NISIMAZINE JULY 09

from video-installation 'Besides the Sea' Beirut (2008-09) by Nadia Hotait Š Nadia Hotait

Video Art

NisiMazine

JULY 09

23

Editorial For once let's not look at the Wikipedia definition of something that we want to (do we really?) educate ourselves in.

Video art, or as some call it ”anything goes”, is the subject if you want to go further than small talk and industry politeness in a cocktail event. Just see the reaction you get from people when you ask their opinion on funding video art. ”Was it art or just a video done in your garden, hand held and with a message of some kind...” But if motion pictures need ways to reinvent themselves then surely ”video art” has something to bring on to the battle ground as well. Video art is something that does not play with the rules that

we are used to when it comes to the entertainment side of the movies. By breaking the conventions and methods used it can create something worth appreciating. Something more than likely not seen in your local theatre, but rather as an installation or a “Single channel” - presentation. But does it become art at once because it is played in a museum? I invite you to consider making up your own mind, because that surely must be the first approach. Not what the “intelligentsia” points out is art, but what you make of it.

Now go and tape your own!

by Atso Pärnänen

For more info on NISI MASA activities, check out www.nisimasa.com!

Agenda July, 3 - 4 Paris (France) First Board Meeting July, 24 - 30 Lago (Italy) Matter of Taste, Festival on Food and Culture July, 31 All the network Deadline for Script Contest

*

Next Issue...

NISIMAZINE # 24 ~ August 2009

Theme: PERSONAL ICONS

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: PIFF (SLOVENIA)

Nisimazine is a monthly newsletter published by the association NISI MASA. EDITORIAL STAFF Coordinators Maximilien van Aertryck and Gülcin Sahin Layout Maartje Alders Contributors to this issue Alma Cazacu, Nadia Hotait, Andrea Matacheo, Azra Deniz Okyay, Atso Pärnänen, Eva Sancho Rodriguez , Gülcin Sahin, Laura Talvet NISI MASA (European Office) 10 rue de l’Echiquier, 75010, Paris, France; Tel/Fax: + 33 (0)1 53 34 62 78 + 33 (0)6 32 61 70 26 Email europe@nisimasa.com Website www.nisimasa.com

What can be more intriguing than a code?

There are infinite types of codes around us and inside us, some of which have been deciphered and some have not.

From Radio Dada by Rosa Menkman

Codes are information carriers, which can transport any kind of data. We are aware of the existence of codes and also we create our own - starting with children who use Double Dutch to hide the meaning of their dialogues from adults to very complex codes designed to encrypt different kinds of information, like large quantities of data or sets of instructions.

Life itself can be reduced to a code, the genetic code. So, life can also be stored, analyzed, multiplied or just cherished. Through the evolution of technology, we have developed means of encoding life and time into images and sound. Slices of life can be captured, viewed and heard in many ways, but video art has a more experimental aspect than film or television, and this makes it somehow closer to the creator and the viewer. Video art has been allowed to go closer and deeper into people's souls having much fewer constraints than all the other ways of recording image, sound and time. And so, it became really close to reality, being able to encode time and special point of views on life, simultaneously.

From Radio Dada by Rosa Menkman

Time code / Life code

By Alma Cazacu

*

Dossier - Video Art

CONTEMPORARY MATERIALITY OF VIDEO ART:

Artifacts

Ever wondered why Video Art is called Video Art? Well, because it started when artists such as Nam Jun Paik began using video-recorders to create artworks in the 1960’s. This is one of the many reasons why Video Art is considered separate from experimental cinema, made with film material. Other reasons include the way of exhibiting the artworks, for example in installations using several televisions and another is its relation to performance art.

Video provided a cheaper way to create audio-visual images and allowed for a more direct manipulation of image and sound. Images could be scratched, distorted and manipulated in recording and in the display on TV-sets. The materiality of the medium has remained a subject of exploration for video artists ever since.

These days working with the material basis of audio-visual films means using different kinds of digital files.

Working with digital files involves side effects known as artifacts. A simple example of a digital artifact is pixilation by data-compression, more complex artifacts are glitches.

Rosa Menkman (26) is a Dutch video artist who exploits these by-products of digital video to make films. Her work Radio Dada was made by creating visual feedback, pointing the camera towards the output screen.

It’s the same principle that creates electric guitar feedback.

