The architecture of the inner world and its accompanying narratives unfold in the three-part programme (curator Gerda Paliušytė) inspired by Lauren Berlant’s (1957-2021) philosophy and trajectories of thought. Berlant paid particular attention to affect, the plane of intimacy and feelings and its relationship to power structures; to that which can smother, or on the contrary – to disrupt repetition and resist control. Berlant was also highly critical of neoliberalism as an all-encompassing, repressive system, encouraging to search for a commonality that enables creativity and allows to reject normativity, preconceived “knowledge” and trivial system-imposed habits. The festival programme is divided into three interconnected parts and keywords: studying-relearning, desire-love and coming of age. The programme focuses on the ability to feel, observe, learn, love, fantasise and desire in a complex world of overlapping artificial realities and regimes – a world that not only empowers, but can also limit or disappoint.
Monika in September
Dir. Gintė Regina
Short film
UK, 2018
Language: Lithuanian
15
A filmmaker invites her childhood friend Monika on a trip to Canada following in the footsteps of the author Alice Munro. Inspired by her short stories, they want to make a film exploring the course of a young woman’s life by visiting the places Munro wrote about. Reality and imagination as well as the deeply personal and the fictional become intertwined in this study of feminine identity, estrangement and belonging.
Biography
Ginte Regina is a filmmaker working between artist film and narrative fiction. Her short films have been screened in leading cinemas and arts venues around the UK, including British Film Institute (Future Film Presents SCENE) and Whitechapel Gallery (Selected VII) in London. She has had two solo exhibitions, in 2018 at GAO, London, where the film Monika in September was premiered in September, and in 2020 at CCA Derry~Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Her work was first shown in Lithuania in September 2021, at Galerija 101 in Kaunas. Ginte is currently based between London and Vilnius.
First
Dir. Micaela Durand, Daniel Chew
Short film
USA, 2018
Language: English
12
N-16
A teenager lives her life, toggling seamlessly between her physical and digital self. She documents all of this on her phone, sharing her world by uploading it to her profile. Comments, in the form of subtitles, puncture this narrative, ranging from casual banter with friends to threatening comments from strangers. It is a glimpse into the realities that teenagers negotiate today, how they connect through personas and engage in random digital encounters, and how that shapes them.
About the authors
Micaela Durand and Daniel Chew are a filmmaker duo in New York. Their work has been shown in the United States and abroad including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, MoMA PS1, White Columns, 47 Canal, MOCA LA, The Shed, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Le Cinema Club, and NYFF. They were MacDowell fellows in 2020 and are recipients of the Jerome Artist Fellowship for 2021-2022. They are currently developing their first feature film.
Sacred Fire Within
Dir. Daiva Tubutytė
Short film
Lithuania, 2021
Language: English
Choreography & performance: Emmilou Rößling
Supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture
22
Berlin streets before dawn. A woman in one of the apartments observes herself in the bathroom mirror. A voiceover reveals she’s in an identity crisis. As the protagonist comes to a decision to shield herself from the outside noise in order to stay focused on her goals, her physical surroundings reveal to act as a protective buffer temporarily fulfilling other people’s expectations attached to her character, particularly in relation to her age.
Biography
Daiva Tubutytė works with text, moving image, photography and sound. Her films have been presented in the Wavelengths series at Toronto International Film festival, The Good Neighbour and Stillpoint Magazine. She is a graduate of Gerrit Rietveld Academie and a nominee for the 2013 Berlin Art Prize.
Selected Filmography:
Flight Mode, 2019
Seamless, 2017
Magnetic Dance of a Hidden Potential, 2013
