5th Moscow International Experimental Film Festival MIEFF. International Competition

Program 1 features four films: a video by Laure Prouvost created for the French Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale; Portuguese Pedro Neves Marques’s sensual dystopia depicting polygamy against the backdrop of an epidemic in São Paolo; Rosa Barba’s 35mm journey toward a melting glacier in the Andes; and Rotterdam Festival’s favorite, a short by the Belgian Dorian Jespers filmed in Murmansk.

Program 2 features five films: Heidrun Holzfeind’s lyrical portrait of the Japanese music duo IRO; a bold visual study of images of holes by the artist Jaakko Pallasvuo; a diary film documenting director Miko Revereza’s exile and return; Lei Lei’s deeply intimate animated collage made using Maoist-era found imagery; and the international premiere of a nostalgic landscape shot on film by the Russian artist Alexandra Karelina. The screening will be followed by a public talk with Alexandra Karelina.

Program 3 is composed of five films: a structural movie about the Mediterranean Sea and its ghosts by the Lebanese artist Nour Ouayda; a political research project by Nina Fisher and Maroan el Sani exploring the phenomenon of the Germans’ frightening self-identification with Native Americans; Ukrit Sa-nguanhai’s film tracing a series of mysterious deaths in a small Thai town; Deborah Stratman’s homage to the pioneer of avant-garde queer cinema Barbara Hammer; and a journey along the mythical river Styx by Belarusian artists Darya Golova and Sasha Kulak.

Program 4 features five pictures: Maïder Fortuné and Annie Macdonnell’s elegant performance film about mutual influences and art; wild and absurd animation by the Hong Kong-based Wong Ping; Riar Rizaldi’s ironic essay on the materiality of the digital world; a tender piece shot on film by Jodie Mack; and queer dances straight from the Brazilian Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale by Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca.

Program 5 includes five pictures: artist Ismail Bahri’s poetic cinematic commentary on Tunisian Independence Day; the story of the famous Taiwanese Siamese twins reimagined by Hsu Che-Yu; an impeccable tactile video essay by Antoinette Zwirchmayr; a film by Anya Tsirlina based on Soviet propaganda found footage celebrating equality of the sexes; and Graeme Arnfield’s stroboscopic trip into the future.

Program 6 features five films: an installation film by the Lawrence Aby Hamdan about the Lebanese war trauma; an experimental investigation into the border areas in Southern Armenia by Pejvak; Cyprien Gaillard’s journey through Soviet underground stations; Ana Vaz’s film immersing the viewer into an archive of drawings made by the indigenous peoples of the Brazilian Amazon; and Russian director Kirill Khacaturov’s witty animation piece.