Meet the filmmakers
Tricky Women/Tricky Realities 2019
TRICKY WOMEN/TRICKY REALITIES 2019, Ulla Klopf
We asked our international guests 3 questions, here are their answers!
Anaïs Caura | The Man Woman Case
The Man Woman Case, 15.3. 22:30
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
When being different is a crime.
2. What or who inspires you?
Anaïs Caura (Director): Forest, Goya, Tardi, Hugo Pratt, Turner, Wes Anderson, Nina Simone, etc... There is too many persons who inspire me!
Joëlle Oosterlinck (Scenarist): Patti Smith / Kate Bush / Simone Weil / David Bowie / David B / Alison Bechdel / Jiro Taniguchi / Marjane Satrapi / Nine Antico
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
Anaïs Caura (Director): Imagination.
Joëlle Oosterlinck (Scenarist): Everything. Even my haircut.
Ana Nedeljković & Nikola Majdak | Untravel
Competition 2, 14.3. 21:00 & 16.3. 17:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
Untravel is a film about (local) patriotism, tourism and emigration.
2. What or who inspires you?
Reality. The political situation in my country, and in general. It provides me with very interesting scripts almost every single day.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
I am 40 years old and I still play with plasticine (and I make “cute” dystopian worlds…).
Ani Antonova | The Outlander
Österreich Panorama, 17.3. 13:15
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
It is a documentary animation about the journey of a small elephant through people, places, life and time.
2. What or who inspires you?
The encounter with persons, utopias, reality, poetry, natural history and hours and hours of talking with my beloved ones.
A state of enjoyable confusion can also be very fruitful sometimes.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
Tricky Women are my favourite superheroes, they have very exquisite abilities:
making things come alive, the power of humor and the power of changing tricky realities.
When I grow up I want to be a Tricky Woman.
Anna Vasof | Muybridge’s Disobedient Horses
Competition 2, 14.3. 21:00 & 16.3. 17:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
In the third chapter of my film you can watch a film that I made out of a book that I made out of a film that I made out of a book.
2. What or who inspires you?
Coffee paper-cups, a banknote counter, flip-books and ping pong movements.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
I never stop observing how absurd are the things around me.
Barb Taylor | Bobbi and Sheelagh
The Man Woman Case, 15.3. 22:30
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
A lesbian meets a mythological creature.
2. What or who inspires you?
At this moment queer filmmakers and activists.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
I love to create a mythological world that can heal some of the hurts that transpire in this world. Of course it is make believe, but it is also a way to tell stories of my community and share some of our points of view in the hope of being heard.
Caroline Voagen Nelson | Code Ruth
Exploring Realities, 15.3. 18:00 & 16.03. 14:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
Code Ruth is a true love story about my grandmother, a Morse code instructor, finding her path during WWII.
2. What or who inspires you?
I'm very inspired by the history of environments / technologies and by innovative artists like Lotte Reiniger, Ray Eames, and Lee Bontecou.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
As a woman, I strive to support and collaborate with other women artists and challenge gender stereotypes.
As an animator, I blend many different filmmaking techniques: analog practical effects collaged with new technologies, to tell stories from our past. It's very important in my practice to remember the past and retell those stories in unexpected ways to engage a new audience.
Chai Mi | Birds Dream & I PLAY YOU PLAY WE PLAY
Beyond Animation, 16.3. 18:00 & 17.03. 21:15
Her: Evolution of Memory, 15.3. 20:00 & 17.3. 15:15
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
Birds Dream: I used to accidentally imagine myself as a bird, now I am not like this.
I play you play we play: A documentary about my thoughts on playing jigsaw puzzles during one month.
2. What or who inspires you?
An uncertain feeling with suspicion and uneasiness.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
I'm not sure if I am a tricky woman or not, but life is tricky I believe that.
Dahee Jeong | The Armpit Hair Girl
Meeting Challenges, 14.3. 17:00 & 17.3. 13:30
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
A film that expresses the growing pains of a normal teenage girl in a special episode.
2. What or who inspires you?
This film is based on my difficulty to small changes that I have had in adolescence, which has come to me with the weight of the universe.
I was inspired by myself who could not overcome the changes well.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
I am an ordinary woman who desires and dreams. My desire and dream are realized in Tricky Realities.
Daria Kashcheeva | Oasis
Up & Coming 2, 14.3. 20:00 & 17.3. 17:30
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
A feeling when you want to escape right now.
2. What or who inspires you?
When I used to live in Moscow, in this big hectic city, I lacked a calm beautiful place, where I could hide for a while during a day. So this desire to have such an oasis inspired me to make a short film.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
I'm a total introvert :-) So that's why to sit behind the desk thinking about the film, writing a screenplay and drawing sketches or to stay in a studio alone animating 12 hours a day is my passion and dream job!
Diana Cam Van Nguyen | Apart
Exploring Realities, 15.3. 18:00 & 16.3. 14:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
Anidoc about three young people sharing sad experience with loss of a parent.
