Gusztáv Hámos and Katja Pratschke are this year’s Silvestre Focus. The works of this duo of German/Hungarian origins will be shown at the festival as one of the most contemporary references in the exploration, study and creation of photofilms. Gusztáv and Katja have come to work over the years with static images in a film context, not only as directors but also as curators of the Photofilm Film Series which were exhibited at the Tate Modern London, SFMOMA, San Francisco, National Gallery of Art Washington, among others.
By exploring the relation between photography and movement, Gusztáv Hámos and Katja Pratschke created a language which challenges the viewer to find new ways to understand time, space and movement. IndieLisboa selected nine films which demonstrate the incredible strength of photo films, as an unusual deconstruction of the relations between language, sound, music and picture.
The first program dedicated to the filmmakers includes Hidden Cities, a narrative about the physical scars of cities such as New York, Budapest and Berlin, which explores society’s humanity and lack there of; Transposed Bodies, a story about the shared love between two friends who lose their heads in an unfortunate accident; and Rope, a film which was clearly inspired by the works of Étienne-Jules Marey, about a man with a rope tied around his neck.
The second program of this Focus will screen Rien ne va plus, where the repetitive sequence of events gives way to a reflection about the notions of time, light and space; Fiasko, a film inspired by the novel with the same, by Imre Kertész (Nobel Prize in Literature) which tells the story of a Hungarian jewish writer and the continuing oppression after the second world war; and Cities (Potential Space), a fiction film about imagined future cities, which modernizes the works of Italo Calvino.
The third program will focus on the solo work done by Gusztáv Hámos, by screening the films which left a mark on his early career and highlight the importance which those films had on the way video in film was perceived. For this program, IndieLisboa revives the story of Flash Gordon of Seins Fiction, the allegory of post-industrial Germany of Luck Smith and 1989 – The Real Power of Television, which questions the impact of television in every people’s lives, through a dialogue between historical facts of the era after the Golf War and the daily routines of the director’s grandmother.
Besides the films, IndieLisboa’s Lisbon Talks program will include a debate about the Photofilm, with the presence of the duo and other guests related to photography and architecture.
GUSZTÁV HÁMOS & KATJA PRATSCHKE FOCUS
Seins Fiction, 1980, 20”
1989 – The Real Power of Television, 1989, 59”
Luck Smith, 1989
Transposed Bodies, 2002, 27 ”
Rien ne va plus, 2005, 30”
Fiasko, 2010, 32”
Hidden Cities, 2012, 27”
Cities (Potential Space), 2014, 30”
Rope, 2016, 28”