SVA Screening: MFJ 74 "Fact / Artifact"

This program of rarely screened moving-image works by distinguished artist filmmakers from four countries celebrates the publication of Millennium Film Journal No. 74 “Fact / Artifact” (Fall 2021). All works in the program are discussed or featured in this issue and in Millennium Film Journal Nos. 71/72 “Crisis” (Spring/Fall 2020).

Selected and presented by Millennium Film Journal senior editor Grahame Weinbren and editor-at-large Jonathan Ellis.

Francis Alÿs CHILDREN’S GAMES (Belgium/Nepal/Afghanistan/Mexico, 2011-2017, 8 min, digital)

Depicting children at play in the bleak contexts of refugee camps or in landscapes devastated by war, Alÿs’s films trigger feelings of warm empathy as well as a mere enjoyment in watching the games. If vulnerable beings like children can cope with the grim conditions of war and poverty, there is hope for all mankind.

Discussed in Steven Jacobs “Children’s Games by Francis Alÿs,” MFJ 71/72.

Anal Shah KALARIPAYATTU (U.S./India, 2017, 22 min, digital)

The very form of Shah’s film is nonlinear, ever-moving, and multiplicative as opposed to linear, stable, and additive. This constellation method of montage – images branching out and forming connections with one another to form a multiplicity – allows each image to be itself and to join with others in an assemblage.

Discussed in Madison Brookshire “Anal Shah: Ethics, Imagination, and the Museum of Memories,” MFJ 74.

Christoph Janetzko THE MECHANICS (Germany/Cambodia, 2021, 23 min, digital)

Janetzko makes use of an armory of contemporary techniques, reflecting a deep familiarity with the arcane mysteries of digital video technology, which matches the analog skills in the mechanics’ oil-stained hands. It is a breathtaking visual statement.

Discussed in Ingo Petzke “Christoph Janetzko, The Mechanics,” MFJ 74.

Amir Yatzif ANOTHER PLANET (Israel, 2017, 48 min, digital)

Collating existent digital models of one of the most awful places on earth, indeed another planet, the filmmaker interviews avatars of the designers placed within their own models.

The model speaks the logic of a society obsessed with summoning and taming the future, with the management and prediction of risk, with its major social motors, like economy and security, driven by speculation. The model is meant to contain such future-oriented transactions within a safe space of action.

Discussed in Laliv Melamed “Documentary (adj.): Keywords and Provocations,” MFJ 74.

Total running time: ca. 105 min.

This program is partially funded by NYSCA through the Millennium Film Workshop, affiliated with Millennium Film Journal.