Fragments 83

Genova Genova

April 1984 •French

A song of love to the city of Genoa. The film wanders the streets of the city center and explore the beautiful cemetery and then climb the hills which offer an amazing view over the old town crossed by a highway and port.

Spectrum

September 2019 •

A 1963 timelapse recording shows the effects of air pollution during an entire day on Santa Monica Bay in Los Angeles. A machine interpretation of an unstable version of the original file is divided into slits and rearranged in time, giving rise to a time panorama that mirrors an uncertain, abstract future lying ahead of us.

Notes on the Circus

May 1967 •English

The short film is a montage of sped up clips of The Ringling Brothers Circus in action set to a musical track. The film is separated into four segments, each segment which focuses on different acts within the circus. The later segments often incorporate clips from earlier segments, mostly as background to the featured acts. The speed of the clips match the tempo of the soundtrack music.

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

April 2007 •English

In this entrancing documentary on performance artist, photographer and underground filmmaker Jack Smith, photographs and rare clips of Smith's performances and films punctuate interviews with artists, critics, friends and foes to create an engaging portrait of the artist. Widely known for his banned queer erotica film Flaming Creatures, Smith was an innovator and firebrand who influenced artists such as Andy Warhol and John Waters.

Expiration

July 1976 •

Short experimental film.

Closed Beaches

Invalid date •

Beaches are closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the middle class must survive the tropicals.

Maniac Summer

December 2009 •French

Maniac Summer consists of images and sounds recorded in Paris in the summer of 2009. It is a sprawling triptych without a beginning or end and with no specific subject or topic. The camera is positioned in front of a window and left running. It observes movements, registers noises coming from the street or nearby park, captures Chantal Akerman going about her business in her apartment: smoking, working, talking on the telephone. Fragments from the artist’s everyday life are featured in the installation’s central video, while the adjoining panels are more symbolically charged; in them, various images from the former have been isolated, modified and repeated. These abstract afterimages act as a kind of memory, looking back to the images in the installation’s centrepiece as so many shadows of its reality.

Carnet de identidad

May 1970 •Spanish

Let There Be Colour

August 2020 •Bosnian

On 8 September 2019 Sarajevo hosted its first Pride March, and this film covers its background.

Saudade dos Leões

November 2021 •Portuguese

In the midst of a pandemic scenario, the festive culture of Fortaleza faces obstacles to remain resplendent, which takes us to Praça dos Leões. How is the Lions Cultural Bar? How to deal with the absence of new memories? How to deal with silence? Saudades dos Leões is a documentary that seeks to invoke the memory of this space and rescue moments of joy and cultural relevance in the lives of its audience, mostly LGBTQI+. Furthermore, it talks about its silence and how the lack of this symbolic space weighs on people's history.

El laberinto de las lunas

November 2019 •Spanish

A film about Karla Ojeda and Maira Ramírez, two transvestites going through adoption, and Gabriela Mansilla, mother of a trans girl. Their stories are intertwined with songs and poems by Susy Shock, a trans artist, poet and writer.

Piss Off X

February 2021 •English

A historic underground gay document. Shocking. Intimate. Taboo. A behind-the-scenes look at the performance art of a millennial artist who travels the world performing in public spaces using the medium of piss, video and the internet to break social norms.

Once Upon a Time in the Gay Village

November 2022 •French

Once upon a time in the Gay Village is a montage of photos and music telling the story of the founding of Le Parc de l’Espoir, the AIDS memorial park in the heart of Montreal’s Gay Village.

Three Colors and Other More

December 2018 •Portuguese

Serginho was one of the founding members of the historic Coligay fan club, the first fan club formed exclusively by homosexuals in the history of Brazilian soccer. Here, he tells a bit about his story and also about his relationship with Magia, one of the most recent seven-a-side soccer clubs in Brazil, formed only by homosexuals, who compete in championships and tournaments exclusively for LGBT's with the goal of bringing together a space of respect and welcoming amidst the still sexist and prejudiced scenario in soccer.

The Dads

March 2023 •English

On a fishing trip with Matthew Shepard's father, five disparate dads discuss their love, hopes and fears for their trans kids in this short documentary.

The Day When...

January 1997 •French

Chantal Akerman reads a script detailing the woes that befell her on the day she thought about "The Future of Cinema". The camera continuously rotates 360 degrees around her apartment as she rereads the script at an exponentially increasing speed. At its heart, an homage to Godard.

STANDSinWATER

December 2022 •English

Standsinwater Sutherland is 2Spirit Cree living in Northern Ontario. Holding her eagle feather, she sits and tells her story: her quest to identity, how teachings learned along the way took her from the concrete jungle of Toronto back to her reservation and her commitment to help her community regain their culture and traditional ways.

Shoot Me

September 2013 •English

The Iranian filmmaker Narges Kalhor, daughter of a former advisor of Ahmadinejad's, has been living in exile in Germany for four years. When she hears that the fellow Iranian rapper Shahin Najafi, who is also living in exile in Germany, faces death threats and has to hide because of one of his songs, she doesn't hesitate and has to find him. On her search she encounters fear everywhere. Narges Kalhor has to face her inconvenient memories of suppression, hatred and anger for her past in Iran.

Trans in Trumpland

February 2021 •English

A transgender Iranian-American embarks on a road trip to discover the everyday realities of being trans in conservative states across the United States. As he travels through some of the country’s most anti-trans states, he uncovers the struggles and triumphs that define being trans in America today.

Christopher Isherwood: A Born Foreigner

November 1969 •English

Documentary about author Christopher Isherwood, in which he is interviewed about his life and work and which features extracts from films of his novels and stories.