IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling
Empire Interactive Kel O’Neill, Eline Jongsma
WORLD PREMIERE
USA, The Netherlands, 2014 cross-platform, color, 80 min Director: Kel O’Neill, Eline Jongsma Cinematography: Kel O’Neill, Eline Jongsma Editing: Kel O’Neill, Eline Jongsma Music: Matthew Dougherty Webdesign: Clint Beharry Web Development: Genevieve Hoffman, Brian Chirls Production: Kel O’Neill & Eline Jongsma for Jongsma + O’Neill Co-Production: Amdoc Executive Production: Simon Kilmurry, Adnaan Wasey Screening Copy: Jongsma + O’Neill Involved TV Channel: PBS Website: www.pbs.org/pov/empire
Kel O’Neill & Eline Jongsma:
The Transformation of Genesis P-Orridge (2008) Empire Installation (cross-platform, 2012)
www.jongsmaoneill.com
A synagogue in the Indonesian hills, a Brazilian rainforest village populated by blond descendants of Dutch immigrants, an isolated “whites only” community of separatist farmers in South Africa: Dutch colonialism has left its traces across the world. Over the course of four years, the makers of Empire Interactive visited 10 countries to document these traces. Notions of what it is to be Dutch, Dutch identity or Dutch heritage have developed in very different ways in these geographical niches than how they have in the Netherlands itself. In this highly dynamic combination of documentary film, multichannel video installations, text and experience design, Empire Interactive presents the full complexity of the Dutch diaspora. The central themes are tackled in four chapters along two or more axes. In Cradle, for example, death and birth are juxtaposed, embodied respectively by an undertaker who handles 2,000 caskets at Schiphol Airport each year and a young Korean child traveling with his Dutch adoptive parents to the country of his birth. Legacy visits Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and South Africa. And the viewer can only leave the chapter on slavery and migration once all the stories have been told. Empire Interactive offers perspective on the long-term effects of colonialism and makes them palpable.
I Know Where Your Cat Lives Owen Mundy
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
USA, 2014 cross-platform, color
Owen Mundy:
Lucent (cross-platform, 2007) Through a Glass Darkly ( 2008) You Never Close Your Eyes Anymore (cross-platform 2010) The Consequence of Scale (crossplatform, 2010)
Director: Owen Mundy Webdesign: Owen Mundy Web Development: Owen Mundy Production: Owen Mundy Screening Copy: Owen Mundy Website: www.iknowwhereyourcatlives.com www.owenmundy.com
Millions of cat lovers from all over the world upload pictures of their fluffy housemates. This data project makes it possible to find out exactly who those cats are. Almost a million feline photos plucked from various public sites have been passed through certain algorithms by a supercomputer. The result is a unique bank of cat data. If while viewing the project you feel the urge to see a surprise new cat, anywhere in the world, simply click on “Random cat.” If you want to know where the most cat photos are taken, just take a look at one of the sets of statistics. If you go searching for cats in your area, don’t be surprised if you lose yourself for an entire Sunday afternoon. But this website wants to be more than just a collection point for adorable cat pics. The project shows just how easily information that has been placed online can be collected and used by publicly accessible databanks. Rather than indicating how many cats live in the Netherlands, “Cats by country” shows how many cat photos have been uploaded (in the case of the Netherlands, that’s 10,468). This is why the makers themselves say that “the maps are perhaps a better representation of globalism, access to smart phones, and relaxed consideration for individual privacy.” At the time of writing, the number of cat photos uploaded from Syria was 80.
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