To Exist Under Permanent Suspicion
A woman on the verge of a corporate breakdown. The air is all but sucked out of Valentin Noujaïm’s deliciously miasmic horror set in La Défense, Europe’s largest purpose-built business district on the outskirts of Paris. Ambitious executive Claire (played by Saint Omer’s Kayije Kagame) is pitching a new skyscraper when she begins to descend into a fugue state fueled by visions of violent alienation.
Programmer’s Note
The second chapter in Noujaïm’s La Défense trilogy continues to explore the politics and emotions of space in the alienating corporate architecture and postcolonial anti-monuments of the district. Impregnated with a chilling, metallic, neo-noir aesthetic elevated by the eerie urban dubscapes of Space Afrika, we witness Claire’s deliriously unfolding malaise through the fractured isolation of her desktop screen. 1990s-inspired, warping 3D mesh simulations peel off the layers of the building, getting closer to the core of her labour imprisonment and literal intoxication. And, emanating from the eerie absence of dialogue, a recurring incantation of extraction and revulsion – “gas, gold, glass, tears, piss, silver, metal, sand, leather, dust, concrete…” (Ane Lopez)
Director Biography
Valentin Noujaïm’s practice delves into the dynamic interplay of real and imagined lives, crafting intricate narratives that transport viewers to fantastical realms inhabited by enigmatic characters. His works reflect complexities of power and dominance within French society. Noujaïm was a resident at Artagon (Marseille), Villa Medici (Rome) and Lafayette Anticipations (Paris). Supported by funding organisations such as Doha Film Institute, AFAC – Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, CNAP – Centre National des Arts Plastiques, and CNC – Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée, his works have been screened internationally, including at Centre Pompidou; CPH:DOX; DocLisboa; Dokufest; CNAC Magasin; BlackStar Film Festival; and Festival International du cinéma de Nyon.
Director Filmography
Pacific Club (2023), Saturnalia (2022), Daughters of Destiny (2021), Venus Retrograde (2020/2021), The Blue Star (2019), Before She Forgets Heliopolis (2019)
for here am I sitting in a tin can far above the world
for here am i sitting in a tin can far above the world
A woman dreams of a future economic crisis affecting the cryptocurrency market. Thousands have been cryogenized, waiting for better times… Gala Hernández López’ densely researched, engrossing two-channel work is a dizzying psychedelic epistolary laden with doom and unease. Are we all suspended, falling into the void? And what strange relationship do we have with the future?
Programmer’s Note
Recycler of mass internet content and portrayer of YouTube communities, Hernández López borrows texts from Finn Brunton’s Digital Cash to compile an obscure cyberpunk nightmare. “How come you are not scared Hal?” asks a velvety, frightful voice to American cryptographer and techno-optimist Hal Finney in an imaginary conversation. In 2014, Finney had entered cryostasis, financed by his crypto points. The film uses his time travelling arc to construct an anxious collage of past and present wherein digital currencies, future phobia, extropian philosophy and life extension technology converge. At times, the double screens resemble the windows of a space station and we float high above a world eternally collapsing, where people have withdrawn from life in the hope of a techno-fix. (Ane Lopez)
Director Biography
Gala Hernández López is an artist-researcher and filmmaker. Through interdisciplinary research and the production of essay films, video installations and performances, her work explores new modes of subjectivation, specifically as produced by computational digital capitalism. From a feminist and critical lens, she examines discourses and imaginaries circulating in virtual communities and their relationship to states of being in the world. Her work has been shown at DOK Leipzig, Cinéma du Réel, IndieLisboa, the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and the Salon de Montrouge, among others. Her film The Mechanics of fluids is selected for the César awards 2024.
Director Filmography
for here am I sitting in a tin can far above the world (2023), The Mechanics of Fluids (2023)
