Experimental Film Treasures

Part 2

61 mins

New in 2026, Experimental Film Treasures is an all-analog section dedicated to full-length works, conceived as a focused space for films that have shaped—and continue to shape—the field of avant-garde cinema. Bringing into relation a historical work and a recent film—Carriage Trade by Warren Sonbert (USA, 1972) and 12 Asterisci by Telemach Wiesinger (Germany, 2025)—the program avoids any simple division between past and present, allowing both works to resonate within a shared field of perception and form. In doing so, it extends the festival’s engagement beyond the short format, foregrounding duration as a condition for thinking through film.

Warren Sonbert (1947–1995) occupies a singular position within the history of experimental cinema. Emerging in the 1960s, he developed a montage practice grounded in the accumulation and juxtaposition of images filmed across different places and times. Working primarily in 16mm, Sonbert assembled fragments of travel, daily life, and fleeting encounters into dense, non-narrative constellations structured through rhythm, association, and movement rather than linear progression.
Carriage Trade (1972) marks an early articulation of this method: a silent work in which editing becomes a form of thinking through images, unfolding as a continuous flow of perception across spaces, bodies, and situations.

* Film synopses are provided by the artist and/or distributors.

TICKETS

Thu 28 May

16:00 - 17:30 / ACUD KINO

Warren Sonbert
CARRIAGE TRADE
USA, 1972, 61’ 00”, 16mm, silent

Footage gathered across Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States is interwoven with fragments drawn from Sonbert’s earlier films, forming a dense and evolving montage. Constructed as what the filmmaker described as a “jigsaw puzzle of postcards,” the film unfolds through discontinuous associations rather than narrative progression, allowing meaning to emerge from the shifting relations between images, gestures, and rhythms.

Experimental Film Treasures

Part 2

Thu 28 May

Wed 27

Thu 28

Fri 29

Sat 30

Sun 31