Film Programming by Fol
Jonas Mekas, one of the pioneers of avant-garde cinema, continues making his diary-videos by carrying his camera with him at all times, despite his old age. On long and sleepless nights when he meets with his friends, he arouses a feeling of The Thousand and One Nights by recording the stories they tell, and linking them to one another. Young director Nicolás Pereda, carries to the screen the acts of sleeping, dreaming, reading and falling in love, which take place at a house in Mexico, through three characters in their 30’s. These two movies, which display the nuances of daily life in two distinct approaches, are articulated just like sleeplessness chases sleep and sleep chases sleeplessness throughout the screening.
Sleepless Night Stories
Jonas Mekas, USA, 2011, 114’
English; Turkish subtitles
Sleepless Nights Stories by Jonas Mekas
Sleepless Nights Stories is a video diary by the godfather of avant-garde cinema, Jonas Mekas, put together as if to reflect his insomniac state. It consists of 25 stories shot with a handheld camera and edited in a deliberately haphazard way. He begins the film jet-lagged, meets Marina Abramovic in a café and moves on. Somewhere along the way we see Björk in a moving car, talking and trying to point out her old house.We cannot see the house. Harmony Korine appears alone, and some time later, with a baby. The film is not about showing us something, making a point, or saying anything at all. It is like the 88-year-old director’s own tribute to his life, in all its uninteresting glory. This on its own makes the film one of a kind.
March 23, Thursday, 19:00 SALT Galata
Minotauro
Nicolás Pereda, Mexico-Canada, 2015, 53’
Spanish; English and Turkish subtitles
Minotauro by Nicolás Pereda
Minotauro is an incandescent chamber piece that observes three characters in their 30’s as they sleep, dream, read, and receive visitors in their communal space. A lovely and lethargic spell is cast, as the story of an ambiguous, Marienbad-like love triangle emerging among the trio is conveyed through literature, choreography, and the acute physical presence of the three leads. Extending Pereda’s recurring interests in class, social structure and family relations in Mexican society, Minotauro evokes the films of Tsai Ming-liang in its distended naturalism, ritualistic solitude, and creation of a cloistered world suffused with longing.
April 6, Thursday, 19:00 SALT Galata