Fifth session of the Cine-Afinidades film cycle: Filipa César et al., running parallel to the Meteorizações exhibition. The session will feature screenings of the films The Letter (2019) by Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński, The Expression of the Hands (1997) by Harun Farocki, and La Panne des Sens (2014) by Regina Guimarães.

Offering an overview of practices, generations, and production contexts that, while very different, converge on the same type of ethical, aesthetic, or thematic concerns, this cycle reflects on a cinema that does not merely seek to describe the world, but above all to act upon it. Above all, it is a series of encounters that share a radical attention to the conditions of image production and their consequences in the world.

THE LETTER

Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński | AUT | 2019 | 19’

“The Letter” alternates between video, performance, sound, and text. It takes as its starting point the haunting reminiscence of a group of West Africans in 19th-century Vienna. Following the traces they left behind, it opens up an analysis of archival structures and the objects stored in them, pointing to an understanding of the past not as the past, but as a gateway to questions about the temporalities of the diaspora.

DER AUSDRUCK DER HÄNDE | THE EXPRESSION OF HANDS

Harun Farocki | GER | 1997 | 30’

Historically, close-ups in cinema were initially used to convey emotions through facial expressions. But filmmakers quickly began to focus their attention on hands as well. Using film excerpts, Farocki explores this visual language, its symbolism, Freudian slips, automatisms, and its music. Hands often betray an emotion that the face tries to conceal. They can also function as a channel (exchange of money) or bear witness to a form of competence (work).

LA PANNE DES SENS

Regina Guimarães | POR | 2014 | 41’

In “La Panne des Sens,” we return to Césaire’s Martinique to rediscover landscapes resembling opera sets and forests resembling fortresses. There is a deafening, latent force that sweeps across the stage of servitude and only insufficiently erupts with each storm."