Statement des Medienkünstlers: " I made a video series called "Places we love" that I'm using as a base for this project. I would stick to the original method in a sense that people I am filming have absolute freedom to choose where they want to be filmed and what activity they want to do, I'll again film in black&white and request that all of their stories be in their native language with providing English subtitles. What is different in this case is that I'm switching my focus from young art workers to more intimate direction by interviewing queer migrants and refugees. I always say that we live in a time when even the people that never moved anywhere from their homes are feeling displaced, question of belonging is such a crucial part of our existence and in this case even more difficult.

I recently moved to Vienna to start my masters and I'm still going to all of this, that's why I think it's my artistic responsibility to create a safe space and platform for different people from my community to share their stories of search for home and belonging in a new place. I'm providing you a link of some collage from my previous series project just to see what is aesthetics and have better idea how it will look at the end, when I was editing this short preview I randomly find audio recording of me singing ten years ago and I love it because it comes back to the beginning and why did I got interested in starting this project.

I was always struggling to answer where I am from, country I feel the most part of my identity doesn't exist anymore, and even more complicated I moved so much from town to town that I ended up having no feeling of home. Once I madly fall in love and for the first time in my life I had a feeling I found home, I was feeling that my partner was my home. Two years after painful separation I found some capacity to artistically reflect and made a video essay about this called "Description of the sea by a memory", this was opening a space for later series, and now the project proposal I'm happy to share with you."

Country of origin: Österreich

Runtime: N. N. minutes

Project type: experimental, short

Language: N. N.

Der Film wird seine Premiere im Rahmen der INDEPENDENT DAYS|24. Internationale Filmfestspiele Karlsruhe (9.-13. April 2025) in der SCHAUBURG feiern.

Eine junge Frau auf dem Weg zur Bushaltestelle, um nach Hause zu fahren. Sie entdeckt zufällig ein kleines, verlassenes Buch. Als sie dieses aufschlägt, beginnt das Buch zu sprechen. Es stellt sich heraus, dass es sich um eine Zugangskarte zu den modernistischen Gebäuden von Tiflis aus der Sowjet-Ära handelt. Die Karte schlägt vor, verschiedene Architekturdenkmäler zu besuchen, die heute Lost Places sind. Eines der Gebäude liegt ganz in ihrer Nähe, also beschließt sie, es sich anzusehen. Es beginnt eine Reise in die architektonische Geschichte der Stadt.

Country of origin: Georgien

Runtime: 16 minutes

Project type: experimental, short

Language: English

Der Film reflektiert die Beziehung zwischen Natur und Mensch durch eine absurde und ironische zehnminütige Yoga-Routine. Soeben wurden die Dreharbeiten beendet, an die sich nun die Postproduktion anschließt.

Die Yoga-Routine findet in einer digital erstellten surrealen Szene statt, in der zwei anonyme Figuren eine Vielzahl von Körperpositionen einnehmen und hierbei den Anweisungen eines Erzählers außerhalb des Bildschirms folgen. Im Laufe der Routine soll die Erzählung nach und nach eine kommentierende Perspektive einnehmen, die den anfänglichen Erwartungen des Publikums an eine typische Yoga-Routine widersprechen.

Neben der Anleitung der Figuren zu ihrer Atmung und Körperpositionierung, fügt der Erzähler verschiedene Reflexionen und Randnotizen hinzu, die zeigen, dass der Erzähler außerhalb des Bildschirms eine Personifikation der Luft ist.

Country of origin: The Netherlands

Runtime: 10 minutes

Project type: experimental, short

Language: English

Two girlfriends barhopping on a Friday night are robbed by their cab driver. Left on the curb with no phones and no money, they decide to walk home. But they are in heels and skimpy clothes, and the streets are not safe at midnight.

They decide to go to the Witch doctor s parlor nearby to get one wish granted in order to reach home safely. While at the Witch doctor`s, they deliberate on many options and finally settle to wish for three hours of no men in their town, until they reach home. Their wish is granted and they are sent home through a door to an alternate universe in which there are no men.

However, the girls get greedy when they reach home and decide to extend the hours through which their town can go without men, unaware of the consequences they are causing to their reality.

When they finally return to reality, they realise that the Witch doctor tricked them and has harvested all the souls of the men in their town.

Country of origin: Uganda

Runtime: 15 minutes

Project type: experimental, short

Language: English