2. What or who inspires you?
Big cliché answer: people around me. My friends and family.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
I can drink as a big guy and not like a small asian girl.
Eni Brandner| Pantopos & Me-Log
Happines Machine | To The Common Good!, 16.3. 20:00
Österreich Panorama, 17.3. 13:15
Pantopos:
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
Pantopos - a place/space/room/idea that includes everyone - is about difficulties we are facing in capitalism and the dream of an alternative that incorporates the ideas of community and growth that we might wake up to, if we let go of our old perpetuated ideas of glory that is created through wealth.
2. What or who inspires you?
I was inspired by: “The economy of the common good”, a book by Christian Felber; by how an economic system affects our daily lives; by how we are prisoners of ideas of the past; by how all economic systems and their perspectives for the future are utopian in some way or the other; by the gap between rich and poor; by being a part of the consumer society; by the financial crisis; by injustice that is propelled in the current system that we live in; by the need to perform in a society where the human has become a commodity; by going to a supermarket and thinking consciously about the way every product that I buy was produced; by traveling to different places and experiencing them through talking to people; …
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
I like challenges, and I like innovation. These are often tricky to approach, but that’s one of the aspects I love most about being able to do animation. My work is based on tricking perception to create realities that are different from how we normally see them. If a technology is used in a way that you can’t understand as a viewer, it seems like magic. (Continued in the comments)
Me-Log:
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
If you read Me-Log backwards, it says Golem - meaning an animated anthropomorphic being that is magically created entirely from inanimate matter.. it means "my light form", "raw" material, connoting the unfinished human being before God's eyes - and is also used for a woman who hasn’t given birth to a child yet.
2. What or who inspires you?
I was inspired by: the internet, fake news, AI technology, chat bots, the picture that is created of women in media, poetry, menstruation, quotes and bits of things that people said about women or told me directly, the story of the Golem, “Not I” by Samuel Beckett, an old version of the “Knigge” from the year 1800, Max Headroom, Blade Runner, YouTube videos, image tracking and manipulation technologies, the question of truth in times of “alternative news”, the sentiment that later (after the film was finished) was publicly discussed under the term “metoo”, personal experiences, Deep Dream, Neural Networks, feminist literature, cook books, sexist women’s magazines, mobbing, questions about the future, performance art, make up tutorials, art history …
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
The tricky bit about this film was how to make something that isn’t too perfect, so it seems too real and at the same time making it real enough to get to the point I was trying to make. Another tricky thing was how to translate all the thoughts I had about this topic into a short text and not lose any of the intensity. Also, it’s a tricky topic to talk about...
Hailu Chen | Peach Blossom Fish
Competition 1, 14.3. 19:00 & 16.3. 15:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
Freedom is the most valuable thing in your life. Only with it can you really have love and everything.
2. What or who inspires you?
I found myself and also found a suitable way to express myself.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
Besides doing housework and looking after children, women can do many other interesting things, such as art...
Karina Paciorkowska | You are overreacting
Competition 2, 14.3. 21:00 & 16.3. 17:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
Condensed reality of being a woman in contemporary world.
2. What or who inspires you?
What inspired me in case of this particular film was all the misogynist, sexist, awful, backward-thinking people in general. Or, to be more specific - my anger towards them. And the idea of change.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
I think the fact that I'm really trying to stop caring about whatever is expected of me. And unexpected things are always tricky!
Kathrin Steinbacher | The Woman Who Turns Into A Castle & The Darkest Valentine
Exploring Realities, 15.3. 18:00 & 16.3. 14:00
Österreich Panorama, 17.3. 13:15
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
The Woman Who Turns Into A Castle: An animated documentary about a woman who turns into a castle based on Oliver Sacks Case study.
The Darkest Valentine: A film about love and expectations.
2. What or who inspires you?
Nature, mountains, people - especially their flaws and delusions - all the messy bits of human nature we all try to pretend we don’t have.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
I guess I am quite straightforward and sassy in a way. I often say what I think which can lead to tricky situations sometimes :).
Lei Lei | Shadow
Competition 2, 14.3. 21:00 & 16.3. 17:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
A film with strong emotions.
2. What or who inspires you?
Oral storytelling.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
The narration flexibility and realism of animation.
LIA | Fly Us To The Moons
Competition 4, 15.3. 21:00 & 16.3. 19:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
Fly Us To The Moons is an abstract work that invites viewers to form personal meanings and associations as they are taken on a journey through a landscape of shapes and forms.
