2022 TIDF Filmmaker in Focus presents celebrated South-African contemporary artist, William KENTRIDGE

 

 

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1955, during the apartheid-regime, with both of his parents human rights lawyers, KENTRIDGE witnessed a society ravaged by racial conflict and institutionalised violence from a young age. His oeuvre alludes to South Africa's historical memory such as life under apartheid, the Sharpeville massacre and the release of Nelson MANDELA, yet refuses to portray any social and political events directly. He has said of his work, 'I have never tried to make illustrations of apartheid, but the drawings and films are certainly spawned by and feed off the brutalized society left in its wake. I am interested in a political art, that is to say, an art of ambiguity, contradiction, uncompleted gestures and uncertain endings.'

 

One of the highlights of the programme will be KENTRIDGE’s famous charcoal animation series “Drawings for Projection” that revolves around two characters: capitalist Soho ECKSTEIN and artist Felix TEITLEBAUM. The eleven short films, created over thirty years (1989 -2020), are fable-like stories, full of allegories and metaphors, with the recurring theme of the recent history and brutal reality of South Africa.

 

 

Also, they showcase KENTRIDGE’s distinctive animation technique: with the principle of no script, no storyboard, starting with a random charcoal sketch, he erases and redraws parts of his sketches over and over. By photographing each change, he creates an animated film through a time-consuming frame-accumulation technique that draws on the visual language of the early cinema. The imperfect erasures of the successive stages of each drawing become a record of the progress of an idea, and a record of the passage of time. 

Felix in Exile, 1994

 

Other outstanding works to be shown are Shadow Procession (1999) and Journey to the Moon (2003). By transforming human beings into shadows on the move, the former is not only a reflection on Plato's cave allegory, but also a homage to the art of shadow theater. Journey to the Moon, is a tribute to the magical story Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902), a cinematic masterpiece by George MÉLIÈS, where KENTRIDGE mixes live action footage with his famed stop motion drawing technique.

 

 

His iconic “Flipbook” films, including Sonnets (2012), Sibyl (2020) and other 5 works will also be shown. There, KENTRIDGE draws on old books, creating the most primitive form of motion pictures through flipping the pages. The Carnets d’Egypte (2010-2013), originates from a project on ancient Egypt that had been invited by the Louvre. This work, which offers a visual translation of ancient Egyptian culture in contemporary language, demonstrates KENTRIDGE's extraordinary artistic versatility that includes work for theater and opera  (e.g. the scenography for Mozart's Magic Flute 2004).

 

 

 

 

‌The 13th TIDF will be held from May 6 to 15 2022 at the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, SPOT Huashan, Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Qsquare, and the C-LAB. The‌ full line-up of almost 180 films will ‌be announced ‌soon. For further details, please check our website and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

 

 

2022TIDF Filmmaker in Focus William KENTRIDGE: