Lucid Nightmares

What lies beneath the surface of the stories and images that infuse humanity’s cultural subconscious with all its larger than life myths, monsters and heroes? Operating with a definition of ‘monstrosity’ understood as a visual and horrific revelation of the truth, Lucid Nightmares questions these fanciful fictions and delves deep into the ambiguities, amnesias and contradictions of our past and present in an attempt to make the invisible visible, bringing to the screen that which is hidden through a variety of cinematic materials, from found footage to digital animation and AI generated imagery. Much like the logic of dreams, the films included in this program are built from an amalgamation of heterogeneous images pushed into overdrive, purposely blurring the lines between history and fiction, between the real and the surreal, between the realm of mainstream collective consciousness, and the marginal and unknown pulsations of the subconscious. The result is a collection of nightmarish visions of a world haunted by dormant monsters whose long casting shadows threaten its future existence. (Oana Ghera)

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Daniel Jacoby | Duration 14'

A sequence of family anecdotes and historical events coinciding with the artist's date of birth take on a different tone as he unearths what happened in his native Peru on that specific day in 1989.

detours while speaking of monsters

Deniz Şimşek | Duration 18'

A 4000-year-old aquatic monster now lives through the tales of the few. Its myth dates back to the ancestors of Armenians and Kurds around Lake Van, a region that witnessed the ethnic cleansing of both peoples. On the crossroads of mythological, political and personal realms, different forms of erasure are concealed. Old gods are upset with us, and I am upset with my father.

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Arthur Chopin | Duration 21’ 11"

An Internet user enters the mental space of an artificial intelligence in search of Francine Descartes, the daughter of René Descartes. This intelligence produces an infinite number of images from a sequence of words ordered by men, until it functions on its own, without human intervention.

Dull Spots of Greenish Colours

Sasha Svirsky | Duration 10’ 32"

War for our attention has suddenly become an actual war. Information technologies appear not just as mere means for somebody’s ends but as one of the acting forces. We have no control over it and are doomed to scroll through the newsfeed.

The Night of the Minotaur

Juliana Zuluaga Montoya | Duration 10’ 42"

The Night of the Minotaur uses archival material to build the story of Luz Emilia García, the precursor of porn cinema in Colombia.

Coldness

Andrea Sánchez | Duration 14’

The screams and anguishes of a B horror film shot in the late 80s sneak through the streets of Andorra, creating a crack between the present and the past of cinema in the country. The Specter of Justine, a cursed film that never saw the light of day... until now stirs the city.