- Description:
- 2 videodiscs of 2..
color and b/w.
Titles
+ In Her 25,802nd Day
- Director:
- Leko, Kristina
- Running Time:
- Short. 10 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Croatia
- Year:
- 2000
- Language:
- Croatian
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance, Female Directors
- Notes:
- No subtitles.
From the Renaissance Society description: “The European Union requires its members to comply with strict agricultural standards. For countries wishing to join, traditional farming methods that are a way of life for its rural populations are often discouraged if not abandoned. In Croatia, such changes will notably affect a sector of the work force comprised of older women. Leko’s subtle interventions are aimed at raising awareness of the local economy. IN HER 25,802ND DAY is a portrait of Zagreb’s female flower vendors, young and old, marking their age in days. To create a complete circuit of local production and consumption, Leko trades her bouquets for a discount on a Croatian-made dress at a local boutique.”
+ Potatoes
- Director:
- Stilinovic, Mladen
- Running Time:
- Short. 4 minutes
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Croatia
- Year:
- 2001
- Language:
- Croatian.
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance
- Notes:
- Sound. In Croatian. From the Renaissance Society description: In a bucolic winter setting, a vegetable vendor is heard yelling “potatoes!” The culprit is a lone man crouching behind a small wooden crate. Although he is yelling “potatoes!”, on display are individual servings of cake. His deadpan determination makes it hard to discern which is out of context, vendor or forest. Once a small mound of potatoes is revealed to be behind his back, the discrepancy between what is said and what is initially shown becomes troubling in an almost surreal way. Mladen Stilinovic remains an outstanding polemicist. He gained notoriety as a member of the “Group of Six,” a Croatian artist collective from the 1970s known for its films and renegade street performances. Stilinovic thrives on the contradiction between need versus luxury, particularly as it would have been suppressed in supposedly classless societies with large poor populations. Stilinovic’s critique of unacknowledged pain and poverty applies to Croatia as well as to East/West relations in general.
+ Stock Exchange
- Director:
- Xhafa, Sislej
- Running Time:
- Short. 4 minutes
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Kosovo
- Year:
- 2000
- Language:
- Unknown.
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance
- Notes:
- Sound. From the Renaissance Society description: In the midday hustle and bustle of the Ljubljana train station, Sislej Xhafa poses as a Wall Street trader. Undeterred by the bemused or confused occasional passerby, Xhafa treats the station’s itinerary placard as a stock index, urgently gesticulating with pen and paper announcing the destinations as commodities, and the arrival and departure times as their ever volatile prices. Although simple, Xhafa’s Fluxus-like performance reveals the complexity of globalization, namely that places do indeed have value. There are winners and losers in the migratory flow of commerce as one country might secure a coveted free trade agreement with the U.S. while another might experience a sharp drop in its Gross Domestic Production as its factories.
+ Double-Head Matches
- Director:
- Cantor, Mircea
- Running Time:
- Short. 17 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Romania
- Year:
- 2002
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance
- Notes:
- From the Renaissance Society description: “A double-headed matchstick. Is that a hard thing to ask for? Apparently it is. Cantor, however, found a Romanian match factory up for the challenge. He was even more enthused when he learned the phosphorous dipping would have to be done by hand. Theoretically more efficient, such a product would take exponentially longer to make. Putting such a paradox in effect is the only way to counter the downsizing that has accompanied Eastern Europe’s transition out of communism toward a market economy. Cantor filmed the process in an astutely sober fashion, exposing how something as simple as a match is made, from raw, natural resource to finished product. The scale of the process is absurd in relation to the scale of the final product. The drone and clatter of machinery is so constant, it is not until the end that it becomes noticeable in contrast to the near silence of the hand dipping process.”
+ Hamlet
- Director:
- Azorro
- Running Time:
- Short. 8 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Poland
- Year:
- 2002
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance
- Notes:
- From the Renaissance Society description: “Exactly what kind of labor is art? Manual? Intellectual? This dilemma plagues Twentieth Century art. Not that Azorro minds. More rascals than slackers, this video collective exudes the feeling of being amongst pals no matter what their antics. After a few drinks, they decide to mount Hamlet using an old recording. The recording is remixed so there is no rhyme, no reason, and no plot, making it “Hamlet” in name only. But this is less about the play and more about playing.”
+ Loser, A
- Director:
- Kaljo, Kai
- Running Time:
- Short. 2 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Estonia
- Year:
- 1997
- Language:
- English
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance, Female Directors
- Notes:
- From the Renaissance Society description: “I just couldn’t imagine anything more bizarre than my own life at that moment.” This was Kaljo’s impetus for making A LOSER, her first video, a contribution to “Funny Versus Bizarre,” an exhibition in Vilnius, Lithuania. Kaljo delivers biographical information (some fictionalized) such as weight, profession, and marital status all highlighted by a guffawing laugh track, one containing an edge of cruelty. The chuckles begin when Kaljo announces that she is an Estonian artist, with emphasis given to her nationality. Calm and collected, Kaljo is immune to the laughter and is actually willing to feed it, for she knows she isn’t alone. To laugh at her is also to laugh with her as she exposes an inferiority complex that is more regional than personal.”
