Experimental Composition as Cinematic Principle

“Telling this story of my own withdrawal, I try to show what is there to be found when one is ready to let go.”

“An interesting film creates a parallel reality to the real world,” the Swiss filmmaker notes. “It adds to our perception of reality, it reflects, it demands again and again.” Such elasticity allows Peter Liechti to be less concerned with genres at play and more with making sure that he does not suggest certain sentiments or push toward a particular political stance.

Read more in the European Documentary Magazine DOX

Odessa: Children of the Streets

Dismounted and suspended, the dusk recklessly creeped in, enveloping the theatre, it played out a little, easing out the way just before plunging into the rawness of the reality of those who call streets home.

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Neurotypical

“My child is a ‘red’ child in a ‘blue’ world,” a mother of an autistic fifteen-year-old expressed at the online screening of the film on POV, “and my job is to teach him how to exist in the ‘blue’ world but not to make him ‘blue.'”

“Neurotypical” is a remarkable film about life from the perspective of the autistic people.

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This Is Not a Film

Fragmented lines, remains of tape, and shards of man’s dignity salvaged in a miniature display on a lavish Persian rug.

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Waltz With Bashir

“Whether an eternity or just a minute, there was Frenkel at the junction with bullets flying past him in every direction. Instead of crossing the juction, I saw him dancing, as if in a trance. He cursed the shooters. Like he wanted to stay there forever. As if he wanted to show off his waltz amid the gunfire, with the posters of Bashir above his head. And Bashir’s followers preparing their big revenge just 200 yards away: the Sabra and Shatila massacre.”

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Every Little Thing

Caught in the nervous tics and disrupted diction, Michel, one of the long-term patients who regularly stays at the clinic since 1969, alike his fellows, chooses the temporary safety of the art world. He feels protected by the narrow confines of the fictional world of the ‘Operette’, where “the totally illogical lines comfort him.” Embraced by the tranquil woods of the Loire Valley, the La Borde asylum alleges art as a sanctuary and repose, serving both as an act of catharsis and that of defiance.

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Father’s Garden – The Love of My Parents

The inquisitive long-absent son is like that “unwelcome archaeologist”, who stirs up cold ashes and unearths buried residues of the past family conflict that has run out of arguments.

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The House I Live In

And as one said, we have to look at the big picture because “[…] people out there in the streets, it is not a problem – it is a manifestation of a problem. It is simply a symptom. It is sort of like saying that the problem with pneumonia is cough. Let’s suppress the cough, and that’s okay. Well you can suppress the cough but lung will be still inflamed…”

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A Citizen with a Movie Camera

“Perhaps through realizing human nature in a shape distant and foreign to us, we shall have some light shed on our own.” Sailing in the highest spheres of delirium, running amok, we have a right to wonder. Because oddly enough in this tale of war, it is as personal as it gets.

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Between Dreams

Perched on the dingy wagon beds, fellow travellers recline as the night approaches falling into the arms of Morpheus. Everything around them is enraptured with drowsiness: the objects, the neighbours, the entire décor reads sleep. The jolting noise of a train sluggishly come in sync with the sound of sleep creating a somewhat hypnotic pacing. This beautifully crafted short documentary attempts to unfetter the dark secrets of passengers through the stories of their dreams.

Read more on Filmkommentaren.dk