aemi @ CIFF: Experimental Shorts 1 ‘Súitú’

17 November 2022 / 6pm / The Gate Cinema, Cork
World premiere cinema event of aemi’s 2023 Tour + post-screening Q&A with the filmmakers

The world premiere of aemi’s 2023 Tour ‘Súitú’ receives its theatrical debut at the 67th Cork International Film Festival

‘Súitú’ – an Irish language term pronounced Suet-two – is the sucking in-and-out sound of stones on the shoreline at night, often heard in springtime when large waves pull pebbles and then roll them back in. Evoking the elemental, the programme’s pacing picks up not just on the familiar ebb and flow of the sea, but also the rhythmic actions that circumscribe contemporary lived experience. From inner psychological journeys to the phenomenological, the seven films in this programme together offer an emotional, embodied and deeply sensory experience. 
Curated by aemi,‘Súitú’ brings together some of the most affecting moving image works by Irish and international artist filmmakers we encountered over the past year. The programme features films by Fábio Andrade (Brazil), Susan Hughes (Northern Ireland), Morgan Quaintance (UK), Bárbara Lago (Argentina), Sofia Theodore-Pierce (USA), Lisa Freeman (Ireland) and Holly Márie Parnell (Ireland). We’re proud that ‘Súitú’ is programmed within Parallax, CIFF’s established festival strand that gives prominent focus to the importance of artists’ films and experimental work.
Post-screening Q&A with filmmakers Lisa Freeman, Susan Hughes, Holly Márie Parnell and Sofia Theodore-Pierce

Film information
Fábio Andrade, Contorno/ Contour, 2021, Brazil, digital, 10 minutes
Susan Hughes, Eyes Like Cats, 2022, Northern Ireland, digital, subtitled, 3 minutes
Morgan Quaintance, A Human Certainty, 2021, United Kingdom, 16mm transferred to digital, 20 minutes
Bárbara Lago, Yon, 2021, Argentina, digital, subtitled, 8 minutes
Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Other Tidal Effects, 2021, USA, 16mm transferred to digital, 7 minutes
Lisa Freeman, Hook, Spill, Cry Your Eyes Out, 2020, Ireland, digital, 3 minutes
Holly Márie Parnell, Cabbage, 2023, Ireland, digital, 28 minutes
Running time: 80 minutes

Fábio Andrade, Contorno/ Contour
“Open the leaves I will see my body turned into flower.” – Gabriel Joaquim dos Santos


Susan Hughes,
Eyes Like Cats
After an encounter with bioluminescent phosphorescence, a line of enquiry begins into how humans have made sense of mysterious natural occurrences throughout history
Filmmaker present

Morgan Quaintance, A Human Certainty
The inevitability of separation, loss and death are explored through an introspectively written monologue and a selection of stills, moving images and written text.

Bárbara Lago, Yon
Using archive material from their childhood, Bárbara Lago re-programmes their childhood’s mythology and reflects on their body traversed by affections, fictions and the passing of time.

Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Other Tidal Effects
Catamenial seizures, tidal correspondences, a sonic EEG, and a lullaby in partial translation. Highlighting the seams with the darts. An exploration of epileptic rhythms and sensations through moving image practice.
“And there are other tidal effects, mysterious and intangible.” – Rachel Carson, The Edge of the Sea
Filmmaker present

Lisa Freeman, Hook, Spill, Cry Your Eyes Out
The work touches on things that are inflated: bills, lungs, bellies, airbags, egos.
Filmmaker present

Holly Márie Parnell, Cabbage
An intimate film made in collaboration with Parnell’s family, Cabbage looks at the complexities of bodily autonomy within an ableist paradigm. Through moments of reflection and observation, the film focuses on her brother’s writings using eye tracking technology, and her mother’s memories, to explore how we shape a sense of self under the pervasive weight of unspoken assumptions, categories and fixed definitions that get placed onto bodies. Dissecting layers of language, agency and power, the film is a subtle examination of how a human life is measured and valued.
Filmmaker present

 

Logo for the 67th Cork International Film Festival. black text on white background accompanied by the icon of a ship with sails


Images:

Pieces of writing, notes, shells, paint, and bright, transparent sheets of plastic all lay atop one another to form a colourful assemblage

Sofia Theodore Pierce, Other Tidal Effects, 2021, USA, image courtesy of the artist

Close up of a row of white conical shells lined up beside a line of stone set into the ground. The white shells brightly reflect the sunlight

Fábio Andrade, Contorno/ Contour, 2021, Brazil, digital, 10 mins, image courtesy of the artist

Close up of the fingertips of a person with dark skin tracing a printed image of lightning striking above sky scrapers. Stylised text to the right of the printed image reads: Naked City

Morgan Quaintance, A Human Certainty, 2021, UK, image courtesy of the artist and LUX, London

A blue pointed out-of-focus blob appears on a yellow background

Lisa Freeman, Hook, Spill, Cry Your Eyes Out, 2020, Ireland, image courtesy of the artist

A child with straight brown shoulder length hair faces the camera and sticks out their tongue

Bárbara Lago, Yon, 2021, Argentina, image courtesy of the artist

This is a still from the short film 'Cabbage' (2023) by Irish filmmaker Holly Márie Parnell. This image features a side angle view of a man's face with light skin and brown hair in a lightly shadowed space. A bright spot of daylight illuminates his left eye, and we can also see part of his cheek and nose in the frame in the light shadow as he looks upwards. The background displays out-of-focus green foliage and dappled light.

Holly Márie Parnell, Cabbage, 2022, Ireland, image courtesy of the artist

Landscape image looking over a valley and snow topped mountains are in the background. The landscape is green and rocky, and houses are dotted around in the distance. Grey cloud hangs low over the mountains in the background

Susan Hughes, Eyes Like Cats, 2022, Northern Ireland, image courtesy of the artist