Let's Go to Oberhausen! Some Notes on an Online Film Festival Experience
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KEIDL MELAMED HEDIGER SOMAINI PANDEMIC MEDIA MEDIA OF FILM OF FILM CONFIGURATIONS CONFIGURATIONS Pandemic Media Configurations of Film Series Editorial Board Nicholas Baer (University of Groningen) Hongwei Thorn Chen (Tulane University) Miriam de Rosa (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) Anja Dreschke (University of Düsseldorf) Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan (King’s College London) Andrea Gyenge (University of Minnesota) Jihoon Kim (Chung Ang University) Laliv Melamed (Goethe University) Kalani Michell (UCLA) Debashree Mukherjee (Columbia University) Ara Osterweil (McGill University) Petr Szczepanik (Charles University Prague) Pandemic Media: Preliminary Notes Toward an Inventory edited by Philipp Dominik Keidl, Laliv Melamed, Vinzenz Hediger, and Antonio Somaini Bibliographical Information of the German National Library The German National Library lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie(GermanNationalBibliography);detailed bibliographic information is available online at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Publishedin2020bymesonpress,Lüneburg,Germany with generous support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft www.meson.press Designconcept:TorstenKöchlin,SilkeKrieg Cover design: Mathias Bär Coverimage:©Antoined’Agata,reprintedwithpermissionfromtheartist Editorial assistance: Fabian Wessels TheprinteditionofthisbookisprintedbyLightningSource, MiltonKeynes,UnitedKingdom ISBN(Print):978-3-95796-008-5 ISBN(PDF): 978-3-95796-009-2 DOI:10.14619/0085 The PDF edition of this publication can be downloaded freely at www. meson.press. ThispublicationislicensedunderCCBY-SA4.0(CreativeCommons Attribution-ShareAlike4.0International).Toviewacopyofthislicense,visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. KURZFILMTAGE OBERHAUSEN ONLINE FILM FESTIVAL TEMPORALITY ASYNCHRONICITY (SELF-)CENSORSHIP [29] Let’s Go to Oberhausen! Some Notes on an Online Film Festival Experience Wanda Strauven ONLINE FILM FESTIVAL This short essay reflects on the different spatio- temporal layers of “going” to an online film festival during the COVID-19 lockdown. Particularly, it looks at the case of the 66th edition of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, which made its competition and other programs accessible in blocks, each for 48 hours. Furthermore, it illustrates the concept of “con- nected asynchronicity” by discussing the censorship of an archival film that had first been made available (and viewable). DuringtheCOVID-19lockdown,thenotionof“virtual”experiencecametobe the new norm of life: from virtual meetings with your best friends to virtual museumvisits,conferences,roundtables,andfilmfestivals.The“virtual”did (andstilldoes)notstandinoppositiontothereal,buttothefactthattheonly realhappened(andstillhappens)online.Inthisessay,Iwillbrieflyreflecton myfirstexperienceof“going”totheonlinefilmfestival.Idonotwanttomake predictionsaboutthefuturebyassumingthatthiswillbethe“newnormal.” Thescopeismerelytoreflectonhowthisspecificexperienceaffectedmeasa (SELF-)CENSORSHIP scholarandasaperson,inasituationofverystrictconfinement,whileliving inItaly,wherethefirst-wavelockdown(fromearlyMarchtoearlyJune2020) was heavily regulated. 288 Pandemic Media Iattendedtheonlineversionofthe66th edition of the International Short FilmFestivalOberhausen(13–18May2020)aspartofanMAcourseonfilm archiving and festival programming that I was co-teaching with Marc Siegel at JohannesGutenbergUniversityMainz.Originally,wehadplannedaphysical excursionor“fieldtrip”toOberhausenforourstudents,butwewereforced torevisethecourseconceptduetotheCOVID-19lockdown.Whenthefestival announcedthattheywouldgoonline,showingnotonlythecompetitionpro- grams,butalsotheselectionsmadebyarchivesanddistributors,wedecided totakethestudentsonthis,forustoo,newadventure. Apersonalcodeinlieuofafestivalpassprovidedaccesstoaround350short films,talks,andpresentations,inadditiontoliveDJsetseverynight.Among thevariousprograms,whichwereuploadedinblocksaccordingtoaprecise scheduleandremainedaccessiblefor48hourseach,wepreselectedforour studentsacoupleofcompetitionprograms,thearchiveprograms(curated, forthisyear’sedition,bytheRussianCYLANDvideoarchiveandthePolish