of time, how we construct our memories, and considers how these subtly unfold and fade into each other. This quiet paean exists without narration, and is accompanied by a delicately composed soundtrack by Magdy. EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Egypt/Switzerland, 2012 | colour, DCP, 9 min, no dialogue

Untitled

Prod: Basim Magdy | Sc/Cam/Ed/Prod Des/Sound Des/Music: Basim Magdy | Print/Sales: Basim Magdy | www.basimmagdy.com

Katia Kameli

Cardboard boxes strewn along a pavement are seen to form a peculiar assemblage. From this fragile architecture, a woman emerges and makes a placard that contains no slogan; a wordless piece of cardboard. While raising the placard, the woman is joined by other women. A silent uprising is then set in motion. Can it be considered a revolution?

At Five in the Afternoon Mahmoud Khaled

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

Mahmoud Khaled’s video work is a hushed elegy that explores one man’s struggle to reconcile his own desire and longing for love. Acted out in three spaces consecutively, the video uses the temporal languages of cinema to capture uncertain fear in a personal narrative.

Algeria/France, 2011 | colour, DCP, 3 min, silent

INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

140

42ND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM

141