Selection #5

Memory Palace

59 mins

Wandering through dusty roads and underground corridors, palaces and museums, where stones are shaped into ornamental worlds or speak through cracks and holes, telling stories of colonial appropriation, war and post-colonial diaspora. A cave as a repository or a refuge, where things are saved or buried, transmitted and transformed.

Sat 24 Oct

17:00 - 18:00 / ACUD STUDIO

Gautam Valluri
Durbaar

2019, France/India, 16mm, col, silent, 9'

A mood board for the Deccan Sultanate of South India. A tapestry of images takes us through lavish chandeliers from the court of the Last Nizam of Hyderabad to the illuminated memoir of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty. A series of disappearing sonic crescendos flood underneath, remembering the fall of a former grandeur. This film is an ode to intricacy and majesty, through reverie and voyeurism.

Stéphanie Lagarde
Rocky tales of occupation

2019, France/The Netherlands, HD, bw, sound, 15'

Rocky tales of occupation guides the viewer through an underground depot of historic and imaginary relics, from the Alhambra to Romeo & Juliet's balcony. While the voice-over strings together backstory after backstory, a parallel history emerges from the darkness, shaped by fantasy, boredom, faith and power.

Nour Ouayda
Towards the Sun

2019, Lebanon, Mini DV, col, sound, 17'

You are now in the main hall of the National Museum in Beirut. A guard reminds you that you are encouraged to touch the archeological objects. A voice in your headset suggests that you lick the stone. You are now facing a hole in the wall on the lower left corner of a mosaic. The voice in your headset indicates that it was made by a sniper. Out of curiosity, you dial 1-9-9-1 to listen to the rest of the story.

Fakhri El Ghezal
Ahlou Al Kahef (Companions of the cave)

2019, Tunisia, S8, bw, sound, 18'

Shot in black and white on super 8mm film, the movie is an open letter to the rap artist’s Jojo M and Galâa. In equal measure focusing on the remembering and also the longing felt on a voyage through their shared footsteps, before and after their migration from Redeyef in the Tunisian mining basin, to Nantes, in France.

Memory Palace

Sat 24 Oct

Thu 22

Fri 23

Sat 24

Sun 25