Żubroffka w Arsenale: ON THE EDGE Competition

ON THE EDGE COMPETITION FROM THE BORDERLINE OF EXPERIMENT AND VIDEO-ART

7.12.2023 (Thursday), 18:30

Galeria Arsenał – elektrownia, ul. Elektryczna 13 (od Świętojańskiej)
admission free  

Welcome to the 17th edition of the ŻUBROFFKA International Short Film Festival!
The festival will take place between 6-10 December 2023 in Białystok and – traditionally – will also be hosted in the region, visiting Augustów, Bielsk Podlaski, Łomża, Sokółka and Wasilków with screenings.
The programme includes screenings of the latest short films as part of 9 competitions: Polish (Fabuła.pl, Animation.pl and Dokumentacja.pl), international (Okno na Wschód, Cały ten Świat) and open to filmmakers from Poland and abroad (Kids, Music video, Na skraju and Midnight Shorts.

The films will compete for the Festival’s Grand Prix, the main prizes and distinctions in each category, special prizes for the best animation, documentary, fiction, cinematography and music, and the audience award – the Wild Bison. Polish and foreign journalists will also award their prizes.

ŻUBROFFKA’s programme also includes special screenings, film breakfasts, concerts, an exhibition, meetings with filmmakers and film workshops for children and young people.
           

SOLILOQUIUM

director: Karolina Monwid-Olechnowicz
director of photography: Karolina Monwid-Olechnowicz
music: Szymon Orłowski
Poland, 2022, 11’

We don’t notice our own thoughts just like that, on a daily basis – they are intangible, and they melt into our ‘self’ and pretend to be its voice.
The power of attentiveness and manipulation – glimpses of the stream of consciousness.
A visual portrait of a person’s inner speech, flowing like a river of thoughts with the intention of seeking truth.
A microscopic insight into the power of human thoughts balancing on the boundary in an undefined space-time – the separate universe that is our psyche.
An alphabet of feelings, associations, fears, memories… overpowering our mind, from which we can never escape. It is up to us what direction we give them.
It is about creating a stream of consciousness and seeing where it leads.

DAS FEINE ZIRPEN EINER DUNKELZIFFER
SILENT CHIRPING OF INVISIBLE DIGTS

director: Vera Sebert
director of photography: Vera Sebert
music: Thelonious Hamel
Austria, Germany, 2023, 10’11’’

Like a single film frame, insects flash for the fraction of a second, only to immediately withdraw from the field of vision again. In between their flickering body fragments, the film shows undefinable voids. What can be seen when familiar filters of vision and the narratives associated with them are missing?

LE MAL DES ARDENTS
ARDENT OTHER

director: Alice Brygo
director of photography: Alice Brygo
music: Fatma Pneumonia, Paul Lajus
France, 2023, 16’

A stunned crowd faces a fire.
The threat has no name, a diffuse anguish spreads.
Fear needs to be conjured, fire must be turned into a sign.

ASTERIÓN

director: Francesco Montagner
director of photography: Michal Babinec
Czech Republic, Slovakia, 2022, 15’6’’

Under the burning sun, a solitary bull awaits tireless, whilst a man jumps deep into the darkest waters of his persona, in their common attempt to defeat death.

In this silent visual poem, the massive body of a bull appears on the table of a meticulous taxidermist, having died in the hot sun in the middle of a bullfighting arena. Working with the body of an untamed animal, the man is inwardly transformed and finds in the animal’s skin a way to cope with his own mortality and the transience of life.

JEAN-PAUL GROOVE: BABOON

director: Simon Breeveld
director of photography: Simon Breeveld
music: Jean-Paul Groove
Belgium, 2023, 4’52’’

Pierre, a young moustachioed man from Brussels, is wandering around his city and comes across a strange creature a little too often.

FANTOOMWIJK

director: Ravi Sandberg
directors of photography: Sjors Mosman, Ravi Sandberg
Netherlands, 2023, 14’20’’

Urgent, unsettling, and experimental work about the Tweebosbuurt in Rotterdam. The bespoken neighborhood was demolished to make way for luxury housing, forcing residents to leave their homes. By using different styles of filming like infrared and drone shots, the viewer keeps shifting between opposite perspectives – between the system and those affected by it.
„Fantoomwijk” gives voice to the evicted locals of a neighborhood that was once a bustling part of the city. A gripping short film about the human cost of urban development, representing the global issue of gentrification in big cities.

SJETI SE KAKO SAM JAHALA BIJELOG KONJA
REMEMBER HOW I USED TO RIDE A WHITE HORSE

directors: Ivana Bosnjak Volda, Thomas Johnson Volda
director of photography: Ivan Slipcevic
music: Hrvoje Niksic
Croatia, 2022, 9’57’’

A waitress goes about her daily routine serving coffee whilst having thoughts of escaping her reality. A costumer is constantly recording and listening back to the surrounding sounds of the café and is completely fixated by this task. Apathy is a condition that leads consciousness into stagnation, but do either of them realise that they are themselves examples of this condition?

Jury konkursu NA SKRAJU
The Jury of the ON THE EDGE Competition

Norika Sefa (Kosovo)
Filmmaker, writer, director and producer. She is best known for her 2021 debut film “Looking for Venera”, which established her as an emerging talent. The film won and was nominated for many prestigious awards, it also represented Kosovo for the Oscars. Her films are heterogeneous in style, merging fiction and documentary, pieces that create atmosphere rather than stick to a conventional narrative. Norika’s previous work includes “Kiss Me, Now” (2020), along with “Desde Arriba” (2020), are wo hybrid documentaries. Norika’s newest documentary is soon to be released, she is now working on her second fiction film. Norika is already a member of the European Film Academy.

Momoko Seto (Japonia/Japan)
She was born in Tokyo in 1980, travelled to France to study Art at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Marseille, then at the Le Fresnoy National Studio of Contemporary Art. Momoko has been working as a film director at the CNRS (National Centre of Scientific Research) in Paris, since 2006. In 2021, she received the prestigious CNRS crystal for her work which combines art and science. For her personal work, she makes several short films related to nature, the microcosm, using different shooting techniques. These films have received awards at numerous festivals (pre-selected for the French Césars, Audi prize at the Berlinale, grand prize at the Paris fantastic film festival, etc.). She is now working on her first feature film.

Kuba Mikurda (Polska/Poland)
Director and scriptwriter, author of documentary films. Graduate of psychology at the Jagiellonian University, doctor of philosophy. He completed the Programme for Creative Producers at the Wajda School. Author of numerous publications on cinema. Lecturer at the Lodz Film School. Member of the European Film Academy.

Festival funded by a grant from the City of Bialystok
Organised by: Cultural Centre of Bialystok (Białostocki Ośrodek Kultury) – DKF “GAG”.
Co-organiser: Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok 

more:
www.zubroffka.pl 
www.facebook.com/zubroffka