But most of her work, as a New Media Research Graduate, is concerned with the theoretical implications of artifacts: “They are not the same as effects or filters, those are deliberate commodities. Artifacts are inherent in the digital material and my work is to try to understand and exploit them”. Menkman’s writing is focused on artifacts’ potential for political criticism of media images. These concerns are also mirrored in her films: “I try to demonstrate with compression artifacts how an image in itself can criticize how it is normally shown”. The theoretical aspect of her work feeds the creation of her films.

Glitches are conventionally seen as errors or faults in programming.

Menkman uses them to generate the visuals of her films. One method she used was to change the format of a video file several times, with uncontrollable outcome: “It is rare in a hyper-controlled environment like the Mac computer to experience the loss of control. It takes a lot of knowledge to learn how to work with glitches in a useful way”.

Read more on Rosa Menkman’s work on http://rosa-menkman.blogspot.com/ And watch Radio Dada (low resolution) on http://vimeo.com/2321833

by Eva Sancho Rodriguez

*

Dossier - Video Art

INTERVIEW WITH SERHAT KöKSAL The media project of audio visual artist Serhat Köksal « 2/5 BZ », which has been established by the end of 80s in Istanbul, created several artistic works in a large scale from posters and stickers to live audio visual performances.

You started in the 80’s to edit the images and sounds of kitsch Turkish melodramas, erotic and action films together with the images of political speeches. Until now your work has developed to spontaneous and experimental video performances by editing the images and sound at the same time live on stage. What was the reason of this tendency according to you?

In the beginning of the 90’s the private TV channels arrived, it was like a bombing of popular culture. You could also find political discussions on TV very often and in a very crucial way during the same period. I used to find some films from the 70’s in the f lea market with their soundtracks, and then I collected my materials and started to edit, crash and reproduce them with my simple technical equipments. In the following years I developed my technique and eventually started to edit the sound and the images spontaneously and live on stage. I found it exiting to try to learn live editing on stage, when usually filmmakers make it in offices. The hypnotic relationship between the images and the sound create humorous images. But at the same time there are lots of other things that emerge and arise during the video performances. There out of my control and I can not describe them…

by Gülcin Sahin

You do not like the Biennales, but do you follow other artists that make similar works as yours? Who are the artists that you feel close to?

I do not take the Biennales really seriously because of some economical relationships behind them. The cultural event is not generally on the centre of the interest.

I had a desire to organise an alternative Biennale to be more free and independent. We organised Biennale of Tehran on wheels with the participation of more than 600 artists. It was a “do it yourself ” organisation.

I had the chance to attended really sincere activities as well and I came across other people who make similar things in some senses. Lastly I met with Tape Beatles and it was a pleasure to share the same stage with them. Besides that, there are artists who make live sound effects in the Turkish cinema industry that really affect me.

One of your sessions, No Egzotik, No Touristik, criticizes the marketing of Istanbul as an exotic object and the other clichés as a bridge between cultures and multiculturalism. Where did you performance these works and what feedback did you get?

NO Touristik NO Egzotik became one of my concepts in 2000 and 2001. I wanted to criticize humorously the people who evaluate you not according to the quality of your work but as an exotic object that comes from Istanbul or any other similar place. I performed them in the first European tour of 2/5 BZ which included 6 countries and 19 cities. These are the visual/audio performances that I aimed to break. Demolish these exotic images and discourses in a humorous way.

Then I made other performances on the same issue like Gegen the Bridge and NO Ethnic Market in the US, Europe, Iran and Russia during various exhibitions and festivals.

Recently I had some works which interrogate the economic background of this issue, the discourses of the politicians, companies as well as some big cultural events.

What are the future projects of 2/5 BZ? Since last year I have been working on the advertisements films of the cities where gentrifications are happening. I call this works gentrifisuals ... I made it on Istanbul and then Berlin and Belgrade.

I organize audio visual performances called Gözel Geceler once a month in Istanbul with the participation of other artists and I have a radio programme which is broadcasted once a week.

© 2/5 BZ

http://www.2-5bz.com http://www.myspace.com/2serhat5bz

THE TIME IT TAKES by Nadia Hotait In video installations, as in any other artwork, every project has a different life.

Many lie in notebooks for years or appear as a vision for a second until they are revisited in the studio. When I decide to work something out, it usually involves months of work. First, the image is written, then sketched up in drawings, then in videosketches, sometimes scripted and, finally completely doubted and I rethink it all; a very similar process to that of filmmaking.

