Long Song for Summer

Synopses & bios

Naaman Azhari’s Breathless Puppets

Synopsis: Forced apart in childhood by the expectations of their cultures and the disapproval of their fathers, two men with a passion for dance reconnect through the tragedy of the pandemic. Choreographed by Akram Khan and directed by Naaman Azhari, this powerful short film uses rotoscope animation, created by hand-drawing over live action footage.

Bio: Naaman Azhari is a multi-award-winning Animator based in London. He was born in France and lived between there and Lebanon for the majority of his life. He then completed his studies in the U.K. where he developed a keen interest in digital animation, particularly Rotoscoping. He wanted to deliver effective messages regarding specific societal stigmas through artistic content. He worked on live action and animation projects in London, Beirut, Dubai and Amman as he tried to engage with different people to tell their stories through animation. His animated short film The Sunshine Boy was selected by short of the week and received a Vimeo Staff Pick in 2017. Two years later, his second animated short The Magic Boat screened at numerous festivals, and was BAFTA nominated for best animated short.

SJ Rahatoka’s Volana’s Eclipse

Synopsis: Volana (Moon in Malagasy) is a Black Transmasculine dreamer who hides their emotional and physical pain in the shadows of a club. One night,  when everything seems fragile and close to collapsing, Volana gets stuck in another space where they meet Tia who will show them the multidimensional aspect of their being.

Bio: SJ Rahatoka is a Black Transmasculine interdisciplinary performance creator and filmmaker based in Berlin. He is from Madagascar and Mauritius and was raised in France.  SJ’s creations explore the themes of Afrofuturism, Trans identity, Queerness, and Interconnectedness. He is part of the collective creation of the Queer Sci-fi Swarm of Selenium in 2016. In July 2021, their Queer Sci-fi script Falling into the Light about ancestral healing was selected by BAAB and he had 48h to direct it collectively with 5 other filmmakers. The film premiered at the festival Black Reels in July 2022 in Berlin. Since October 2021, SJ has been part of filmArche where he studies fiction directing and screenwriting. In 2022, SJ wrote and directed Volana’s Eclipse that was selected for the Vierte Welle festival in the category Trans Lives matter and Xposed festival that will take place in June 2023.

Emma Frankland and Tamarra’s Trans Performance Exchange Volume 5

Synopsis:

Bio: Tamarra (b. Tasikmalaya, West Java, 1989) is a self-taught artist who is now studying at the University of Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta, majoring in history. Tamarra moved to Yogyakarta in 2008 and worked as a street busker until 2013. Between 2011-2013, Tamarra joined an arts project titled Makcik Project which initiated a personal work in the field of visual arts. Tamarra’s works discusses the issues of gender and sexuality, the histories of transgender in Indonesia, religion and humanity. Tamarra has been involved in various arts projects and exhibitions, among them (selected): Ancient MSG (2015) at Gertrude Contemporary, Australia, Unsung Museum (2016-2017) at Roh Projects in Jakarta and Ruang Gerilya (Bandung); ‘Calabai Jangeng’, a collaborative research presentation with Emma Frankland on Bissu, commissioned by British Council 2019; Biennale Jogja XV – Ekuator #5: ‘Do we live in the same playground?’ (2019); and Jakarta Biennale 2021 ESOK.

Bio: Emma Frankland is an award-winning writer, performer and theatre maker, originally from Cornwall in the UK.

Visually stunning and playfully destructive, her practice contains strong imagery which is often messy, intense and celebratory. Recent work has centred issues of gender and identity (published by Oberon Books as “None of Us is Yet a Robot - Five Performances on Gender Identity and the Politics of Transition”).

“Emma Frankland is the punk rock angel of your dreams and nightmares…” (The Stage)

Emma’s diverse collection of work includes We Dig (a show which literally demolished Ovalhouse theatre with a company of trans women and femmes); an anarchic adaptation of Don Quijote which was featured in the British Council Showcase  and Gender Messy - a show for young people created with her son, Joey.

She also works as a director and dramaturg and has collaborated with many artists including Rachel Mars, Travis Alabanza, Harry Clayton Wright and with multiple organisations in the UK and around the world including the Young Vic, Buddies in Bad Times, Stratford International Festival, the BBC and Marlborough Productions. Her work has been performed around the world and she has performed live in Sao Paolo; Rio de Janeiro; Jakarta; Toronto; Belfast; Paris and throughout the UK.

Andro Eradze’s Night Vision, Limited Access

Synopsis: Made during the COVID 19 curfew in Tbilisi, Night Vision, Limited Access follows a group of stray dogs that roam the deserted streets late at night. It is as if the state of exception has suspended the regular habitation of the steers, and the city’s formerly hidden dwellers have emerged as the primary citizens. Inspired by the Lumiere Brothers’ Workers Leaving the Factory, arguably the first film ever made, Night Vision situates canines at the forefront, rather than the background of the cinematic apparatus. Beyond the green tint of the night vision filter there is a canine world that’s elusive and mysterious. Night Vision, Limited Access imagines the lifting of that veil, if only momentarily.

Description: Night Vision, Limited Access, 2021, Full HD, 02:53 min.

Bio: Andro Eradze (b. 1993) lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia. He studied at the Shota Rustaveli Film Academy, as well as CCA-T (Center of Contemporary Art Tbilisi) MFA program. His works meditate on the qualitative nature of images, still as well as moving. Working primarily in Georgia, Eradze experiments with introducing narratives to the outskirts of human habitation, in the literal and figurative sense. The feeling of an uncanny, non-anthropocentric presence in his works invites the viewer to the liminal space between the subjective and the visceral, between cognition, perception and the alien otherness of non-human experience. Animals, objects, plants, and digital artifacts permeate a sense of presence in a landscape that exists simultaneously parallel and entangled human experience. Eradze’s practice investigates the potentiality of animism as method. Photography, installations, experimental cinema practices and video blend into a project contemplating the fading present, in which the Anthropocene is faltering, and everything operates independently of it. Building upon the legacy of alternative approaches to reality—surrealism and magical realism—his images blur the distinction between the imaginary and the real.