FundacjaArton),theDutchEYEpresentationofHenriPlaat,andtheAustrian sixfilmpackdistributionselection.Besidesthiscompulsoryviewing,students werefreetonavigatethroughalltheprogramsandfilmsonoffer. However,notalltheprogramsofthe66theditionofKurzfilmtageOberhausen weremadeavailableonline.Theconceptsofthe“ConditionalCinema”and “Labs”sections,forinstance,werenotcompatiblewiththenewCOVID-19 lockdownformat,duetotheiremphasisonandcelebrationof“live”perform- anceandprojection.The“Labs”section,curatedbyVassilyBourikas,isall abouttheexperienceofwatchinghandmadephotochemicalfilmsasmaterial artifacts,asfilmstripsrunningthroughaprojector.Thisremindsusofthe factthatanalogcinemahasadifferentkindoftemporality,dependingon thesequentialityofthefilmframes,oncedefinedbyGarrettStewartasthe “mechanicalframetimeofthetrack”(2007,127).Freedfromthelineartrans- portationofthecelluloidstrip,digitalcinemaisinthissensemoreaptfor, ormoreakinto,onlineviewingpractices.Theabsenceof“Labs”atthe66th editionofKurzfilmtageOberhausenis,forsure,tobereadasastatement,asa rejectionofconverting16mmfilmsintodigitalfiles,inordertostaytruetothe section’soriginalaim,whichis,however,nottofetishizecelluloid,butrather “tomaintaintheavailabilityofdifferentformsofcinema,nottoprivilegeone overanother”(Rapfogel2018). Thevarietyofdifferentformsofcinemawasindeedannulled,atleast inmaterialterms,bytheonlineplatformthatpresentedeachfilmasan individuallyclickableitem,albeitwithapredeterminedpositioninapro- gram.Viewerswerenot“forced”tositthroughanentireprogram,butcould easilyjumpfrom(within)onehorizontalprogramstriptothenext,aslongas theyweresimultaneouslyavailableontheplatform.Deceptively,thetypical anxiety about missing out on the gems of the festival ebbed away thanks Let’s Go to Oberhausen! 289 tothe“flexibilityofinternettime”(Otto2015),whichunderliesthedifferent temporality of digitally streamed cinema. Viewers experienced a great sense offreedom,sincetheycouldnotonlyinterruptandrestarttheirviewing whenevertheywanted,butalsogobackandforthinaspecificprogram, watchcertainscenesorentireshortfilmsagain,freezetheimage,etcetera. Thisflexibilityalsoledtoimpatienceamongsomeofourstudents,whofound themselvesskippingthemore“boring”partsoftheprogram. Notexactly24/7butrather48/2(thatis,48-hourprogramavailabilityspread overtwofulldaysincludingnighttime),thefestivalbecameaformof“non- stopworksite,”whichwastosomeextent(atleastwithinthecontextofthe strictly regulated Italian lockdown) comparable to an “always open shopping mallofinfinitechoices,tasks,selections,anddigressions”(Crary2014,17).This 24/7logicofsleeplessnesshadtobecombinedwithsomeformof“normal” familylife,whichformemadeitpersonallyquitechallengingandexhausting, verydifferentfrompreviousfilmfestivalvisits,duringwhichIusuallyputall other (daily) activities on hold. Yet the simultaneous running of private and professional“timetables”alsohaditscharms.Iespeciallyenjoyedsharingthe highlightsoftheChildren’sFilmCompetitionprograms,whichIfollowedoutof interestformyongoingresearchonchildrenandmedia,withmy12-year-old daughterwhosegenuinereactionstothetouchingshortfilmsIcouldmore easilyobserve(andanticipate),asitwasarepeatedviewingformyself.1 I made anexceptionfortheChildren’sFilmCompetition3+,whichwewatcheddirectly together and both loved. It was a nice surprise to discover afterwards that our favorite,The Shoe of a Little GirlbyKedarShrestha,wasawarded.2 Halfwaythroughthefestival,wemetwiththestudentsinavirtualroom in order to exchange ideas and experiences. This is how we found out that ourasynchronousviewingsactuallyled,atleastinonespecificcase,tothe reception/consumption of altered content. For the CYLAND video archive hadtakenthedrasticdecisiontoremoveoneoftheirfilmsonthegrounds ofrecenthomophobicaccusationsagainstthefilmmaker.WhileIwasableto watchthevideoartperformancefilminquestion—New Icarus(1991)byEdward Shelganov—before the act of curatorial self-censorship took place and as suchexperiencedtheprogramasa1990sframingofmorerecentwork(fig.1), 1 Thisdiscrepancybetweenourviewingexperienceswasthemost“effective”inrespectto the Dutch short En routebyMaritWeerheijm,whichfollowstwochildrenandtheirfather onanearlymorningtriptothecity.Onlyattheveryenddoestheviewer,togetherwith theyoungfemaleprotagonist,realizethattheyareapoorfamilyrelyingonaidfromthe foodbank,whichisthedestinationoftheirtrip. 2 ThisNepaleseshortisabouta5-year-oldgirlwhoalwayswearshershoesthewrong