I worked for one year on “Besides the sea”, the last video installation I did. It started after my last visit to Beirut.

I thought about the political situation and the incertitude in which the life of my friends and family dwelled.

I visualized a Beirut totally sunk in water where its people are trapped, suspended in a city-water political and social lab.

Then, I conceptualized the project and the next summer in Lebanon, and with

the help of my sister and filmmaker Laila, we shot in a pool at an apartment in downtown Beirut and convinced people to lay down fully dressed in a swimming pool.

Later, back in Chicago, some months passed before I could attack the piece. I knew it needed something else.

I realized I had to re-shoot everything. Again, a pool and more people. I edited the sound with Ryan Dunn, until the installation transformed into a giant size choir of 10 people singing under water.

With any installation piece, unlike as in cinema, there is always a need to adapt to the space. Personally, I like to consider the architecture and its edges so I need to be wherever my piece is to install it. Last time I installed the piece in a gallery in Chicago, it changed from a 4 channel video to 1 channel.

from video-installation 'Besides the Sea' Beirut (2008-09) by Nadia Hotait © Nadia Hotait

*

Dossier - Video Art

And then other projects aroused.

from 24 Hour Psycho © Douglas Gordon

24 Hour Psycho, made by Scottish artist Douglas Gordon, is a video installation which screens Hitchcock’s movie Psycho, slowed down to last exactly one day. Let’s try to answer a usual question that always comes to mind in front of contemporary art: what does it mean?

There are a lot of answers, especially with an artist as complex as Gordon, but for a matter of space we’ll follow just one of the many roads that start from 24 Hour Psycho. Let’s see it as a huge proposal of film analysis opened to anyone’s interpretation. Analyzing a film is always like killing it and then defining it without its body. 24 Hour Psycho’s film body is there, so the physical presence of the image allows not only understanding text, but even, like Heidegger wrote, to elaborate the possibility built in comprehension. Text becomes a place where different comprehensions happen, connected to the spectators’ being there.

In 24 Hour Psycho’s 2 frame per second we could find Hitchcock but even ourselves, be-

24 HOUR PSYCHO double analysis

by Andrea Matacheo

cause cinema, as Benjamin used to say, is an experience based on individual and continuous psychical shock.

This second possibility is tightly connected to fragments’ double interpretation. For modernity, fragments are part of a complete picture, for post modernity, fragments are what remains after the explosion. So in 24 Hour Psycho’s frame we could see meta-narrative orderliness of “bellourian” analysis or pleasure for pastiche and pluralism.

24 Hours Psycho it not only a “divertissement”, there’s something really complex underneath a silly aspect. Gordon, with a disarming simplicity, shows us using video-art the world of cinema and his connection to our inner world in the hypermedia era.

*

Dossier - Video Art

INTERVIEW WITH SILO-1

by Gülcin Sahin

7 young editors, animators and video artists have recently founded a creative team called Silo-1 in Istanbul, two of them members of NM Turkey. They started their adventure in the huge business and video bazaar of Istanbul by keeping their unusual artistic style. Among their productions: video artistic works as commercials for film festivals and other companies, beside their individual artistic works. Silo-1 has no structured hierarchy; they believe that teamwork will improve their creativity and the quality of the work that they produce. Until now, they seem quite successful and full of hope for the future!!

Silo-1 are: Ömer Kasımoğlu, Onur Şentürk, Selda Taşkın, Mert Kızılay, Deniz Kader, Olgu Demir, Candaş Şişman The most appealing works that you make are advertisements for film festivals. Do you have the opportunity to show your individual artistic works during festivals as well?

We are trying to build a particular style for our studio. Actually we want to produce innovative works. While preparing the festival advertisements we are free to do what we want, you can easily recognize it when you see these videos.

Most of our individual works have been showed during important film as well, mostly animation and video art festivals.

People from our team are invited to make speeches during conferences on video art.

At the moment, we do not produce that much works individually; we decided that the works which are produced by the team are more qualified than the individual works. We share the roles as art director, creative director, director of producing according to the nature of the works. This way we try to develop the spirit of Silo-1 and make the works suitable to the style of our studio.

Silo-1 member Candaş Şişman had a personal exhibition recently in Istanbul, do you have difficulties to exhibit your works?

