Sixth Split International Festival of New Film
Split that picturesque Croatian city on the Dalmatian coast is known for its cross-over tradition of art, architecture, and avant-garde. Back in Tito’s Yugoslav days, from 1977 to 1987, the Split Festival of Alternative Film championed experimental cinema at a time when such was considered risky, to say the least, in other socialist countries. Later, in 1996, five years after Croatia had declared independence, the First International Festival of New Film and Video was launched under the guiding hand of Branko Karabatic, an avant-garde filmmaker turned festival director. Today, for the Sixth Split International Festival of New Film (22 - 29 September 2001), Karabatic now supervises an all-media event (»video« was dropped from the festival title in 1998) that avidly embraces film, video & new media with individual juries judging entries in the three sections. In addition, retrospectives honored Hungary’s Bela Tarr, Denmark’s Lars von Trier, and Dutch media artist Peter Bogers. And Chris Marker received the festival’s Special Award.
Programmed in four cinema venues, in the environs of the Multimedia Cultural Centre, and at the Split Art Academy in Gripe Fortress (a former army post) the three-prong showcase was supported by an avid public of cineastes and art students who wouldn’t have it any other way than it already is. For Branko Karabatic possesses a natural talent for the »chaotic order« required to conduct a demanding event that stretches the staff’s visionary capabilities to the limits: live performances, labyrinth installations, internet projects, retrospectives »avant-garde-pure,« as one visiting artist put it. Moveover, you can’t fault a film-video-media festival that fits so snugly into the pockets of its host city and if you happen to tire of the rigors of new media, there’s always respite to be found browsing through the magnificent Diocletian Palace and the archaeological digs at nearby Salona.
The Grand Prix for Best Film was awarded to Andrius Stonys’s Viene (Alone) (Lithuania). A 16-minute sketch of a young girl’s silence while on her way to visit her mother in prison, Alone deftly captures her feeling of loneliness and mood of anticipation. A special mention went to Bea de Visser’s illuminating The Barren Land (Netherlands), an 8-minute monologue that neatly anchors images of man and nature to their primal sources much as found in the poetry of T.S. Eliot. Special film awards were also given to Matt Hulse’s experimental short film Hotel Central (UK), a dream-like excursion into conscious psychic automation, and Jean-Luc Godard’s feature film Éloge de l’amour (Eulogy of Love) (France), in which he narrates a love story »counter-chronologically« (that is, the end is at the beginning and the beginning at the end) that profiles three couples of different ages (young, adult, and old). The Grand Prix for Best Video was awarded to James Leech’s Instrumental (UK), a 6-minute Beta portrait of the feelings of a young boy who, on a stormy night, is surprised by the return of his absent father. Special Awards were given to Fabio Fiandrini and Ennio Ruffolo’s Quarto (Italy), a 4-minute-Beta romp through visual experiences that are likely to occur four seconds after death, and Junko Wada’s Body Drop Asphalt (Japan), a 96-minute-DV visual exploration of the woman director’s own body via personal experiences and avant-garde images on the topic of love. The Grand Pix for Best New Media was awarded to Mouchette (Netherlands), an internet project. Noted simply in the catalogue as »the website of a 13-year-old artist living in Amsterdam« thus an unnamed artist, though probably not a teenager the immediate reference is to Robert Bresson’s Mouchette (France, 1967), his screen adaptation of the Georges Bernanos novel about a friendless 14-year-old girl. In any case, internet surfers can make up their own minds by views the project at leisure. A Special Award was given to Cesare Davolio’s Annunciation (Netherlands), a CD Rom that pinpoints the date of 14 March 1978, when Italian politician Aldo Moro was kidnapped by the Red Brigades, and then moves through 54 days of negotiation and waiting until the tragic end.
Ronald Holloway