+ On The BG Track
- Director:
- Terziev, Mrassimir
- Running Time:
- Short. 7 minutes
- Color:
- color and b/w
- Country:
- Bulgaria
- Year:
- 2002
- Language:
- English and Spanish with Bulgarian subtitles.
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance
- Notes:
- Sound. In Spanish and English with Bulgarian subtitles. From the Renaissance Society description: Eastern Europe’s cultural and economic isolation had its uses for screenplay writers in need of a narrative foil. Judging from how Bulgaria is invoked in films ranging from CASABLANCA to Almodovar’s LIVE FLESH, it might as well be Bora Bora. Based on the film clips in ON THE BG TRACK, poverty, tradition, and superstition, which, in this case, go hand-in-hand, are the source of Bulgaria’s exoticism. The men are well endowed, and thanks to its yogurt, the average life expectancy is 90. To contradict images of Bulgaria as the last place on earth, videomaker Terziev juxtaposes these clips against a casual stroll throw downtown Sophia terminating at the airport. Never mind the circus bear.
+ On The Road To Chisinau
- Director:
- Wryzykowski, Piotr
- Running Time:
- Short. 5 minutes
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Poland
- Year:
- 2001
- Language:
- Polish with English subtitles.
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance
- Notes:
- Sound. In Polish with English subtitles. From the Renaissance Society description: ON THE ROAD TO CHISINAU documents a brief incident on a road trip in Moldova. Wryzykoweski and a colleague take a motorcycle excursion as it had been offered by a local resident proud of his sidecar. A couple hours outside of town, the bike overheated and caught fire. Filmed from a safe distance, the details make this a tragi-comedy - the owner’s futile attempts while windshield slowly melts. Off camera, Wryzykowski and a colleague whisper fears of the bike exploding. The do not fear injury as much as what the authorities might think given they are less than a hundred yards from the local prison. Fortunately, their lives do not turn into an action movie. Jump cut to the epilogue where the have been rescued, continuing their journey with a happy soundtrack.
+ Kanagjeci
- Director:
- Shkololli, Erzen
- Running Time:
- Short. 11 minutes
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Kosovo
- Year:
- 2002
- Language:
- No subtitles.
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance
- Notes:
- Sound. No subtitles. From the Renaissance Society description: Playing the role of ethnographer, Erzen Shkololli presents footage of a Romany wedding ritual that occurred near his home in Peja. Kanagjeci (girls night) or Night of Kona (the night the girl cries), takes place on the eve of the wedding. Female friends and relatives gather for a mixture of celebration and mourning as the bride will leave her family. Even if the bride-to-be is happily engaged to a man of her choice, leaving the family is still expected to be grievously acknowledged. This intimate footage is dominated by an intense elegiac tone as a veiled, histrionic bride solicits collective weeping, flailing and wailing throughout a room filled to capacity. The piece ends as the bride settles down long enough for a print of her hennaed hands as custom warrants. Despite their concentration in the Balkans, Romany communities occupy a marginal status in every country. Footage this intimate is difficult to obtain. Shkololli selected this footage from amongst many hours of video from videographers within the Romany community who earn money recording such occasions as family keepsakes.
+ Weeper, The
- Alternate Title:
- Vajtojca
- Director:
- Paci, Adrian
- Running Time:
- Short. 10 minutes
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Albania
- Year:
- 2002
- Language:
- No dialogue.
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance
- Notes:
- Sound. From the Renaissance Society description: In THE WEEPER, Paci explores the folkloric as it would be predicated on his own death. After giving a professional weeper a cursory summary of his life, he lies corpse-like while she weaves an arrestingly beautiful lament on his behalf. The performance ends when Paci sits upright and gives her a hug and a handshake for a job well done. The sudden introduction of a Balkan allegretto, however, retroactively casts the piece as slapstick. Paci rises from the dead, not as himself, but as Roberto Benigni, whose film LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL required a large dose of schmaltz to carry off its shameless mixing of humor and the Holocaust. THE WEEPER, on the other hand, manages to be sentimental without being ironic or cloying, simply by knowing how to place a maraschino cherry on a quiver of emotion centuries deep.
+ Brezhnev Likes Mamaliga, And Mamaliga Likes Brezhnev
- Director:
- Rusu, Stefan
- Running Time:
- Short. 8 minutes
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Moldova
- Year:
- 2001
- Language:
- No dialogue
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance
- Notes:
- Sound. From the Renaissance Society description: Under Lenin, Stalin developed and implemented Soviet policy on nationality. As a step toward transcending the various nationalities comprising the Soviet Socialist Republics, Stalin put in place a program of edifying so as to co-opt the local political, social and cultural elites. Each republic had a cadre of academies with its national scientists, artists and poets, and regional cultural sensibilities were acknowledged through, for example, architectural design motifs. This policy was vigorously pursued by a young Brezhnev who served as the head of the Moldovan communist party from 1950 to 1952. At that time, not only did Moldova receive a national observatory, Brezhnev made public his love of Mamaliga, a peasant chicken soup. Stefan Rusu loosely adopts the format of an instructional video, showing how the dish is prepared from scratch, which in this case means a live chicken. The piece announces itself as a sardonic allegory when the chicken is killed, at which point clips of Brezhnev are interspersed with the cooking lesson. Faint marching music plays throughout. The state may now happily consume its benign folklore, having transcended nationalism not through communism but upon it’s beheading.