Yes, Candaş had some performances and exhibitions a couple of months ago. Besides him other Silo-1 members have exhibited their works and made performances. In the last 5 years lots of new places for such exhibitions have been opened, some associations started to give more support to the artists. The problem is the small amount of audiences for such works. Because of this, lots of place stay « underground » and a very small amount of people get aware of the works which are exhibited there. However we are not hopeless, we have a small but a loyal audience that we come across very often during exhibitions.

What are the new techniques that you use?

We do not evaluate the works according to the techniques that are used in it. We try to use lots of techniques together to improve the works. The most important part of the creativity is to choose the techniques that you will use. The ones that we imagined before starting to work are shaped again by adding new techniques during the working process. We usually try to use experimental and new techniques together with the traditional ones. We believe this is the spirit and base of making innovative things. To give examples: we use stop motion, cut out, motion graphic techniques, and common 2D and 3D. We try to create new things with live action…

Are there any other people that have the same approach as you in Istanbul? Are there artists that you follow in Turkey and in other parts of the world?

There are big companies who produce such videos for commercial uses but we aim to produce non commercial artistic animation and video art works. We are not aware of any other group who aims the same things in Istanbul. But in the world we follow the foundations as Dvein and Onesize and artists like the Quay brothers. www.silo-1.com

*

Dossier - Video Art

BD is a video artist, director and a narrator who is transforming chosen scenes from cult films in order to give them a new identity or double identity. Body Double is a video series that is working on deconstruction and construction.

interview brice dellsperger

How did you begin doing remakes of classic films under the name Body Double?

I started the Body Double video series when I was a student in Nice in 1995. The original idea was to transform an existing film sequence into a performance, to transpose it into real world. I was about to act myself as the blond transvestite murderer of Dressed to Kill, the Brian de Palma movie. The purpose of the performance was to simulate a murder attempt like in the scene where Angie Dickinson is being stabbed in a lift. For many different reasons, I realised that it was really difficult to perform this action in real life, so I had the idea to reshoot the scene using myself as the only character, and then creating the beginning of the Body Double series.

When you pick a scene from a movie in Body Double, you let it become independent from the original movie. According to what do you pick these scenes?

The film extracts that I decide to restage are generally picked up in the movies that one could consider as cult movies. But in fact there is no rule that I am following in these choices. At the beginning of the series, I was more into short scenes, very spectacular and with a strong visual impact, like a murder or a kiss. Then my relation to cinema changed as I introduced some scenes with dialogues. In the last years, I am more into transforming the narration itself, sometimes mixing two different films. It is very obvious that replacing the characters in an existing fiction is a strong conceptual way of changing the meaning of the film, at various levels. Generally, I could say that I have to really enjoy the movie scene that I decide to work on, and also the scene needs to have a "capacity of being remade".

Are the readaptation and the splitting of the characters in your work a critic of a “conservative” cinema that always casts the same men and women, heroes and anti-heroes?

Yes my way of working and transforming cinema can be considered as a critic to a dominant form of films. It is also the idea that many forms can exist after one matrix which is the film itself. And why not play with cinema?

Can you tell us about your last project?

My last project is Body Double 22, a 30 minutes video made after Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick. Jean-Luc Verna, who is a close friend and artist too, is performing all the characters of the original version, from Nicole Kidman to Tom Cruise, including many others. The construction of Body Double 22 is made out of the famous mask scene in the movie, which is, to me, a great moment of cinema, mysterious and frightening.

This scene has always questioned me. I used this moment in the movie as a starting point to re-organize a whole new narration. I shot the film in a very old theatre in Saint-Brieux, all the other scenes act like satellites turning around the first one.

Tom Cruise is in every scene in the original Eyes Wide Shut, and thus Jean-Luc Verna will act as a link between the scenes, thus creating a new narration.

Body Double 22 is expected to be ready at the end of 2009, as I am currently working on the special effects and the soundtrack, a re-recorded version of the dialogues.

by Azra Deniz Okyay

Are your videos also a work on the spectator’s memory?

The fact that the audience is aware of the existing movie is not something necessary to me. The idea is that you can be attracted by one of my videos and then want to discover the original interpretation. Like in cinema where so many directors remade some movies, I think it is interesting to know the original, but not necessary. For example, when Gus Van Sant decided to make a new version of Psycho, after having seen his version, I decided to watch Hitchcock's one again. I even started an exercise at school with my students. I think it is a very interesting idea,

not in terms of comparing the movies, but how the director is able to change the narration, and why. Also, I discovered that analysing a film has unlimited possibilities. A young writer has recently made her thesis on one of my film, Body Double (X).

