Asses on Seats

by Mira Herbel & Florian Krautkrämer

Florian: 

Videographic studies of festivals have the advantage of focusing on the surface. While the focus  at film festivals is generally on the films and the makers, and perhaps also the audience,  infrastructures can usually only be grasped by looking at the surface. With a camera on the festival grounds, these aspects come into focus, which is otherwise directed more towards content, premieres, and (well-known) people. So it becomes more about the chairs than the butts that sit on them. 

The camera’s gaze can be easily duplicated with the perspective of people who are at a festival for the first time, or who are not so interested in it and are not dazzled by the glare. Children are a  good guide for such videographic investigations – as well as for the analysis of films in general (I  have worked with the voices and observations of my children in various video essays). Mira is a movie buff, but she is not that interested in film festivals. At Locarno in the summer, she is more interested in the beach, the surroundings, and the food than the festival. As a painter, however, she has a good eye for graphic details. 

Mira: 

Even though it was interesting to experience a film festival for the first time, shooting the video in  one take allowed me to finally go swim in the lake. It was very hot at the plaza. But being able to  draw while being filmed was definitely a plus – despite it being chairs that I drew (the ones you put  the asses on). 

Authors

Mira Herbel likes to draw @mira.novas.art

Florian Krautkrämer is professor at the Lucerne School of Design, Film and Art. He writes about documentary film and has made several experimental films: https://floriankrautkraemer.de/