Earth Moving
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Sun 26 September 2004 // 19:30
Mon 27 September 2004 // 19:30
EarthMoving (ErdBewegung) - A Trilogy by Rainer Komers
Presented in collaboration with LUX
(Sun 26th-Mon 27th / 7:30pm / £4/3)
EarthMoving is a documentary in three parts. Composed mostly of static shots, with no voice-over or music but with an exquisite attention to visual detail and ambient sound, each film in the trilogy has its own charactics, but also forms an integral part of the overall composition. All three films ares named after roads: one in Europe, one in North America, one in Asia: B 224 (Germany), Nome Road System (Alaska / USA), and NH 2 (India). But these roads are not the subject of the films. They are the passage ways through different urban and rural landscapes that are maked by varying degrees of human activy. The earth is opened and moved, it is quarried and mined, cultivated and paved over. People and animals move and are moved, so are machines, vehicles and tools. All this activity, whether work or play, carried out by hand or machine,is carefully recorded. But nothing is explained or judged.
Rainer Komers was born in Guben, south-east of Berlin in 1944. After
completing a film studies master class at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf, he studied photography at the University of Essen. He has worked as a freelance cameraman and filmmaker since 1981. He lives in Berlin and Mülheim an der Ruhr. His films have been shown in festivals throughout the world including
Oberhausen, London, Krakau, Instanbul, and Seoul.
B 224
(Germany / 1999 / 35mm / 23 min)
The B224 is one of the major highways leading through the Ruhr area, one of Germany's most industrial and most densely populated regions. It runs south and north again connecting Gladbeck, Bottrop, Essen, Wuppertal and Solingen.
NOME ROAD SYSTEM
(Germany / 2004 / 35mm / 26 min)
The Nome road system is located in the South West of Seward Penninsula / Alaska. Its various roads connect different villages in the region. One road leads nowhere. None of the roads connects the region to other parts of Alaska.
NH 2
(Germany / 2004 / Beta SP / 53 min)
The Indian National Highway No. 2 or "Grand Trunk Road" starts at Kolkata, cuts through the industrial areas (mainly coal mining and steel production) of West Bengal and Bihar and meets the Ganges at Varanasi. The film also documents three separate trips leaving the NH 2 to go north to Shantineketan (the international university established by Rabindranath Tagore and the ashram founded by his father), to Parasnath Hill, and to the sacred Buddhist
pilgramage centre Bodh Gaya.
Presented in collaboration with LUX
(Sun 26th-Mon 27th / 7:30pm / £4/3)
EarthMoving is a documentary in three parts. Composed mostly of static shots, with no voice-over or music but with an exquisite attention to visual detail and ambient sound, each film in the trilogy has its own charactics, but also forms an integral part of the overall composition. All three films ares named after roads: one in Europe, one in North America, one in Asia: B 224 (Germany), Nome Road System (Alaska / USA), and NH 2 (India). But these roads are not the subject of the films. They are the passage ways through different urban and rural landscapes that are maked by varying degrees of human activy. The earth is opened and moved, it is quarried and mined, cultivated and paved over. People and animals move and are moved, so are machines, vehicles and tools. All this activity, whether work or play, carried out by hand or machine,is carefully recorded. But nothing is explained or judged.
Rainer Komers was born in Guben, south-east of Berlin in 1944. After
completing a film studies master class at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf, he studied photography at the University of Essen. He has worked as a freelance cameraman and filmmaker since 1981. He lives in Berlin and Mülheim an der Ruhr. His films have been shown in festivals throughout the world including
Oberhausen, London, Krakau, Instanbul, and Seoul.
B 224
(Germany / 1999 / 35mm / 23 min)
The B224 is one of the major highways leading through the Ruhr area, one of Germany's most industrial and most densely populated regions. It runs south and north again connecting Gladbeck, Bottrop, Essen, Wuppertal and Solingen.
NOME ROAD SYSTEM
(Germany / 2004 / 35mm / 26 min)
The Nome road system is located in the South West of Seward Penninsula / Alaska. Its various roads connect different villages in the region. One road leads nowhere. None of the roads connects the region to other parts of Alaska.
NH 2
(Germany / 2004 / Beta SP / 53 min)
The Indian National Highway No. 2 or "Grand Trunk Road" starts at Kolkata, cuts through the industrial areas (mainly coal mining and steel production) of West Bengal and Bihar and meets the Ganges at Varanasi. The film also documents three separate trips leaving the NH 2 to go north to Shantineketan (the international university established by Rabindranath Tagore and the ashram founded by his father), to Parasnath Hill, and to the sacred Buddhist
pilgramage centre Bodh Gaya.