PROGRAM C beyond self-importance
Editing is considered the filmmaker’s trump card. It is the stage where the filmmaker can imprint her/his design onto the final weaving of the “textile” from images and sound. Yet Maeda Shinjiro takes this prerogative and entrusts it to automation—for example the mechanical act of a self-devised computer editing software. He anticipates that fragments of a personal life “contain a trove of information that goes beyond any filmmaker’s ambition” and that this will interface with audiences’ memories.
The yearning to free oneself from the insecurity of a trifling existence is not new to human history. In Gambling, Gods and LSD, we meet characters seeking a balance between individual identity and an association with a greater being. In a similar way, filmmaker Peter Mettler’s camera seems to oscillate instinctively between the filmmaker’s desire to create meaning, and his humility and awe in the face of reality itself.
The relationship between Nature and inner peace leave a strong impression in both films.
“hibi” 13 full moons
- JAPAN / 2005 / Japanese / Color / Video / 96 min
Director, Source: Maeda Shinjiro
The filmmaker filmed fifteen seconds a day with his laptop computer’s built-in camera for 365 days, the waxing of the moon determining what time of the day to shoot. Despite the “automatism” of the unedited footage, a vivid picture of the personal comes forth.
Maeda Shinjiro
Born in 1969, Maeda Shinjiro uses video media for artistic production. Active in collaboration with artists from other fields such as performance art, his works include The King’s Children (1998), Inoue Shinta Project of Shepherd 1999 (collaboration with Inoue, 1999, screened at YIDFF ’99), ON (2000) and Vision for the Death of Buddy Matsumae (collaboration with Oki Hiroyuki, 2002). He is currently an associate professor at the International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS) in Gifu Prefecture. |
Gambling, Gods and LSD
SWITZERLAND, CANADA / 2002 / English, others / Color / 35mm / 180 min
Director, Script, Photography: Peter Mettler
Editing: Peter Mettler, Roland Schlimme
Sound: Peter Bräker, Peter Mettler
Music: Fred Frith, Jim O’Rourke, Knut & Silvy, Henryk Gorecki and others
Executive Producers: Andreas Zuest, Atom Egoyan, Peter Mettler
Producers: Alexandra Rockingham Gill, Ingrid Vehinger
Co-producer: Cornelia Seitler
Production Company: maximage GmbH
Source: SWISS FILMS
A journey meeting people who yearn for the ecstasy of life through means such as religion, drugs or sex takes the filmmaker to Toronto, Nevada, Switzerland and southern India. The act of making the film mirrors the search for a matrix that encompasses all being.
Peter Mettler
Born 1958 in Toronto, Peter Mettler’s work transcends categorization, melding drama, essay, experiment and documentary. His filmography includes dramatic feature films such as The Top of His Head (1989) and thirty-minute lyrical diaries such as Balifilm (1997). Picture of Light (1994) won the Runner-up Prize at YIDFF ’95. |