Marie Canet has studied my works for 5 years, and wrote a huge essay about it. I was so surprised to discover her work because she has raised some questions that I could not even imagine, concerning the relation of my film to the original version.

Latest news IMAG eIN’AIR

BETWEENS DREAMS gets EFA nomination!

After a successful festival career (Palm Springs, St. Petersburg, Durham, Cannes and Tampere) Between Dreams from the NISI MASA Cinetrain films eventually earned a European Film Award nomination in the Norwegian Short Film Festival in Grimstad.

The short documentary from Iris Olsson, Dimitri Tolios and Natasha Pavlovskaya will compete for Best European Short Film among 12 films during the 22nd Awards Ceremony on the 12th of December in Germany’s Ruhr region.

Congratulations! We wish all the best!

NISI MASA is proud to be partner of IMAGeIN’AIR’s Cinema-Zone project, whose aim is to organize film screenings over the month of July in the open air in the region of Gjilan (SouthEast Kosovo). The region of Gjilan is marked by a lack of cinema distribution infrastructure. There are only two cinema halls in Kosovo, located in the capital Pristina. NISI MASA films will be screened: On the bus and Road to home from the DOKOYOMI project, On A Train by Barnabas Toth and Some Senses, Some Cities by Liljiana Cavic.

More information as well as the full program can be found on: www.zonesimageinair.org

SHORTS SELECTED FOR FOOD PROJECT The 20 selected short films (see right) have now been announced for the "Matter of Taste" programme organised

by NISI MASA in partnership with the Lago Film Fest, taking place in the last week of July.

Don't forget that you can still watch some of these and more submissions on www.daazo.com/foodfilms!

Some of you might also be able to catch them on the big screen, at events organised by our member associations in different European cities More news on the full screenings schedule and details of the Lago FF programme coming soon...

www.matteroftaste.eu

***

Stort' - by Joris Hoebe, The Netherlands Silent Consent - by Alessandro Bianco, Italy Tripe and Onions - by Márton Szirmai, Hungary Brei Brumm Bumm (Mash Go Splash) – by Elisa Klement, Germany A film From my Parish – by Tony Donoghue, Ireland For All the Tea in England - Kerry Mcleod, UK Pogacha – by Balint Mark Turi, Hungary Pasta Day – by Elizabeth Rocha Salgado, The Netherlands Fish Eye – by Margot Buff, Czech Republic Semolina Halva – by Ezgi Kaplan, Turkey Cum Pane – by Anne Linder, Sweden Tropezones – by David Macian & Eduardo Molinari, Spain Devouring Reality – Melissa Suarez del Real, Spain Sa Cage – by Luz Diaz, Belguim The Market – by Ana Husman, Croatia Cravings – by Andreas Lindergard, Sweden Ma petite cuisine – by Maryline Poux, France La Torta – by Stefan Archetti, Italy Mc Russia – by Andrei Tanase, Georgy Groshkov & Florian Krebs (Romania, Bulgaria and Germany) Apple & Ei – by Ahmet Tas, Germany

in the spotlight

NISI MASA Estonia

Nisi Masa Estonia was created in 2009 by three restless souls and film lovers: Anu Aun, Edina Csüllög and Laura Talvet.

Being aware that young Estonian film makers don't often have the chance to meet their colleagues from abroad and wishing to create a network with European spirit, Nisi Masa seemed an excellent choice.

NME's main goal is therefore to tighten up the professional cross-cultural relations between young European film makers and enthusiasts and to create a new platform for Estonian rising talents in the cinematographic and cultural field. But first of all, NME is willing to be a group of motivated young people who want to express themselves with their fresh ideas about how to make the world better (because that's what it's always about!) with the help of Nisi Masa's long lasting experience and knowledge.

NME currently has 10 new members and it is constantly growing.

Founders: Anu Aun graduated from Tallinn University in TV and film directing and is currently working as a film director and producer. Anu has produced and directed several short features and documentaries; she has also worked as script editor. At the moment, her biggest project is developing her first full-length feature “Polar boy” in Berlin within the prestigious NIPKOW program. Anu is always smiling, always ready to discover new horizons and always ready to listen: to others and to her heart.

She is member of the NM Board and President of Nisi Masa Estonia.

Pictures from the top: Anu, Edina, Laura.

Article compiled and written by Laura Talvet.

Thank you!

