How did ancient people live? What was their everyday life like, and what emotions did they have? These questions often become the subject of historical and archaeological research. But even people who are far from science get nostalgic and travel back in time, remembering important moments of their life or childhood. Directors featured in this program search for their place in the constantly changing and fleeting time.
Sol de Campinas
Shot on 16mm film, Jessica Sarah Rinland’s Sol de Campinas traces the work of archaeologists who, for the past ten years, have been excavating a ring of mounds surrounding a central plaza within a territory currently known as the State of Acre, Brazil. They transition from field to laboratory, interpreting how the land was constructed, what patterns were employed in settlement land use, and the composition of the anthropogenic earth that remains. Personal ties between the scientists, as well as their hands and tools, emphasize the tactile and empathic dimension of working with history.
The film will be screened in Portuguese with Russian and English subtitles.
Dir. Jessica Sarah Rinland
Brazil, 2021. 26 min. 18+
Green Thoughts
Somewhere in the world, there is a remote island. In a lodge by the sea, a Chinese writer immersing herself in reading and writing encounters a Japanese girl who is in a melancholic mood. What has actually happened and what the two girls are feeling, imagining, or remembering starts to overlap. Green Thoughts is a film about encounters and farewell, as well as about loss, absence, and remembrance of some fleeting moments falling and fading. It brings to the fore its female characters’ subjectivity and invites the viewer to meditate upon the loss of a past.
The film will be screened in English, Japanese, French, and Chinese with Russian and English subtitles.
Dir. William Hong-xiao Wei
UK, China. 2020. 28 min. 18+
Failed Emptiness. Time
“Suddenly there is an enormous amount of time. At first everything is possible. Anything might happen. Gradually the possible becomes impossible…”. Poet Harry Salmenniemi wrote a text for this film before the COVID-19 pandemic. Like everything that we now observe with surprise in a new light, these lines seem prophetic today. Using them and the music of composer Éliane Radigue, director Mika Taanila conducts a radical minimalist experience to study the changing nature of time and its perception influenced by technological progress and global upheaval.
The film will be screened in English with Russian subtitles.
Dir. Mika Taanila
Finland, 2021. 14 min. 18+
80,000 Years Old
It’s summer in Normandy. Céline works on an archeological site and takes the opportunity to spend a weekend in her childhood village that she has not seen for a long time. Her archaeological research mingles with more or less probable reunions during her walks. This playful split-screen film portrays subtle movements in the soul of the heroine, who is full of unrealized desires and doubts about the past.
The film will be screened in French with Russian and English subtitles.
Dir. Christelle Lheureux
France, 2021. 28 min. 18+