19
November
3pm
The Gate Cinema, Cork
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aemi @ CIFF: Experimental Shorts 2 ‘Figure Ground Perception’

19 November 2022 / 3pm / The Gate Cinema, Cork
New programme curated by aemi and including the premiere of aemi & Sirius Film Commission 2022 by Frank Sweeney  + Q&A
This is a still from the film '2 Channel Land' (2022) by Frank Sweeney. A person with strawberry blonde hair walks along an empty road that marks the border between two areas in Northern Ireland. The road's surface shifts from one shade of grey to another, clearly indicating the presence of a border line. It is a country lane is flanked by tall green bushes and trees on either side. The camera is positioned behind them, and there is a cloudy, grey-blue sky ahead. They are dressed in a white Stetson hat, sky-blue trousers, and an embellished sky-blue jacket with blue fringe on the sleeves. The jacket features an image of a radio transmitter on the back, surrounded by lightning bolts, a line drawing of the Irish border, clouds, grass, and soil.

Frank Sweeney, 2 Channel Land, 2022, Ireland, 15 mins, aemi/ Sirius Film Commission 2022, image courtesy of the artist

A new programme of contemporary artist film curated by aemi for the 67th annual Cork International Film Festival 

‘Figure Ground Perception’ is a new cinema programme curated by aemi of recent films by artist filmmakers. The programme includes two works by Portuguese-American filmmaker Fern Silva, aemi’s Artist-in-Focus at CIFF, and the premiere of a newly commissioned film by Irish artist Frank Sweeney (aemi & Sirius Film Commission 2022).

In addition, the programme features recent works by international filmmakers Sky Hopinka, Morgan Quaintance, and Christiana Perschon. Collectively these films consider the role of the artist in relation to communities of place.  

Post-screening Q&A with filmmakers Fern Silva and Frank Sweeney

 

Film information 

Christiana Perschon, Sekundenarbeiten, 2021, Austria, 14 minutes
Christiana Perschon presents an extraordinary portrait of a reclusive female artist, Lieselott Beschorner, but also a consideration of the fundamental properties of film. 

Fern Silva, Scales in the Spectrum of Space, 2015, USA, 7 minutes
A glimpse into the collective memory of the city of Chicago at the invitation of the Chicago Film Archive, with music by Phil Cohran. Filmmaker present

Morgan Quaintance, Missing Time, 2019, United Kingdom, 15 minutes
Missing Time is a film that considers the relation between amnesia, concealed histories, state secrecy and the constitution of the self.

Sky Hopinka, Kicking the Clouds, 2021, USA, 16 minutes
A reflection on descendants and ancestors, guided by a 50 year old audio recording of Hopinka’s grandmother learning the Pechanga language from her mother. 

Fern Silva, Ride Like Lightning, Crash Like Thunder, 2017, USA, 9 minutes
A 16mm portrait of a multi-generational artist community, a meditation on landscape, and a swan song for the idyll of rural America. Filmmaker present

Frank Sweeney, 2 Channel Land, 2022, Ireland, 15 minutes
The world premiere of Frank Sweeney’s hybrid docu-fiction which explores the history of analogue radio and television signals spilling across the borders of these islands. aemi/ Sirius Film Commission 2022, Filmmaker present

Total running time 76 mins

 

Logo for the 67th Cork International Film Festival. black text on white background    Logo for Sirius Arts Centre. Black text on a white back ground and a stylised large 'S'


Images:

A black and white historical drawing of a woman in a light dress sitting in the centre of the image. Behind her an older women dressed all in black is about to place a crown on her head. Facing the seating woman, a man is kneeling down and reaching his long arms towards her.

Morgan Quaintance, Missing Time, 2019, United Kingdom, 15 mins, image courtesy of the artist and LUX, London

In the palm of a person with light skin is an extremely detailed red rose created entirely from tiny beads

Sky Hopinka, Kicking the Clouds, 2021, USA, digital, 16 mins, image courtesy of the artist

The hand of a creature with large brown fingers and dark fingernails creeps around the trunk of a tree

Fern Silva, Ride Like Lightning, Crash Like Thunder, USA, 2017, 9 mins, image courtesy of the artist

This is a still from the film '2 Channel Land' (2022) by Frank Sweeney. A person with strawberry blonde hair walks along an empty road that marks the border between two areas in Northern Ireland. The road's surface shifts from one shade of grey to another, clearly indicating the presence of a border line. It is a country lane is flanked by tall green bushes and trees on either side. The camera is positioned behind them, and there is a cloudy, grey-blue sky ahead. They are dressed in a white Stetson hat, sky-blue trousers, and an embellished sky-blue jacket with blue fringe on the sleeves. The jacket features an image of a radio transmitter on the back, surrounded by lightning bolts, a line drawing of the Irish border, clouds, grass, and soil.

Frank Sweeney, 2 Channel Land, 2022, Ireland, 15 mins, aemi/ Sirius Film Commission 2022, image courtesy of the artist

Black and white image of a woman with cropped grey hair and large stylish glasses smiling and sitting amongst life-size sculptural heads in the foreground

Christiana Perschon, Sekundenarbeiten, 2021, Austria, digital 14 mins, image © Christiana Perschon, distribution sixpackfilm

Close up of a man's face at an angle. Yellow light is shining on him from underneath which causes dark shadows around his eyes

Fern Silva, Scales in the Spectrum of Space, 2015, USA, digital, 7 mins, image courtesy of the artist



Supporting and Exhibiting Artists' and Experimental Moving Image in association with LUX, the Irish Film Institute and Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. Supported by the Arts Council.