The Art(s) of Slow Cinema

Screen shots of slow and other films, theartsofslowcinema.com, tao-films.com

[slow-cinema]

NOW on tao films: 1000 Smiles Per Hour, a contemplative short film by Fabian Altenried. Check it out! https://tao-films.com/film/1000-smiles-per-hour

[slow-cinema]

Very proud! My VoD platform for Slow Cinema receives a lot of good feedback. Catch one of our films or get yourself a subscription to our platform! http://tao-films.com

[slow-cinema]

In the Crosswinds (dir Martti Helde, 2014)

Read my thoughts on the film’s representation of trauma on The Art(s) of Slow Cinema: https://theartsofslowcinema.com/2018/04/27/arresting-trauma-martti-heldes-in-the-crosswinds-2014/

[slow-cinema]

The Wild Pear Tree (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2018)

[slow-cinema]

Good Luck (dir Ben Russell, 2017)

Read my review on The Art(s) of Slow Cinema: https://theartsofslowcinema.com/2018/04/18/good-luck-ben-russell-2017/

[slow-cinema]

“I film over large (sometimes too large) periods of time. It was very important for me to film with a big camera. I didn’t want to hide the fact that I am filming and I don’t believe in that “fly on the wall” story. Claire Denis once said: “Film famous people with small cameras and unknown people with big cameras”. The presence of the camera always modifies a situation, sometimes in a violent way. A lot of moments in the film were provoked by the presence of the camera. That was an important point.“

New film now available for streaming on tao films: EL CORRAL Y EL VIENTO by Miguel Hilari from Bolivia. https://tao-films.com/film/el-corral-y-el-viento

[slow-cinema]

You can support my work on The Art(s) of Slow Cinema, the only site dedicated to slow films, on Patreon. For as little as $1 a month, you can help me publish more film and book reviews, and research ideas. Every contribution goes towards acquiring material I’m writing about on this site. If you cannot afford a monthly donation, you can also make a one-off payment via PayPal. Thank you very much in advance! Shares/reposts would be greatly appreciated!

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nadinmai

Paypal: http://paypal.me/nadinmai

[slow-cinema]

New film now available on my VoD platform tao films, the platform for contemplative world cinema: Du côté de la réalité immédiate by Pierre Villemin. You can watch it for 1.99€ or you can get yourself a 30 day subscription for 9.99€ and watch all our films. https://tao-films.com

[slow-cinema]

“There are several instances in the film, when Rashidi uses quick cuts. The cuts come at an interval that is close to a blink of an eye. A bit longer than that, but still short enough to allow a comparison to my blinking eye, my blinking mind’s eye. This way of cutting made me believe that what I saw was happening in my head. It was a story that played out in my mind. I was the one who blurred the images because I didn’t have clear recollections of the past. This, too, is Phantom Islands: a blurring of the lines between what is and what isn’t, between what is and what has been. The film works like memory: it remembers, but it also forgets. It distorts, it blurs. It makes sense, and it doesn’t. What often remains are images that you’re baffled by, a narrative element that you try to piece together to form an entity.“

Read my full review of PHANTOM ISLANDS by Rouzbeh Rashidi now on The Art(s) of Slow Cinema. https://theartsofslowcinema.com/2018/02/21/phantom-islands-rouzbeh-rashidi-2018/

[slow-cinema]

West of the Tracks, Bitter Money, Three Sisters, Mrs Fang - directed by Wang Bing

[slow-cinema]

A retrospective of films by Mexican (slow film) director Nicolas Pereda is to take place at the Cineteca Mexico, starting 20 February.

[slow-cinema]

Ang Panahon Ng Halimaw (Season of the Devil), dir Lav Diaz (2018)

[slow-cinema]

Fresh from the press: new books on Chantal Akerman

I took a literary journey through the works of Chantal Akerman thanks to two new books that have been published on her work. Not so long ago, I wrote about Chantal Akerman, Passer la nuit by Corinn…

New post on The Art(s) of Slow Cinema! 

[slow-cinema]

Season of the Devil (Ang Panahon ng Halimaw), dir Lav Diaz (2018)

[slow-cinema]

Their Remaining Journey – John Clang (2018)

Their remaining journey… My journey. Your journey. Our journey. John Clang’s debut feature is one of those films that won’t let me go for a while. It might have taught be somethin…

“The viewer’s journey is a vertical one. And so it might be for the dead. Is a horizontal progression possible after death, or is vertical the only direction left? I believe that Clang answers this question beautifully. The director goes deep, explores our minds, our expectations, our naked fears. He does so by confronting us with ourselves, by holding up a mirror and by asking us to take a journey…a journey with our loved ones, a journey with ourselves, to the depth of our feelings.“

New blog post on The Art(s) of Slow Cinema.

[slow-cinema]

New film available now on tao films, the new VoD service for contemplative cinema: MEER, a short experimental film by Wolfgang Lehmann and Telemach Wiesinger. Watch the film now! https://tao-films.com/film/meer

[slow-cinema]

The art of emptiness – Itzhak Goldberg (ed, 2017)

After a rather long break from writing due to health reasons, I’m trying to embark on finally writing something about that book I bought last year, which intrigued me with its title. My avid …

“In his introduction to the book, editor Itzhak Goldberg points out that (as I have previously argued in the context of Slow Cinema) the larger visibility of emptiness as a subject is, as such, not a recent phenomenon. Rather, emptiness has always been there, but external circumstances, such as the increased speed of our lives, make us more aware of the opposite: of slowness, of nothingness, emptiness. It’s like you searching for something to do when you’re bored. Nothingness gives way to fullness, and the other way around. In his online article about emptiness in art, André Rouillé argues – to me quite convincingly – that art has the opportunity to set itself apart from all other mediated images in a world full of images by putting emptiness (or nothingness) at their centre. According to Rouillé, the media are condemned to be fast all the time. It is about grabbing the spectator, about reporting first about an important event. It is, as he says, all about the spectacle, which makes me think of Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle and his own comments on it. In any case, Rouillé suggests that art can function as the antidote of this ever-increasing speed, which is being normalised by the (spectacle of the) media.“