A talk with Ian Gibbins, director of 'After-Image' and 'The Life We Live Is Not Life Itself' SYNOPSES After-image "I see them and look away ... see stinger-ray hide in bush ... climb for a better view ... afraid of spider-snake-lizard ... we watched them watched us ... The Life We Live Is Not Life Itself “The life we live is a series of illusions… a fleeting smile… mistaken decisions… dangerous, unpredictable… yet, we will meet again, as lovers… parents… children… and you will know who I am…” Tasos Sagris’s poem, with its haunting soundtrack by Whodoes, offers us an extended exploration of lives lived in parallel, at cross-purposes, in and out of love, around the world, from the innocence of children to the wisdom of elders. There are the good times when summer seems to last forever, and the bad, when persecution and misadventure could land us in prison, with nothing but rain to hear our voice. But what is the reality? What is mere illusion? Can there be more to life than simply living BIOGRAPHY Ian Gibbins is a widely published poet, video artist and electronic musician with four collections of poetry, all in collaboration with artists. His video and audio work has featured in gallery exhibitions, public art commissions, performances and international festivals. He previously was a neuroscientist and professor of anatomy. See www.iangibbins.com.au.

A talk with Jesseca Ynez Simmons, director of "Emerald Ice" SYNOPSIS Emerald Ice takes the viewer on a journey of the imagination to explore Diane Wakoski's fearless meditation on intimacy and mortality. Narrated by the poet herself, the audience assumes the side of the reader as facts of the author’s life weave through enigmatic, fantastical and fractured stories. Whether it is a documentary, narrative or docufantasy, like any film (or poem), it is up for the viewer to decide what is true to them. This cinematic curation drops the audience in the middle of a California orange grove, leading to momentary glimpses of the expansive worlds existing inside this beloved American poet in hopes to give more credence to our own multitudes. "What makes a biography? Is it a list of facts strung together by narrative that summarize a whole lifetime or does that just scratch the surface? Jesseca Simmons’ biographical docufantasy, Emerald Ice, makes a strong statement arguing for the latter. Emerald Ice is based on the life and works of American poet Diane Wakoski. Instead of presenting a biography filled with trivia and talking heads recalling semi-relevant anecdotes, Simmons takes us on a metaphorical journey through Wakoski’s psyche by using her poetry as a road map. The end result is something that feels more personal and widely relatable." - Paul Gonter, FACETS BIOGRAPHY Jesseca Ynez Simmons is a filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, IL. Originally from the Bay Area, she received her BA in Politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, followed by an MFA in Documentary Media from Northwestern University. Jesseca was a finalist for the 2016 ASC Vilmos Zsigmond Award and a 2015 Southern Exposure Film Fellow for the Southern Environmental Law Center in Birmingham, AL. In addition to directing, Jesseca works as a cinematographer and her images have been screened at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Hot Docs Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, DocLisboa, Sidewalk Film Festival as well as on National Geographic. Jesseca currently holds the Filmmaker in Residence position at Northwestern University. In addition to filmmaking, Jesseca works in crafting stained glass windows, painting and poetry. Her feelings on art are ever-changing, but today she has chosen to evoke the words of Georges Bataille, “There are explosives everywhere that perhaps will soon blind me. I laugh when I think that my eyes persist in demanding objects that do not destroy them."

A talk with Markus Maicher, director of '10 megabytes of memory' and "Into the Wild' SYNOPSES 10 megabytes of memory What is the meaning of "memory" in the digital age? For humans memory consists of subjective images of past events, for computers memory refers to an objective capacity to store information. The film compresses 10 human years in 10 megabytes of binary information and employs an aesthetics of the small file format, a counter strategy against the ever increasing resolution, bitrate and cost of digital images. The file was compressed and assembled with open-source software ffmpeg, the original Video8 tapes were left unedited. Into the Wild Images, harvested on a farm in Mount Forest, Canada, captured with a hand-cranked Bolex, on film material that is made for sound only. Processed in buckets, in shimmering red light down by the old stables. A glimpse through the cracks, somebody is walking in the meadow, trees trembling in the wind, flowers, grass. A world that only film can see, a material flow emerging from the coupling of camera, celluloid, silver salts, chemicals, light particles and the hand of the filmmaker. The film was entirely processed by hand and chemically treated: overexposed images were brought back to life with bleach, other images were solarized and reversed. BIOGRAPHY Markus Maicher, 1984, is an experimental filmmaker, projectionist at the Austrian Filmmuseum, part of the artist-run film lab filmkoop wien, PhD candidate at the University of Applied Arts and teaches film as artistic research at the TU Vienna. He studied Sociology, Urban Studies, Psychoanalytic Cultural Studies, Film Studies and Experimental Film at the Friedl Kubelka School for Independent Film. His film works engage with the cinematographic dispositiv and the poetry of the physical qualities of film itself. His films have been shown at festivals such as Vienna Shorts Film Festival, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Experiments in Cinema, Analogica, Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Fracto, RPM Festival and at the Austrian Filmmuseum, Stadtkino and Metro Kinokulturhaus.

