Educational Media Reviews Online

Featuring the talents of 8 different filmmakers from The 6th Different Cinema Festival of Paris, this collection presents some of the cutting edge work being done in experimental film from the past several years.

The 8 short films are: K Desert written & directed by Frédérique Devaux (France, 2001); Da Qui, Sopra Il Mare written & directed by Mauro Santini (Italy, 2003); Lily In The Glass written & directed by Shiho Kano (Japan, 2003); Deperdition Lointaine written & directed by Dominik Lange (France, 2001-2004); Artemis written & directed by Valérie Morignat (France, 2001); Flamenc’o written & directed by Olivier Fouchard (France, 2002-2003); Perhaps/We written & directed by Solomon Nagler (Canada, 2004); F.I.R.T. 119 written & directed by Ruben Guzman (Canada-Argentina, 2002). A brief QuickTime video clip from the DVD can be viewed at the lowave website.

A variety of film formats are utilized: digital video, Super 8, 16mm, and Beta SP. While each film represents the unique vision of its creator, to a degree all the films share similar technical elements of juxtaposition, superimposition, compositing, jump cuts, and montage in both their editing and sound design. Attempts to describe the films using commonplace narrative devices is futile however, as this is “different cinema’’—traditional cinematic conventions, constructs and techniques have been jettisoned in favor of pure artistic expression. These are works of art that saturate the senses and challenge the viewer on every level. Fasten your seatbelts!

This single DVD is formatted NTSC on one side (for playback in N. America & Japan), and PAL (for playback in Europe & Australia) on the other. In stereo, with subtitles in French, English, Spanish and German, it includes 2 bonus films, as well as biographies and filmographies in English and French. Also included is a booklet with notes in English & French.

Recommended for public and academic libraries, as well as visual arts and media arts programs.