+ Girl Is Innocent, The
- Director:
- Raila, Arturas
- Running Time:
- Short. 17 minutes
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Year:
- 1999
- Language:
- English subtitles.
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance
- Notes:
- Sound. With English subtitles. From the Renaissance Society description Despite the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc, Soviet-era rhetoric dies hard, or at the at the Vilnius Secondary School of Fine Art, where Raila used to teach. (He was fired for making this piece.) The candid footage from a teachers’ conference held in 1998, captures, in his words “entrenched anti-Western undercurrents usually withheld from public view.” Indeed, they seem to be flaunted during the student critiques where young artists are criticized, even penalized, for succumbing to the decadence of the class enemy, namely pop art.
+ Banana
- Director:
- Felipov, Oana
- Running Time:
- Short. 4 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Year:
- 2002
- Language:
- Romanian language with English subtitles
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance, Female Directors
- Notes:
- From the Renaissance Society description: “A video camera, a young female artist, and a banana. Felipov describes a performance that would have entailed erotically mashing a banana into paste to be used as a facial cosmetic. Exercising good judgment, Felipov decides not to execute the performance. A generation and a half removed from the historical prime of feminist performance art, it could only register as parody. Her only option? Eating the banana.”
+ Everything Shines Here
- Director:
- Radic, Jelena
- Running Time:
- Short. 4 minutes
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Serbia
- Year:
- 2003
- Language:
- Serbian with English subtitles.
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance, Female Directors
- Notes:
- Sound. In Serbian with English subtitles. From the Renaissance Society description: Radic spotted a star in her young cousin, wearing a hot pink outfit studded with sequins. Despite pre-performance giggles, the girl performs a routine she clearly spent hours choreographing. It is set to music telling the story of a king who abdicates his crown for love. The physical awkwardness of pre-pubescence is completely overcome by grace and sass.
+ Domestic Violence
- Director:
- Kaljo, Kai
- Running Time:
- Short. 15 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Estonia
- Year:
- 2000
- Language:
- Estonian
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance, Female Directors
- Notes:
- No subtitles. From the Renaissance Society description: “This work of premeditated disclosure is in three chapters. Kaljo needed psychological closure to the end of a twelve year relationship. She decided to confront her former partner with whom she had a son, getting him to agree to be tied up for a video without telling him her intent. After taking him hostage, Kaljo catches him off guard with her inquisition. She wants to know why their relationship didn’t work. Although this q&a session is the central and longest chapter, it is sandwiched between chapters featuring Kaljo’s son, first as he is the object of his mother’s affection and then as he expresses the same affection toward his pet rat.”
+ Days Of Being Pathetic
- Director:
- Rakaustakaite, Egle
- Running Time:
- Short. 9 minutes
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Lithuania
- Year:
- 2002 - 2003
- Language:
- English.
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance, Female Directors
- Notes:
- Sound. From the Renaissance Society description: In this video diary entry, lyrically expressed thoughts and feelings are either intensified or poignantly offset by footage of a summer day at a seaside park. Leisure offers her no respite from reflections on the nature of being. For Egle Rakauskaite, images of sun, surf and family bliss do not yield nostalgia but instead a meditation on the body as “separate pieces of meat ruled by the brain.” The unfathomable psychology of a young woman, shot in extreme close-up, sums up the union and disjunction between emotion and perception. To ponder whatever fleeting thoughts might be revealed in her gaze is to unwittingly use this portrait as a mirror.
+ Shoes For Europe
- Director:
- Braila, Pavel
- Running Time:
- Short. 25 minutes
- Sound:
- sound
- Color:
- color
- Country:
- Moldova
- Year:
- 2002
- Genre:
- Experimental / Avant Garde, Video Production, Performance
- Notes:
- No dialogue.
From the Renaissance Society description: “At a railway station at the Moldova-Romania border rail cars must undergo “adaptation,” a process in which the cars are outfitted with wheels of a shorter axle dimension to complete the journey from east to west. A relic of the cold war, this discrepancy in standards will be maintained until new rail lines can be laid. Although the fall of the Berlin Wall was historically monumental, in relationship to this task it remains strictly symbolic. In the mean time, this stubborn bit of history is maintained through hard and thankless work. SHOES FOR EUROPE, however, is not a meditation on labor as much as it is a portrait of the train in its dual guise as an allegory for the rate of history and a metonym for the history of modernity.”