Edina Csüllög is studying film directing in the Baltic Film and Media School. She has directed several short features and documentaries and is one of the key persons creating a bridge between Hungarian and Estonian cinema. Before her destiny called her to Estonia, Edina studied literature and linguistics in Budapest University.

She is a truly passionate soul and besides film making she loves people and poetry.

She has translated Estonian poetry into Hungarian and her own poems have been published in Romania.

Laura Talvet graduated from Tartu University in French language and literature and later continued post grade studies of Show Management and Production in Barcelona University. She is working as a freelance journalist, translator and producer. For several years, Laura has been translating film subtitles and since 2009 she has been working as producer’s assistant and executive producer in short features. She participated as a journalist in Nisimazine Cannes 2009 and is European Script Contest 2009 manager for Estonia.

Planned activities in the near future Besides the 8th Nisi Masa Script Contest management - the first big event organized by NME - the future activities will be launched with an opening event in September 2009. This event will consist of screenings of Nisi Masa productions and a short discussion about NM and NME future activities. Starting from this opening night, NME will organize regular film screenings, debates and seminars about different topics of young European cinema.

In order to be more efficient within the geographic dimension, NME is willing to create a Nordic-Baltic network of young cinema, which will allow organizing even more mobility and residency within the closest neighbourhood. Being aware of Estonian strong animation and music traditions, NME plans to organize animation and film music-related workshops during the next years to come. NME is also willing to take part of the project “Tallinn culture capital 2011” with a film workshop about Tallinn and to host Nisimazine within the Black Nights Film Festival in 2010.

Being Nisi Masa's newest member, NME is only starting its activities and many of them still depend of the global situation of the financial world, but one thing is clear: European young cinema is a great cause for bringing young, talented and inspired people together. Let's do it!

Website: http://www.nisimasa.ee (in Estonian at the moment) E-mail: info@nisimasa.ee

PORTRAIT

leopold leskovar - kino 5

The first time I met Leo was at one of the many kino5 screenings that take place in Vienna. I was told that this guy knows everything about filmmaking; that’s why I wanted to talk to him. Earlier that day, a friend of mine who runs a film workshop for children was looking for a tutor. I knew that Leo has graduated from the Film Academy in Prague and was teaching at the New York Film Academy; I immediately thought he might be interested in teaching children and wanted to give it a try.

Since I hadn’t seen Leo before, I asked people how he looks like. “It’s a guy with long hair, wearing a brown coat and a cap”, they said. It might sound pretty simple at first, but today I also would describe Leo just like that! One would say that he gives a damn about fashion.

I call it Leo-Style!

Finally I found him among the crowd, at the bar to be precise. I tried to explain what I came for and learned the next lesson: It’s not that easy to catch Leo’s attention. He seemed to capture only parts of what I said and wasn’t able to stick to the topic. At least, that was my impression. In later years I found out that there are just too many stories he has to tell. Leo loves talking about the many places he has seen, the people he has met and the different countries he has been to. And as long as he doesn’t tell the same old story over and over, we enjoy his down-to-earth kind of humour.

He was born in Lower Austria and moved to Vienna after graduating from High School. He studied Journalism in Vienna with focus on film, electronic media, and advertisement.

Soon he found summer jobs and internships at the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation. But this was just the starting point of his career, later he also worked in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Prague, Bulgaria, The Russian Federation, Berlin, Budapest, Switzerland, etc. etc. etc. - An impressive CV for a 30 year old, I guess.

It was 2005 when Leo got in touch with kino5. Because of his training and skills in film making, the films he presented were more outstanding than others and it was clear that he had got talent. In his movies you see that he operates the camera professionally and cares about the perspective, composition, cut, lighting, sound and many other details that semi-professionals often neglect. That’s why Leo is most welcome whenever we plan a shooting. You can consult him in any case of film-related emergency and he will not hesitate to give you advice.

For kino5 he organizes workshops in camera operating and lighting. Because of his gentle and patient nature he turns out to be a very good teacher. As a member of kino5 he also takes part in kinokabarets and NISIMASA events. At one kabaret in Berlin he made a stop motion film with LEGO bricks and soon after he was known as LEGOpold - a pseudonym that is still used within the kino network.

To finish the story, he didn’t take my job offer eventually. Instead I had a beer with him at the bar, talking about films, travelling, girls, weather, alcohol and all the other more or less important things in life that you can talk about with Legopold.

By Anu Wanasinghe