Strange: Remember?
Memories aren’t filed in chronological order: they jump between moments, orders and versions of the self.
Film programme Remember? Is a selection of animations submerged in various spaces: those close and lived, remembered, but also imagined. Time doesn’t flow here in a linear manner : it loops, rewinds and stretches, and the boundaries between “now” and “then” become blurred. Identity forms itself from many instances of “I”, living simultaneously in the memory and imagination, coexisting and constantly transforming.
In the program, we observe a little girl discovering the secrets of the past, an ancient sculpture escaping from the Louvre, clay humanoids, and a human-animal figure of a child remembering its other adult life. Through experiments with form, surreal imagery, and fantastic incarnations, the program opens a space where one can go beyond personal experience and view oneself in new, unexpected contexts.
The Remember? film selection explores the strangeness of time – its plasticity, unexpected shortcuts, and suspension between moments in which we try to understand ourselves, as well as the ever-changing world. It is a journey through images that sometimes evoke memories, sometimes capture the present, and sometimes simply allow themselves to drift into dreams. Moving through these universes, time appears not only as a measure but as a carrier of emotions, experiences, and imagination.
CONTENT INFORMATION
Before the screening, we encourage viewers to review the list of themes addressed in the films. Some of them may be sensitive or challenging for certain audiences.
Themes may include:
body deformities, systemic violence, political repression, flashing lights
Suggested audience age:
16+
Program:
Such miracles do happen, dir. Barbara Rupik, Poland 2023, 14’, animation
„It’s walking with no muscles, though it shouldn’t be able to walk. Stone tissue. How strange… “- said the girl, and looked at her body without bones.
Preoperational Model, dir. Philip Ullman, Netherlands 2024, 13’, animation
In the preoperational model, the anthropomorphic Princess Sophia and her maid Jessica prepare for a new day at the royal court. Sophia’s struggles with playing her role push both characters forward and backward through time, across different worlds and identities, in search of a way to live together.
The Marvelous Misadventures of the Stone Lady, dir. Gabriel Abrantes, France, Portugal 2019, 19’, animation, live-action
A sculpture, tired of being a banal ornament, takes off from the Louvre to the streets of Paris, to get to know normal life.
This is a Story Without the Plan, dir. Cassie Shao, USA 2024, 8’, animation
This Is a Story Without a Plan envisions two characters witnessing a constant explosion in different fragments of their lives.
Vitanuova, dir. Niles Atallah, Chile, Mexico, Spain, 2023, 13’, animation, experiment
In a fable made by hyper-mechanisms of the future, a message in an algorithmic bottle relives a story of extinction from the past to a clay humanoid in the present.
Screening curated by Aleksandra Ławska
Aleksandra Ławska - A film programmer based in Copenhagen. From 2019 to 2021 she worked as Program Coordinator, and in 2023 she took on the role of Competition Coordinator at the Short Waves Festival. From 2018 to 2022, she served as Project Coordinator at the Ad Arte Cultural Foundation in Poznań, co-organizing cultural events, festival film screenings, and educational workshops. She is a member of selection committees for, among others, the Festival Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal, Ale Kino! Festival, Filmfest Dresden, Glasgow Short Film Festival, Lago Film Fest, as well as the script evaluation committee of the European Short Pitch. She has had curated film programs for FeKK Ljubljana, Zachęta National Gallery of Art (“Zza gór się słońce wznosi blade”), and Animocje Festival; collaborated with the British Film Festival in Poznań, Animator Festival, and Stockfish Film Festival in Reykjavik. She is responsible for the film program of the DKF at Kino Muza in Poznań. She has also served on juries at, among others, Go Short Nijmegen, Brussels Short Film Festival, Bucharest Experimental Film Festival, and other festivals.
