Puisi Teknologi, Eksperimentasi, dan Gambar Bergerak
Minggu, 28 November 2021, merupakan hari perdana di mana ARKIPEL Twilight Zone – 8th Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival kembali menghelat rangkaian program Kompetisi Internasional dalam 3 program kuratorial yang masing-masing filemnya dapat kalian saksikan secara daring sampai 4 Desember 2021. Salah satu dari tiga program kuratorial tersebut bertajuk Puisi Teknologi Gambar Bergerak: di “Antara”, “Saling”, dan “Pakai”. Program yang dikuratori oleh Pingkan Polla ini menyajikan delapan filem eksperimental yang terdiri dari vulture (2013), Illusive Echoes (2019), Toranj (2019), Murmur (2019), Livestock (2018), Between Relating and Use (2018), The Library of Water (2020), serta Don’t Know What (2019).
Kedelapan filem menawarkan kemungkinan bahasa, cara pandang, dan daya cipta baru yang dapat dicapai oleh medium teknologi gambar bergerak bernama sinema. Eksperimen pertama terlihat pada filem vulture (2019). Mengutip Umi Lestari (pengajar dan kritikus filem) dalam utasnya, sang sutradara Philip Hofmann, menguji coba warna secara manual pada tanaman (teknologi plant-based developer) ketika mengolah seluloid. Adapula Between Relating and Use (2019) karya Nazli Dinçel yang berdurasi sembilan menit dan ditangkap dengan seluloid 16mm. Uniknya, filem justru terlihat seperti tangkapan kamera digital. Filem ini sendiri mengeksplorasi gagasan soal konsep gambar (image) dan menghubungkannya dengan fetisisme/ekostisme, yang menimbulkan dilema etis menyoal hubungan antara subjek dan objek.
Sementara Don’t Know What (2018), filem pendek berdurasi delapan menit dari Thomas Renoldner yang cukup komikal, meretas batas-batas genre sinematik dan memanipulasi penonton frame-by-frame melalui teknik editing yang mutakhir. Eksperimentasi pada filem lain juga terlihat pada bagaimana cara Silvester Kolbas selaku sutradara The Tower (2019) bermain-main dengan efek zoom dengan menyoroti gedung pencakar langit dalam sebelas menit.
Sambutan filem Murmur (2020) hasil kolaborasi Jan Locus dan Stijn Demeulenaere menempatkan kita selaku penonton dengan pengembaraan selama sepuluh menit di mana hanya ada visual hitam-putih dan suara-suara alam yang memintas. Sedangkan Derek Jenkins dengan Livestock (2019) menangkap suasana mundane dalam rumah peternakan dengan ideologi minor cinema-nya, serta terakhir; ada The Library of Water (2019) yang memperlihatkan pada kita bagaimana Damon Mohl selaku sutradara menggunakan ruangan penuh buku dan percikan air yang kian menenggelamkan ruangan tersebut sebagai dasar estetika yang menawan sekaligus menguras emosi.
Filem ini dapat diakses dari tanggal 28 November – 4 Desember di website Festival ARKIPEL. Filem ini juga akan tayang di Bioskop Forum Lenteng pada Sabtu, 4 Desember 2021.
Terjemahan Bahasa Inggris oleh Innas Tsuroiya
Tech Poetics, Experimentation, and Moving Image
Sunday, November 28 2021, is the first day in which ARKIPEL Twilight Zone – 8th Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival holds the series of International Competition in three curatorial programs, whose films are available to watch online until 4 December 2021. One of the curatorial programs is titled The Tech-Poetry of Moving Image: in “Between”, “Relating”, and “Use”. Curated by Pingkan Polla, this program presents eight experimental films consisting of vulture (2013), Illusive Echoes (2019), Toranj (2019), Murmur (2019), Livestock (2018), Between Relating and Use (2018), The Library of Water (2020), and Don’t Know What (2019).
These eight films offer the new possibility of language, perspective, and creativity that can be achieved by this moving image technology called cinema. The first experiment is seen through vulture (2019). To quote Umi Lestari (film lecturer and critic) in her thread, the director Philip Hofmann manually tested the colors on plants (plant-based developer technology) when processing celluloid. Meanwhile, Between Relating and Use (2019) by Nazli Dinçel that is nine-minute long in duration and shot with 16mm camera uniquely looks as if shot with a digital camera. This film explores the concept of image in relation to fetishism or exotism, which causes an ethical dilemma between subject and object.
Furthermore, a pretty comical eight-minute short film Don’t Know What (2018) by Thomas Renoldner breaks the boundaries of cinematic genre and manipulates the spectators with every frame using a cutting-edge editing technique. Another experiment in film appears in how Silvester Kolbas as the director of The Tower (2019) plays with the zoom effect as he shoots skyscrapers in eleven minutes.
The welcoming remark of Murmur (2020), a collaboration between Jan Locus and Stijn Demeulenaere places us as spectators on a ten-minute voyage where there are only black and white visuals and the sounds of nature passing by. Meanwhile, Derek Jenkins with Livestock (2019) captures the mundane situations at a farmhouse with his ideology of minor cinema. Finally, there’s The Library of Water (2019) which shows us how Damon Mohl as the director uses a room full of books and splashes of water that gradually submerges the room as an aesthetic foundation that is both stunning and emotionally draining.
This film is available to access from November 28 to December 4, 2021, on ARKIPEL Festival website. It will also be screened in Bioskop Forum Lenteng on Saturday, December 4, 2021.
English translation by Innas Tsuroiya