A talk with Karolina Bergman Engman, director of "Rootless" SYNOPSIS Rootless is an animated short based on photographs, reflecting upon memory processing of a lost home. The house goes through a transition from present to absent, to eventually become an object of memory. Where soundscapes are repeated to a point where technological errors make an imprint, as the house becomes more distant in the movement of time.

A talk with Laurids Sonne, director of "Passerine In Time" Passerine In Time | Denmark | 7' 53" SYNOPSIS A study of the gestural encounter between the hand of man and the entrapment of birds in it. The film investigates the haptic encounters between man and bird, where the hand becomes an embodiment of man’s desire for knowledge about something other, through the methodical labor of the hand as it repeatedly captures, inspect, measure, band and logs migratory birds before their release. Something other in nature which by a mere flick is capable of something man has reached for in eternity; the freedom of flight. BIO Laurids Andersen Sonne is a Danish interdisciplinary artist. His work spans 16mm film, video, installation, sculpture, performance, and socially engaged art projects. Laurids sees art as a catalyst for reflection on being, a way to explore, entwine and unfold serious topics. Laurids’ moving image work has screened at festivals around the world, including San Francisco International Film Festival, Montreal Underground Film Festival, ICDOCS, Florida Experimental Film/Video Festival, Antimatter, Process Film Festival, and Fracto Experimental Film Encounter. Laurids holds a BA in Social Anthropology from Lund University and an MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts from Duke University. Laurids currently resides in Boulder, Colorado.

A talk with Ian Gibbins, director of "Dog Daze" Dog Daze | Australia | 4' 3" SYNOPSIS "as cool as marrowbone jelly, I'm on to you... I can track the droplets of fear, bare-boned on your long and solitary road... too late now to call for your doctor... I have all the time in the world..." Inspired by David Bowie's "Diamond Dogs” BIO Ian Gibbins is a widely-published poet, video artist and electronic musician living in Adelaide, South Australia. His videos have been shown around the world in diverse festivals, galleries, installations, and public art programs. In his former life, Ian was an internationally recognised neuroscientist and Professor of Anatomy. For more information, visit www.iangibbins.com.au.

A talk with Aylin Gökmen, director of "Tale Of The High Twinkler" Tale Of The High Twinkler | Belgium | 8' 48" SYNOPSIS This tale explores the tumultuous relationship that sailors and monks have had with “Hoge Blekker", the highest sand dune in Belgium, over the course of several centuries. BIO Aylin Gökmen is a Swiss-Turkish filmmaker who earned a B.A. in philosophy and modern French from the University of Lausanne and an M.A. in documentary filmmaking from the DOC NOMADS Erasmus Mundus program. Combining a documentary and literary approach, her works revolve around themes of memory, imagination and landscape. In 2020, she co-founded A Vol d’Oiseau, a production company dedicated to the development of various Swiss and international projects.

A talk with Georg Koszulinski, director of "New Mexico Deathwish Diatribe" New Mexico Deathwish Diatribe | USA | 11' 55" SYNOPSIS Three narrators converge in the deserts of New Mexico, each with a separate story to tell. One narrator is J. Robert Oppenheimer, another is a visitor from outer space, and the other is me. BIO Georg has been making films and videos since 1999. His recent work engages issues of the Anthropocene and merges his interests in science, poetry, and radical forms of non-fiction filmmaking. His award-winning works have been presented at hundreds of film festivals around the world. His feature documentaries, White Ravens: A Legacy of Resistance, and America is Waiting are available through Docurama. Fandor distributes his Florida Trilogy (2007-14) and his experimental film essay series, Frontier Journals #1-8 (2013-15). His work has also appeared on the Documentary Channel, Docurama, GuideDoc, Streampix/Xfinity, and the Journal of Short Film.