Paradocs
Empire
Eline Jongsma, Kel O’Neill WORLD PREMIERE
The Netherlands, 2012 installatie, color
Eline Jongsma:
Director: Eline Jongsma, Kel O’Neill Photography: Eline Jongsma, Kel O’Neill Editing: Eline Jongsma, Kel O’Neill Sound: Eline Jongsma, Kel O’Neill Production: Eline Jongsma, Kel O’Neill Screening Copy: Kel O’Neill Website: www.empireproject.eu
directing debut
directing debut
Kel O’Neill:
Has colonization brought only misery? Were there consequences that nobody could have predicted? With these questions in mind, the Dutch-American filmmaking duo of Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill traveled to seven former Dutch colonies. In 2010 and 2011, they visited four former Dutch East India Company colonies: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and South Africa. And in 2012, they added three Dutch West India Company colonies to that list: Brazil, Suriname and Ghana. In the resulting video installation Empire, one person from each of the three countries has his or her say, and each of them has a different take on the colonial era. Photographer Isaac Vanderpuije comes from a privileged family who made good money trading Ghanaian slaves. James Libretto is a descendant of the slaves, and he’s still digging for gold in Suriname. Rayanne Reinholz’s ancestors immigrated to Brazil when slavery was abolished. They were among the many low-paid guest workers from the homeland who had to take over the heavy work. However different their backgrounds may be, all three of them share a need to give colonial history a place in their lives. Jongma and O’Neill underline this by projecting them next to each other on three screens.
Enraged Pigs
Porcos Raivosos Isabel Penoni, Leonardo Sette
Brazil, 2011 DCP, color, 10 min
Isabel Penoni:
Director: Isabel Penoni, Leonardo Sette Photography: Leonardo Sette Screenplay: Isabel Penoni, Leonardo Sette Editing: Leonardo Sette Sound: Leonardo Sette Music: Kuikuro culture Production: Lucinda Filmes Executive Production: Carlos Fausto, Takuma~ Kuikuro World Sales: FiGa Films, LLC Screening Copy: FiGa Films, LLC
Ocidente (fiction, 2008) Confessionário (fiction, 2009) The Hyperwomen (2011)
directing debut
Leonardo Sette:
In a hut, women of different generations are enacting a story. They all have jet-black hair and the same bangs, and their foreheads are painted red. A boy comes in and says he’s just seen the men transformed into raging pigs. Now the women have to discuss what action to take. It is not exactly clear where this is all happening, probably somewhere in the rainforests of the Brazilian Amazon. It doesn’t really matter. The camera is allowed to record the spectacle, but it is largely ignored, and there is no other audience. The hut is a majestic dome around 12 feet high, about a quarter of which consists of an open framework. The women sing and clap, deliberately and repetitively. It could just as easily be the reenactment of a myth as modern criticism of awful men. The harmonic singing, the unassuming pleasure, the routine but never tiresome choreography and the selfconfidence of these women force the viewer to stop asking questions and simply watch.
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