Welcome to our audio section, a continuously expanding collection of audio interviews from our previous film programs featuring artists, filmmakers, curators, writers, and programmers. Delve into the creative minds of these talented individuals with this additional gateway into their work.
The second program of our 2023 WF Online Series highlighted the work of the Basel platform Art of Intervention (AOI). Art of Intervention (AOI) was founded by Dominique Grisard, who is affiliated with the University of Basel's Center for Gender Studies and the Swiss Center for Social Research, and Andrea Zimmermann, from the University of Basel's Center for Gender Studies. This platform serves as a catalyst for exploration, understanding, criticism, discussion, publication, and transformation at the intersection of gender studies, queer-feminist theory and academia.
For this film program, AOI extended an invitation to their long-time collaborator, Roan Ezra Schmid, for this carte blanche in collaboration with White Frame. They have curated a selection of 5 films that delve into the politics and practices of trans experiences. Here is AOI introductory text for the film program.
Audio Interview Timeline (01:01:44)
On AOI
01:14: On AOI
08:28: How does AOI facilitate communication and understanding among participants?
11:10: How does AOI navigate the intricate connections between queer-feminist theory (or: cultural gender theory; or: academia/the university), art, politics, and activism to foster meaningful discussions and transformations?
19:23: Can you provide some examples of projects or initiatives facilitated by AOI?
26:21: Has AOI's focus area led to the emergence of novel ideas that may not have arisen within individual disciplines?
31:19: Can you elaborate on instances where discussions or projects hosted by AOI have brought about changes in thinking?
On the film program
45:27: You mentioned that AOI's core themes revolve around gender, art, and activism. How did this influence the selection of the short film program we will see?
50:34: You also talk about the experimental nature of short films and your interest in form. Could you elaborate on that?
53.27: What sets apart these films portraying trans genealogies and communities from others?
01:00:02: Reaching out to friends and collaborators for this film program.
The first program of our 2023 WF Online Series showcased the activities of Filmexplorer. FILMEXPLORER is an online platform dedicated to art films. Through critiques, interviews and podcasts, it develops a multi-media reception of films. Present both in cinema world and art world, FILMEXPLORER aims to build an international community of people looking at film as a form of art, or simply as source of original experiences to share. Within this framework, it proposes critical discussions and curated selections online, but also offline moments of exchange.
We had the pleasure of interviewing Ruth Baettig and Giuseppe Di Salvatore co-founders of the platform, talking about their activities as well looking at some of the core questions in filmmaking today. A program of 7 short films curated by both accompanies the interview.
Audio Interview Timeline (01:11:34)
On Filmexplorer
01:26 - Inspiration for creating Filmexplorer
11:42 - Mandate of Filmexplorer
18:32 - Activities of Filmexplorer
23:59 - The Berlin Hub: A residency initiated by Filmexplorer
26:39 - Interconnectedness and interdisciplinarity at the Berlin Hub
A selection of core questions
29:48 - The evolving experience of cinema
39:02 - The concept of reception: What does it mean to watch a film?
45:02 - Challenges faced by the Swiss independent sector
52:42 - Critical thinking and the culture of reception
01:06:40 - Carte blanche for Filmexplorer: Introduction to the film program
The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen is the oldest short film festival in the world founded in 1954. At the beginning, they focused on eastern films and video art. Today, the festival selects all genre of short films, moving images presented as single channels. The festival has competitive and curated programs (archival, distribution programs and special focuses).
Hilke Doering, Head of the International Competition, the Children's and Youth Cinema and the Market of the International Short Film Festival has been working for the festival for more than 20 years. We have made wonderful film discoveries attending some of the live and online screenings at Oberhausen.
We had invited Hilke Doering for this special focus to chat with Chantal Molleur about her work at the festival. Hilke had also given us a selection of five films that marked her viewing over the years. We were delighted to present them as well.
We had invited Johannes Binotto for this special focus ont he video essay to chat with Chantal Molleur about his work. A selection of his shorts was as well presented for one week on our series platform.
Johannes Binotto (*1977) is senior researcher in cultural and media studies, video essayist and experimental filmmaker. Several of his video essays have been shown at international short and experimental film festivals and have been featured in the yearly Best-video-essay-polls hosted by Sight&Sound and the British Film Institute.
Johannes Binotto teaches film and media studies at the Lucerne School of Art and Design (HSLU) as well as literature and cultural studies at the University of Zurich. In his research and in his video work he has a specific focus on the intersections between film theory, philosophy of technology, and psychoanalysis, as well as on extraordinary bodies and on multi-sensory affects.
Many of his numerous publications, essays, book chapters and videos can be found on his personal website www.medienkulturtechnik.org
He is also leading the research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation: VideoEssay. Futures of Audiovisual Research and Teaching videoessayresearch.org
This film program focused on the thematic of sustainability featuring the documentary film Sowing the Seeds for the Future by Dominique Koch
Dominique Koch (*1983) lives and works in Basel and Paris. From 2004 until 2011 she studied photography at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig. She understands her installations as “thinking laboratories” that merge different fields of research resulting in hybrid entanglements and unlikely intellectual encounters. Recent solo exhibitions include Holobiont Society at CAN, Centre d’art Neuchâtel, Maybe We Should Rejuvenate the Words rather than the Bodies at Rinomina in Paris and Beyond Chattering and Noise at Centre Culturel Suisse Paris. Her works won several awards and were presented in various group exhibitions at, among others, CCCB Barcelona, STATE Studio Berlin, Shedhalle Zürich, Istituto Svizzero di Roma, Lagos Biennial II, A Tale of a Tub Rotterdam, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Swissnex San Francisco, Kunsthalle Basel, EKKM Tallinn, Copenhagen Contemporary, and Kunsthalle Mainz.
Bihttoš (Rebel) by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers was part of a focused program on works by Indigenous contemporary artists and filmmakers in 2021.
12/Make It Right from the exhibition, Incomplete Drawings of Decolonization by Anna Tsouhlarakis was part of a focused program on works by Indigenous contemporary artists and filmmakers in 2021.
TSHIUETIN by Caroline Monnet was part of a focused program on works by Indigenous contemporary artists and filmmakers in 2021.