Our ninth week features films by Nickson Kamau, Stuart Taylor, Liene Rubane, Ken Amlin, Kang Le, Alessandra Aulicino, and Tamsin Solanum.
"Stay Woke" by Nickson Kamau
Nickson Kamau is a young filmmaker from Uganda focusing on using film and visuals to change the world.
"Stay Woke" is a short film trying to address the social challenges caused by the rise of technology in this century.
Twitter: @kamaunickson1
Instagram: @nickson.kamau
"Over the Horizon" by Stuart Taylor
From Stuart:
"The animation was originally made for the King Lear Prizes competition. This is a competition for people aged 70+ to create an artwork (painting, poetry, photograph, script etc) during the lockdown. I had to shield and was listening to Over the Horizon by friends ( Eddie and Clare). I realised the music was ideal for a Quarantine project. I am simply a self-taught amateur. Many, many years ago my local teachers centre had a "Using super 8 animations in the classroom" course. I became hooked on using animation as a great learning tool for primary school children. My animation "passion" is the phenakistoscope. Introducing them to children is so rewarding. They were seen as magical in the early 19th century and even now, when present-day children spin the cards and the images move, the excitement is infectious. I built up a set of templates using dots so that children could build on this excitement and make their own. These became birthday, Christmas, mothers day cards etc to take home and often (if we had a common theme like The seaside) we would scan them and make them into films."
"Chronotope" by Kang Le
From the filmmaker: "I try to describe my life experience (isolation, nostalgia) due to the pandemic situation. In this video, time exhibit two qualities. One is cinematic time, the sense of losing focus while absent-mindedly gazing into the moving scenery in a train window. The other is real-time, which can be measured mechanically and reflects the tension one feels on a homebound journey. These two qualities are constantly converted into one another and constitute nostalgia. Nostalgia is a closed-loop, unrelated to sublimation. It ends on the arrival at a destination, continuing nowhere."
"Stay" by Ken Amlin
From the filmmaker:
"My Name is Ken Amlin from Windsor, ON Canada and I've been a filmmaker for 12 years. I work full time for a production company by day and produce short films and music videos by night. When the pandemic hit I was laid off but I took it as a blessing, free time to create as much as possible. I wanted to tell a story that reflected the current situation of quarantine, something people could get a laugh out of to break the tensions of everything in the news. I recruited long time collaborator Heath Camlis, and my wife Emma Amlin for what would become "Stay". We shot everything in one 12 hour day as a 3 person team, very tiring, but worth it!"
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/kenamlin
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/k___r___a/
"I am" by Liene Rubane
A person facing the COVID-19 pandemic is struggling with his fear and anxiety, which pollute human’s thoughts and body with exaggerated despair and suspense of the future, as well as the present. His childish fight with all imposed restrictions is useless. A simple solution must be found.
Liene Rubane is a visual artist with a focus on experimental drawing and animation. In recent years her collaborative animated short films have been selected at international film festivals in Europe, Latin America un USA. Alongside short films Liene develops her artistic practice as large scale mixed media installations.
Social media links:
www.lienerubane.com
instagram.com/lienerubane/
twitter.com/liene_rubane
vimeo.com/user5725696
facebook.com/liene.rubane
"From the Coop" by Tamsin Solanum
From the filmmaker:
[FROM THE COOP] : a celebration of the creativity that came out of one small suburban house in Bristol, home to eight musicians and four rescue chickens during the first few months of lockdown 2020.
"From The Coop" is a 40-minute music documentary which follows the eight musicians living at my small house in Bristol during the lockdown. We are all full-time artists and the film looks at the effect Covid-19 has had on us, as well as showcasing the creativity which has come out of lockdown.
Having lost all of my work as a musician I turned to my camera to document what I realised was a pretty unique situation. I have been very lucky to spend this strange time with some amazing musicians, including Sid Goldsmith who co-produced this film with me. The film features diverse musical performances ranging from original folk songs and instrumentals to Spanish rumba flamenca and traditional Armenian music. Interviews from members of the household set the scene, and woven through it all is a poem written in response to the pandemic.
www.tamsinelliott.co.uk
www.facebook.com/tamsinsolanum
"Quarantine" by Alessandra Aulicino
"Quarantine" tells the story of a woman and her family who lived during Covid 19 in Italy. Based on a true story. This film was born from the need to tell a mother's fear, joy and emotions.
From Alessandra:
"During Covid, I started shooting all the moments of the day. Without a precise initial idea of the film, but only my intention to tell what I was experiencing together with my family. When I collected all the
material I decided to mount it and that's how my "Quarantine" project was born."
Alessandra Aulicino was born in Palmi (RC) on 21.05.1980.
She currently resides in Rome. She studied as actress at the Academy of Dramatic Art of Palmi, graduating in the academic year 2001-2002. She started her professional experience at theatres all over Italy and
abroad in Warsaw and Buenos Aires .
Among the names of prominent Theatre Directors she worked with Livio Galassi, Walter Manfre' Franco Pero, Franco Nude, Bruce Mayers. etc.
In the various performances she has had the opportunity to express roles that ranging from classic prose theatre to the dramatic, brilliant and experimental. She makes her directorial debut in a show freely inspired by the "Two Sisters" by Alberto Bassetti with a positive feedback from the public.
As far as Cinema is concerned, she has had roles in films distributed throughout Italy and abroad such as "Bloodline" directed by Edo Tagliavini and "Il Ritorno" by Claudio Bondi', "Rapiscimi" directed by Gianluca Gargano. Alessandra makes her film directorial debut with "Quarantine" a film / documentary that tells the story of her family's life during the lockdown period from COVID-19.
Instagram: @xandrasia