SCAM

Saturday, March 19 – 2 pm

Scam Screening

Société civile des auteurs multimedia

Salle Boris-Vian, Maison de la culture, 2 Rue Abbé de l’Épée

VIDEOFORMES hosts the Prix de l’Œuvre Expérimentale de la Scam (Société Civile des Artistes Multimédia), in the Emerging Writing and Forms category, bringing together films from the official VIDEOFORMES competition, the Labo and National competitions of the Festival international du court-métrage de Clermont-Ferrand, and the Experimental competition of Un Festival c’est trop court! de Nice.

The Prix de l’Œuvre Expérimentale de la Scam will be awarded at the awards ceremony on March 16 at 7pm, by a jury comprising : Véronique Godé and Virgile Novarina (EFE committee), Arthur Chopin (winner 2024 for 512 x 512), Laure Nillus (winner Brouillon d’un rêve Écritures et formes émergentes 2023 for Dé-payser), Morgan Beaudoin (art teacher, FRAC Auvergne relay teacher, Vidéoformes selection committee).

VIDEO PROGRAM:

Hush Now. takes an intimate, no-holds-barred look at the world’s leaders in some of their everyday moments, asking what’s on their minds when the world is in mourning, what they think about when they’re alone, in their moments of relaxation, or what they dream about during their farewell siestas.

Born in France in 1972, Laen Sanches is a French filmmaker and multidisciplinary creator based in Amsterdam. He studied applied arts and holds a university degree in animation film production and direction. After starting his career in the special effects industry in Paris and Los Angeles, he returned to Europe to focus on art direction and motion graphics. Laen has received international recognition for his commercial and personal work, notably for “Miss Daisy Cutter”. Today, he works as a freelance creative and motion director for international communications agencies and global brands, while producing and directing personal projects.

2-Visuel-1-Exit-through-the-cucckooes-nest-Nikola-Ilic.png

Exit Through the Cuckoo’s Nest by Nikola Ilić| (19’23) | 2024 – Switzerland | HOOK Film & Kulturproduktion GmbH (Selected for the LABO Short Film Competition in Clermont-Ferrand)

This first-person documentary short tells the story of a soldier who opposes his condition. His refusal to bear arms led him to the resistance and, ultimately, to military prison. By feigning mental illness, he manages to leave the war zone and return to Belgrade via the psychiatric asylum… on the day NATO begins bombing the whole country.

Originally from Belgrade (Serbia), Nikola Ilić is an independent filmmaker and cinematographer interested in creative and observational documentary. Since 2007, he has lived, studied and worked between Switzerland and Serbia. His short films have been screened and awarded at numerous international festivals around the world. His latest feature-length documentary (co-directed with Corina Schwingruber Ilić) won a DOK Leipzig Golden Dove, among other awards. Nominated three times for the Swiss Film Awards. Twice winner of the Zurich Film Prize and the Central Switzerland Film Prize. Co-founder of the Pro Short Association. Member of the Swiss Film Academy and the European Film Academy.

The classic demands of love, those that are usually hidden from the outside eye by fear and vulnerability, are here maliciously celebrated as associations of shapes and movements found among countless archive documents.

Born in Moscow, Russia, in 1996, Zhenia Kazankina (she) is a screenwriter and director, a graduate of the Guerassimov National Film Institute (VGIK). Currently based in Rome, Italy, her work explores themes of loneliness, attachment and alienation from a female perspective. Her short films have been selected for numerous international festivals, including the Locarno Film Festival, Palm Springs ShortFest, ZINEBI, True/False and many others. She is a former participant in the Locarno Filmmakers’ Academy, the Spring Academy and the Reykjavík Talent Lab.

4 - Visuel 2 Petit Spartacus - Sara Ganem

4 - Visuel 3 Petit Spartacus - Sara Ganem

Between the brandies and the Eastern blocks, I sail with Spartacus, my Greek-speaking bicycle. But even the grandeur of the world isn’t enough to drown my sorrows.

After studying theater and cinema, Sara Ganem picked up her camera to make films in reverse, and embarked on several self-produced road-movies. After eight years of adventure, Petit Spartacus, her first short film, was born.

This documentary/fiction explores a young man’s intimate relationship with the Internet. While the absence of a father figure has left him searching for answers, he finds an unexpected mentor in Google. From learning everyday tasks like shaving, to discovering deeper knowledge, the algorithm becomes much more than a simple search engine, blurring the boundaries between real and virtual.

Paul Kermarec is an artist from eastern Paris, between the 12th and 20th arrondissements. Currently in his final year at ENSAPC, he uses photography, video and installation to explore questions of identity and self-construction. His work focuses on the spaces in which we evolve, whether physical or material, and the way in which we occupy them. His practice is rooted in a reflection on contemporary forms of narrative and image. This is demonstrated by his first film, Ni Dieu Ni Père, which is part of the official selection of the 2025 Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival.

6 - Visue1 Memories of an unborn sun - Marcel Mrejen

Every year, thousands of Chinese workers come to Algeria to work on construction sites, living in isolated bases on the bangs of society. Some die there, without ever being repatriated. Based on eyewitness accounts, rumors and fake news, this film questions the endless (neo)colonial exploitation of Algerian territory.

While this nightless world embodies the utopia of infinite growth, how can we summon the ghosts of those who built it? Memories of an Unborn Sun explores the collective memory of this territory, combining archives of French nuclear testing in the Sahara, viral images of an artificial sun and the verses of Tuareg poet Hawad.

Marcel Mrejen (FR/DZ) born 1994 (Paris, FR) is an artist and filmmaker exploring the articulation of technology within living and economic metabolisms. The form of his work extends across different media – installations, moving image, sound and machine-learning.
He graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam in 2018, before taking up a residency at Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains from 2021 to 2023. His work has been exhibited in various cultural institutions, including the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham), and Eye Filmmuseum (Amsterdam). Alongside his artistic practice, he co-organized the first edition of REFRESH: Future-Proof in 2021. His first film, Memories of an Unborn Sun, won the Best Short Film Award at Visions du Réel in 2024, and has been screened at over forty festivals and institutions worldwide.

Scam Screening

Société civile des auteurs multimedia

Salle Boris-Vian, Maison de la culture, 2 Rue Abbé de l’Épée

VIDEO PROGRAM:

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