Field Recordings 5 – Day 1

Field Recordings is back! Over the weekend of November 8-9-10, you can immerse yourself in an exciting selection of contemporary anthropological film, landscape cinema and experimental sound work at WORM.
Employing a wide range of media, from 16mm analogue film, to a 360 degree camera, to an interactive audio walk through Rotterdam, the works gathered in the programme touch on a multiplicity of themes. We move from evolution and extinction, narrated by rocks (Last Things, Deborah Stratman), to debates between proponents of traditional and colonial law, inherited from European occupation (Al Djanat, Chloé Aïcha Boro), to an auto-ethnographic portrayal of the Nenets way of life (Nedarma, Anastasia Lapsui & Markku Lehmuskallio) to the consequences of French nuclear testing in colonial era Algeria (And still, it remains, Arwa Aburawa & Turab Shah). Negotiation – whether between two sides of a conflict, or the settlement of a difficult family history – is a common thread.
The programme of Field Recordings 5 engages with various marginalised narratives, often from the perceived peripheries, and is made with an eye on fostering conversations between seemingly disparate geographical and political contexts. As in previous years, we’re featuring many international filmmakers, and many of them will be present at the screenings.
Opening night tickets: Early Bird €8 / Regular €10 / Cineville valid online from 10 am on the day itself + at the door
DAY 1 PROGRAMME
18:00 – 23:30 – INSTALLATION: The Bodhi Tree in Bosch’s Garden
by Maia Liu in collaboration with Yezi Lin and Leopold Liu
2-channel video installation, 2024, Netherlands, English and Mandarin with English subtitles
The Bodhi Tree in Bosch’s Garden is a video installation which traces Liu’s exploration of her father’s archive of art made in the 1990s during his time in Europe. In her attempt to grasp the meaning of his works and accompanying notes, she relies on the cultural mediation of her best friend Yezi, whose diasporic experience strongly resonates with that of Liu’s father (whom she herself barely knows). The installation offers a playful yet complex interplay of appropriation, projection, intimidation, and admiration among the three characters — the father’s artworks, the daughter, and her friend.
19:00-21:00 SHORTS #1:
With films by Karla Crnčević, Oleksiy Radynski, Arwa Aburawa & Turab Shah and Priyageetha Dia. A connecting thread for the works gathered in this programme is a reflection on toxic landscapes, transformed by the forces of war, colonialism and ecological disasters. Employing diverse approaches and tools, such as archival footage, 3D animation and various documentary techniques, the films resist dominant narratives, and reclaim places with which the filmmakers hold strong and personal ties.
Wild Flowers by Karla Crnčević
2022, Croatia/Spain, 10 min., Croatian with English subtitles
Wild Flowers uses footage of a destroyed family house in the village of Radovčići in Croatia, recorded by the filmmaker’s father in 1992. Initiated by an impulse to rethink and rewatch footage from the family archive, the film explores memory and its relation to documentation and non-institutional archival practices. Bringing politics into intimate spaces, the documentary asks questions about the influence of war on identity formation, and posits gardens as sites of new beginnings.
Chornobyl 22 by Oleksiy Radynski
2023, Ukraine, 21 min., Ukranian with English subtitles
In the early days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces took over the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. Workers at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant describe their impossible position, working under the Russian army’s occupation of the facility to ensure the site remained safe. The film was developed as part of the Reckoning Project, a media and forensic group that investigates and prosecutes Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
And Still, it Remains by Arwa Aburawa & Turab Shah
2023, Algeria/UK, 28 min., Arabic and Tamahaq English subtitles
And Still, It Remains reflects on the afterlife of French nuclear toxicity in Algeria through a community shaped but not defined by its history. In Mertoutek, a village nestled in the Hoggar Mountains of Algeria’s Southern Sahara, we spend time with the Escamaran community as they narrate their accounts and understanding of time, toxic colonialism and how to survive the end of your world. Summoning the landscape as a witness, the film also affords the residents some distance from colonial forms of visual capture and challenges visibility as the currency of political redress.
LAMENT H.E.A.T by Priyageetha Dia
2023, Singapore, 15 min., Tamil with English subtitles
In its hypnotic rhythm, LAMENT H.E.A.T explores narratives around rubber plantations in Malaya, drawing connections to the themes of resistance and memory. Central to the piece is the adaptation of oppari, a Tamil lamentation practice performed by Dalits – some of the most marginalised people in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia – reimagined through H.E.A.T (Hevea Errichal Automation Tech), a technological entity that serves as a medium for collective grief and remembrance.
Followed by a Q&A with Priyageetha Dia.
21:30-23:30 – The Human Surge 1 by Eduardo Williams
2016, Argentina/Brazil/Portugal, 97 min., Spanish/Portuguese/Cebuano with English subtitles
The Human Surge 1 takes us on a hypnotic journey across places, languages and technologies. Different groups of people wander in a rainy, windy, dark world, transported seamlessly from continent to continent. They spend time together, trying to get away from their depressing jobs, and make choices about what to do with their free time, drifting towards a surreal future fantasy.
watch trailer
Followed by a Q&A with Eduardo Williams.
ABOUT FIELD RECORDINGS
Founded in 2018, Field Recordings is a platform for screening, discussing and practicing critical forms of fieldwork – from sensory ethnographies and experimental documentaries to live sound performances and situated praxes of listening. The programme is curated by Tim Leyendekker and Marta Hryniuk.
Follow on instagram and www.fieldrecordings.org
FULL PROGRAMME:
Field Recordings 5 DAY 1 | 8 nov
Field Recordings 5 DAY 2 | 9 nov
Field Recordings 5 DAY 3 | 10 nov