Afasia-a word that indicates the loss of language due to a cerebral disturbance-is a performance that reflects on the inevitable erosion of the written language in an increasingly image based culture. URL: www.connect-arte.com/mercel-il . A highly visceral one man show complete with robots, live action heroes, and an over-the-top film based on the epic poem The Odyssey. My friend promptly left after one of the characters in the film started gnawing off one of their feet. We all have our quibbles.
Navigating through the CD-ROMS, my favourite was Neuf a Cinq an interactive collective piece which has you determine the outcome of a naked Pierre Alexandre, a young ill-equipped graduate. Pasting the appropriate clothes on him, you navigate him through his days on welfare (help him scratch his head, his balls, and change the channels on the t.v.), his search for a job (text scrolls by and you choose how far he goes in the job market), and an art opening, which fuses irony and high kitsch into a hilarious 'close-to-home' narrative. A must see for anyone considering a career in the arts.
Cinefeel
was set up in 1994 to promote the work of up and coming directors as well
as new music experimentations, with an emphasis on electronic and digital
culture. I loved this whole program but especially Aphex Twin, Windowlicker
(Chris Cunningham) for its affect on the audience-confused reactions: torn
down music video conventions that both titillated and made you squirm uncomfortably.
Winding down from the post-techno world of textural, dysfunctional rhythms,
I sift through the debris of extreme frequencies and distorted computer generated
flickering images and flash-back to a time when technology wasn't even a household
word, the awe-inspired pinnacle, sitting in the dank basement with my brother,
playing PONG, on our state-of-the-art Commodore 64. As this intrepid reporter
puts her collar up against the encroaching millennium, I propose a toast to
progress and think to myself...now I know why video killed the radio star.
11.99 - SASHA WENTGES
to apply for next year's festival contact :
the
Festival International Nouveau Cinema Nouveaux Medias, Complexe Ex-Centris
3536, boul. Saint-Laurent,
(514) 847-1242
www.fcmm.com