2. What or who inspires you?
I like to let myself be inspired by colors and forms from anywhere and everywhere around me. When you think for instance about the principle of growth and decline in nature, this can already be an endless field of inspiration. The arrangement of seeds in a sunflower, the intricate architecture of a spider web, the unique way that a plant grows, for example - all of these follow invisible laws of nature. Or in a city, there are so many interesting things to look at - reflections in a window, patterns in ice that forms on the sidewalk, a spontaneous accumulation of cars of the same color, rhythmically blinking lights, etc.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
I started working with code as my artistic tool a long time ago, making algorithmic art when this was still far away from being common or popular, or even accepted as "real art". It’s certainly rather tricky to work in a field that, on the one hand, was and still is dominated by men, and on the other hand, remains distant from the mainstream.
Maria Weber | BirthStatements
Österreich Panorama, 17.3. 13:15
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
A strengthening journey into life - an animadoc about the borderline experience of birth.
2. What or who inspires you?
Going to film festivals like Tricky Women inspires me a lot, meeting other artists and watching their films. The work of Jan Svankmajer and Spela Cadez inspires me.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
I love to create something with my own hands, and bring it to life.
Martina Scarpelli | Egg
Competition 1, 14.3. 19:00 & 16.3. 15:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
A young woman is at home with an egg.
2. What or who inspires you?
Nature, humans, science, houses, art.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
Italian blood.
Martina Tritthart | solar mechanix 1.1
Österreich Panorama, 17.3. 13:15
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
For Solar mechanix 1.1 I animated live action footage of my own kinetic light installation „Oscillation emergence" to experiment with the transformation of the interplay of light and perception from the real to the virtual world.
2. What or who inspires you?
I have a particular interest for light and space perception in visual arts. I specially admire the work of Nan Hoover, including installations, video, photography and performance using light as a medium.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
Working as an artist and academic in cross-disciplinary ways in the field of film, fine arts, architecture, performance, philosophy, media theory and animation studies, besides having two kids becoming teenagers makes me a Tricky Woman.
Nienke Deutz | Bloeistraat 11
Competition 2, 14.3. 21:00 & 16.3. 17:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
The summer of two friends at the onset of puberty.
2. What or who inspires you?
Processes I don’t understand.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
Curiosity and a lot of enthusiasm.
Parissa Mohit | A Visit
Competition 2, 14.3. 21:00 & 16.3. 17:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
Surrounded by millions of living creatures a woman and a child confront their feelings of loneliness.
2. What or who inspires you?
Listening to people narrating films they’ve seen as if they had lived them in flesh and bone. It reminds me of how cinema is inspired by our lives and gives back to them.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
We live in a world that moves faster than ever. But in my world it takes weeks to make something move only for a few seconds. To exist at this slow rhythm requires quite a few tricks.
Rebecca Blöcher | Lickalike
Happines Machine | To The Common Good!, 16.3. 20:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
"Everything is connected."
.
2. What or who inspires you?
The trees, plants and animals. Mistakes. People and situations in my everyday life.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
The nonexistent separation between life and work.
Rosa Beiroa | In our skin
Competition 4, 15.3. 21:00 & 16.3. 19:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
A celebration of nudity and women's freedom within their own bodies.
2. What or who inspires you?
For this film in particular, I was inspired by movements we recreate in our everyday routine and the choreographies we perform without being aware of it.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
The theme of female nudity and intimacy has always been the core of my practice. A lot has changed in society since I started exploring the topic years ago, but I find it is still a tricky subject to talk about.
Samantha Moore | Bloomers
Happines Machine | To The Common Good!, 16.3. 20:00
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
Bloomers uses animation printed on silk, cotton and lace to bring the story of a lingerie factory in Manchester to life, as workers recount the history of UK manufacturing and traditions of making.
2. What or who inspires you?
Seeing lots of creative work always inspires me; painting, sculpture, novels, printmaking and of course animation.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
Bloody mindedness!
Tímea Laura Varga | Not yet
Up & Coming 2, 14.3. 20:00 & 17.3. 17:30
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
It's a story of a mother-to-be, who's about to make a big decision, and the main message is that we can't horn in anyone in their personal choices, because we never know the whole truth, we can't judge someone by a slice of their life we see.
2. What or who inspires you?
I'm mostly inspired by the people I know around me, my friends and their stories, their life. At the same time as I'm getting older I start to know myself better as well, start to learn how to be honest with myself and others, and as these hidden truths come to the light they also inspire me. My goal is to undress all the unnecessary layers, to scan all the problems not only from my point of view, and to show the people that at the end of the day we fight with the same difficulties, anxieties.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
For me animation is a tool to be able to talk loud, to start a discussion about problems I'm interested in. I can't imagine anything else I would rather do, and I feel that this is the easiest way for me to connect to the rest of the world, to raise my voice, as in everyday life I'm too shy to do the same.
Yasaman Hasani | LeftOver
Österreich Panorama, 17.3. 13:15
1. Describe your film in one sentence.
"LeftOver" reflects my personal experiences of gender-specific stereotypes in eastern and western cultures, where my real life always shifts.
2. What or who inspires you?
My worries and difficulties in my life.
3. What makes you a Tricky Woman?
To keep on going through obstacles and represent them in art :)