A research-based investigation, Reduction Study (Ping Pong) explores foreign accent perception in relation to social identity and cultural standardisation. In an attempt to understand the concept of reducing one’s native accent the artist, who speaks English as her second language in the United States, takes part in an accent reduction class. She has interviewed linguists, accent coaches and students to discover more about what an accent can represent as part of one’s identity. The ping pong balls in the film are symbols for communication and miss-communication. This film featured in the Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) 2012 and was included in the Artists’ Films series. There is still chance to submit a short film for ASFF 2013, which runs 7 – 10 November across the city of York. The final deadline for submissions is 31 May.
Prince Hamlet is on a journey to England. While making plans for revenge on his father’s murder, he is caught between his hybris and insanity. The murderer, Hamlet’s uncle who has taken his father’s place on the throne of Denmark, now wants to kill him. Finally, Hamlet knows he has to escape death through transformation. The film has five episodes referring to the classical Hamlet’s five-act structure, with excerpts of original dialogue remixed with sounds and music. Scenes are shot in the UK, France, Germany, Finland and Norway. This production featured in Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) 2012 as part of the Experimental Films series. There is still chance to submit a short film for ASFF 2013, which runs 7 – 10 November across the city of York. The final deadline for submissions is 31 May.Hamlet’s Hybris (A Remix), Short Film from ASFF
Emotionally tense, Hostage is a gritty tale of a woman taken hostage by a man who does not speak English, and how they manage to connect beyond the limitations of language. The short directorial debut of emerging Canadian filmmaker Joanna Jang screened at over 10 festivals prior to its appearance in the Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) November 2012. Dark and dramatic, Hostage was a popular feature in the ASFF 2012 Thriller line up. There is still chance to submit a short film for ASFF 2013, which runs 7-10 November across the city of York. The final deadline for submissions is 31 May.Hostage, Short Film from ASFF
Leslie Thornton: Luna, New York
For the second time, New York artist Leslie Thornton returns to the Winkleman Gallery, New York, to exhibit an inspiring new work. Luna is a detailed examination of nature and technology, utilisng the interplay of place, memory, and abstraction to produce a piece glittering with colour and character. Running, 11 May to 22 June, Thornton’s practice crosses the borders of cinema, video, digital media and installation.
Essential Film Festivals this May
To celebrate the final month of the Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) call for entries, Aesthetica presents the essential film festivals to follow or attend this May. The deadline to submit a short film is the 31 May, and the final selection will be screened in York, 7 – 10 November. Covering the genres of drama, documentary, animation, comedy, music video, thriller, experimental and artists’ film, the festival showcases the films across 15 distinct and historic locations in the city of York. Here are our top film festivals this month.
Interview with Previous ASFF Best of Fest Winner, Rich Williamson
The deadline for submissions for the Aesthetica Short Film Festival is fast approaching. There is just under a month left to submit short films to the festival that runs across the city of York in November, and the final deadline for submissions is 31 May. Aesthetica speaks to the director of The Sugar Bowl, Rich Williamson, (co-directed with Shasha Nakhai), about his enjoyment of ASFF and his advice for future applicants.
Mariele Neudecker, HOUSE Festival of Visual Arts, Brighton
Running in parallel with Brighton’s festival season is HOUSE, a celebration of visual art and domestic space. The lead artist for the sixth edition is Mariele Neudecker, who presents, Heterotopias and Other Domestic Landscapes at the Regency Town House, Brunswick Square, Brighton. Running 4 until 26 May, the exhibition is the artist’s most ambitious installation to date and utilises the building, treating it as a container for an increasingly immersive body of connecting works. The showcase includes sculpture, video, photography and imagery of the Arctic, the Azores, Australia, American and the world’s deepest oceans.
Interview with Previous ASFF Entrants, the Blaine Brothers
To celebrate the final month of the Aesthetica Short Film Festival Call for Entries, we caught up with previous entrant Ben Blaine of the British filmmaking duo the Blaine Brothers. Their comedy, The Maestro, screened at ASFF 2011, and stars Robert Bathurst, Tim Samuels and Sirine Saba. Originally produced for BBC Comedy Online before being shown at ASFF, The Maestro has also featured in a number of other festivals across the UK and internationally. They are now producing a new feature film, Nina Forever, and Ben chats to us about his new film, his experience at the film festival, and gives advice to filmmakers considering entering this year.
Athens Video Art Festival 2013
The Athens Video Art Festival returns for the 9th edition of the International Festival of Digital Arts & New Media. Running 7 until 9 June, exhibitions, screenings, workshops and performances will be hosted at the Historical Centre of Athens, opening a dialogue between public and private space.
Tate Liverpool is 25
Since 1988, Tate Liverpool has been the home of some of the world’s most important art works and attracted 15 million visitors. Opening its doors on 24 May, 1988, the gallery has become the most visited venue for modern and contemporary art outside of London. The gallery has already received several birthday wishes in the form of postcards, letters, emails and artworks, from Wayne Hemingway, Anthony McCall, Yoko Ono, Ed Ruscha, Bob and Roberta Smith, Zarina Bhimji and Colin Self. From 17 May until 2 June, Tate Liverpool will be celebrating in style with a specially curated exhibition entitled Tate Liverpool is 25.
Mike Kelley: Mobile Homestead at Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
Mobile Homestead is a permanent art work by the late Mike Kelley located on the grounds of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. It’s both a public sculpture and a private, personal architecture – based on the artist’s childhood home on Palmer Road in Westland, a neighbourhood which primarily housed workers for the Big Three auto makers: Ford, Chrysler and General Motors. In a largely disinvested city with many abandoned houses and dilapidated buildings, Mobile Homestead enacts a reversal of the ‘white flight’ that took place in Detroit following the inner city uprisings of the 1960s. It does so at a time when the city is exploring new options of renewal by assessing its singular post-industrial conditions in an attempt to articulate a new model for American cities. The sculpture, which almost exactly replicates the vernacular architecture of working class neighbourhoods in the American Midwest, brings the suburbs back into the city, and as it travels – on specific missions – the mobile home performs various kinds of community services, establishing a permanent dialogue with the community that houses it.
One Month Left to Enter the Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2013
There is just one month to go before the submission deadline for the Aesthetica Short Film Festival 2013 (ASFF). Enter your film by 31 May and screen your work in an impressive setting to an international audience and be in with the chance of wining a cash prize. ASFF allows for both budding and established filmmakers to connect with new, worldwide audiences and interact with some of the biggest personalities in the film industry today. High profile ASFF attendees in 2012 included representatives from Warp, BAFTA, Channel 4 and Raindance. Over 200 films will be screened at this unique event, in 15 iconic locations across the historic city of York in the UK from 7-10 November 2013.