CEU DOCS: Annual Showcase 2023
6:00pm, Thursday, May 25th
The Belvedere 21’s Blickle Kino, Arsenalstraße 1, 1030 Wien
1 hour screening followed by a Q&A and reception
The Visual Studies Platform and CEU Library are pleased to present this annual showcase of CEU short films. These documentary and experimental works are made by students from a number of different departments, none of whom are studying filmmaking as their primary degree, yet they have produced an exceptional body of work that communicates through moving images the ideas, concerns and discourses of their academic interests. They come from all over the world, and as they turn their lenses on both Austrian and international contexts, they present a unique perspective on these issues.
These films are made in courses that are part of the MA Visual Theory and Practice Advanced Certificate program (VTP), and BA program in Culture, Politics and Society (CPS). They are supported by the equipment and technology resources of the CEU Library’s Media Hub.
This year’s screening will take place for the first time at an off-site location, in the Blickle Kino at the Belvedere 21 Museum, and is open to the public. It will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers, and then a reception to celebrate their work, and the culmination of another academic year.
Additional funding for this event is provided by the OSUN Science Shop and University-wide Courses Initiative.
PROGRAM
Moving Through Skins
Foundations of Visual Practice (MA)
By Beatriz de Figueiredo, Manuela Novoa Villada, Ioana Popescu
Runtime: 3:41
What does it mean to have a body? Through care, play, and reflection, we try to capture how embodiment feels like and what layers emerge when we try to put that into words.
Blockade of Artsakh
Documentary for Social Change (MA)
By Lilit Hakobyan, Nana Kobidze
Runtime: 5:34
Nina is a 22-year-old English teacher in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), a conflict zone between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The region has been under blockade by the Azerbaijani side since December 12, 2022. The Armenian population of Artsakh is left without any link with the outer world, deprived of food, medicine, electricity, and freedom of movement. The film follows Nina’s stories of her everyday life under the blockade. While her story exemplifies the daily challenges of the Artsakh people, an interview with Sheila Paylan – an international human rights lawyer, gives us insights into the legal and political aspects of the blockade.
Caritas Community Cooking
Documentary for Social Change (MA)
By Hedda Thomson Ek, Ursula Greig Steinmetz
Runtime: 4:59
Every week, Caritas organizes open cooking sessions in a community kitchen in the 10th district of Vienna, Favoriten. People from all nationalities, backgrounds, religions and genders are welcomed to come cook and eat together. The goal is to build community, promote cultural exchange and foster connections. With this advocacy documentary we hoped to bring awareness to the project and encourage more people to participate, while highlighting how food and cooking can be a tool to bring people together.
CEU Resided
History in the Visual Mode (MA)
By Lilit Hakobyan and Nhi Le
Runtime: 4:30
In 2020, Central European University (CEU) was forced out of Budapest by the Hungarian government. The university settled in Vienna, in a building which once housed a bank. This short documentary explores how a former bank was redesigned to serve as an educational institution. It offers a dialogue between the professional who worked on the building redesign project, and a student who reflects on her lived experience of studying there. The conversation revolves around two different perspectives, by revealing the contradiction between a commercial space and a study space.
Do You Belong?
Sound & Vision (BA)
By Nora Kaul Hoelgaard, Jeanne Péqueux, Alexandra Dzurillová
Runtime: 5:16
(Not)belonging might be a struggle for anyone in all kinds of contexts. However, the film ponders over belonging to more than one country in the case of multinational people. How can one be both Danish and Austrian? To the majority of society, it seems that there is no way one can. Nevertheless, the personal testimony of the two main protagonists suggests that one's heart and soul can feel equally connected to more than just one place.
Re-Produce
Fundamentals of Documentary Filmmaking (BA)
By Helena Mede, Tatiana Zebrowska, Carmelina Heinze Runtime: 7:35
This movie is about the unfortunate fate of fresh food ending up in the dumpster. It follows the journey from the field to the supermarket and to the dumpster, raising the question of whether there can be a following step in the journey. It consequently addresses the issues of food waste and overconsumption through different stories of individuals who have given new meaning to these foods. It explores their different motivations for dumpster diving and tries to create a better understanding of the process from collecting the food from dumpsters to serving it on a plate.
Identity Behind and Beyond Borders: The Hungarian Minority in Slovakia
Worlds of our Making (BA)
By Helena Mede
Runtime: 8:00
This film addresses the struggle of understanding one's identity in a place that does not feel like home, a feeling which is hardly described in words. It explores the consequence of border politics and history and its impact on the Hungarian minority in Slovakia through a personal story, focusing specifically on culture, traditions, and identity expression through different generations. It attempts to approach history from a new perspective excluding hostility and understanding diversity as a result of the past. It bridges the gap between past and present but also tries to reconstruct it in a new meaningful way.
U-Bahn
Sound & Vision (BA)
By Nastassia Stein, Amina Estrella Rodriguez Pain, Rachel Asano
Runtime: 3:16
U-Bahn is a portrayal of Vienna’s metro system, focusing on the division between comfort and discomfort one experiences while using it. Vienna’s metro system is a vital part of social life, which is easily felt in the daytime, but it can feel very distant and disconnected from reality, especially in the nighttime. The disorientation that accompanies this fluctuation is explored through the focus on the metro system’s clinical symmetry, brutalism and surveillance.
(un)becoming prater
Fundamentals of Documentary Filmmaking (MA)
By Alina Young, Nerea Gonzalez
Runtime: 3:53
(un)becoming prater is a short sound-driven experimental film capturing the surreal world of viennese amusement park prater. the film follows an anonymous park visitor as they succumb to a strange contagion, transforming into a nonhuman amalgam of prater eccentricities. (un)becoming prater can be enjoyed by anyone who is willing to join the visitor on their ride of sensory overload… and experience it.
Verändernde Zeiten
Fundamentals of Documentary Filmmaking (MA)
By Joseph Purtell, Ceren Temizyurek, Beatriz De Figueiredo
Runtime: 5:22
This short documentary explores disappearing traditional blue-collar places in Favoriten, against the background of the changing neighborhood. It is in part a portrait of a place and in part the celebration of a particular kitsch that won’t be around for much longer. The intent is to tell the tale of these dying places and those who frequent them, so as to shine a light on their particular visual signatures before they change into something else. While the tone might be nostalgic, our aim is to document a somewhat intimate account of change without indulging in self-commiserating (possibly xenophobic) sentimentality.
Unboxing Gender
Fundamentals of Documentary Filmmaking (MA)
By Claire Bower, Shabnam Singla, Manuela Novoa Villada
Runtime: 6:07
Gender and its norms are so ingrained in our world, it can require us to put our “gender lenses” in order to see it. Unboxing Gender explores the ways gender influences our lives. The film’s protagonist is Kris, a professional boxer and gender researcher. Through Kris’ anecdotes and insightful reflections, the film explores how their gender identity has influenced their pathway in life - from becoming a boxer to entering academia, and the overlaps between the two. Unboxing Gender seeks to illustrate how gender shapes our interactions and decisions, whether or not we are conscious of it.