Streamed from October 7 through October 13
Every year in Pamplona, Spain, the Punto de Vista International Documentary Film Festival of Navarra invites artists and audiences from around the world to discover innovative new nonfiction works through screenings, discussions, retrospectives, competitions, and presentations. Among those featured in 2020 are the distinctive oeuvres of four filmmakers who over the years have built an informal community through cinema. The festival publication Meditations on the Present: Ute Aurand, Helga Fanderl, Jeannette Muñoz and Renate Sami (2020, English/Spanish) portrays this constellation of intergenerational collaborators through their own reflections as well as through essays about their work, their mutual friendships, and influences. Selected here are three films from each artist. With thanks to the artists and Garbiñe Ortega, artistic director.
The accompanying festival publication is available to order through the Gallery Shop.
Leopard + Gläser (Glasses) + Strom (Stream)
Since 1986, Fanderl has made hundreds of Super 8mm films, each a silent document of a place, person, or set of visual elements: “Every single film preserves and reflects the traces of its creation, the sensations and emotions I felt in the moment of filming, shaping images, shaping time, always in correspondence with the subject matter.” She has also exercised a unique practice in the presentation of her work, tailoring her programs to the given space or context.
“I try to find the appropriate pace and rhythm, just turning the camera on and off, never losing contact with the subject and my inner vision. The viewer senses the presence of the filmmaker in the here and now of the filmed situation and can follow all of my decisions. There is always a risk of failure because nothing will be corrected. Yet this concentrated way of capturing the moment, using the camera like painters use a pen for a sketch or a pencil for a drawing or a musician playing his instrument, gives a particular intensity and liveliness to the work.” With Super 8, “viewers see the projector, hear its sound, and become aware of the medium. They enter a rich cosmos of images” (Fanderl). (2012; 2011; 2010, silent, 9 minutes total)