Program 7

Short film program consisting of:

IN PRAISE OF SLOWNESS
REMOTE OCCLUSIONS
ROOM 404

Total running time approx. 62 min.

In Praise of Slowness

Set in modern-day Tangier, In Praise of Slowness follows the laborious journey of a man collecting empty bottles, which he later sells to bleach vendors that roam the labyrinthic streets of the old city. In the face of the global economic and technological forces reshaping the city of Tangier, the profession of the bleach vendors seems to be on the verge of disappearing, yet this film portrait of their supply chain – and notably their insistent chanting – conveys acoustic and visual images of endurance. In Praise of Slowness speaks to the accelerated urbanization and industrialization of Tangier, but also attests to how locally situated choreographies of slowness articulate modes of resistance to the speed of capitalism.

Remote Occlusions

No flickering. No noise. No artifacts. No hard lights that cast shadows. No fog, clouds, trees, or buildings. No conditions of slow-moving or stopped people for long periods. No moving objects whose appearance is similar to the target in the areas of interest. No waving objects that cause the continuous modification of the image in the area of interest, for example a meadow with tall grass.
The target must have a minimum height of 30 pixels, which is at least 1/10 of the image height. The body of the target must be visible for at least 3/4 of its height. The target must have a minimum area of 100 pixels and stay in the interested area for a time of at least 1 second. The target must also maintain a sufficient dissimilarity from the background, which means at least a color difference of 5% or a brightness difference of 10%.
The image must have a resolution of 640x360, 640x480, 320x180, or 320x240 pixels and must be in landscape orientation with 16:9 aspect ratio.
The camera must be mounted at a height between 3 and 5 meters and the camera lens must not be dirty, wet, or steamy.
The accuracy to be expected is under ideal environmental and installation conditions. Recall: 95%

Room 404

A never-ending typhoon outside of room 525 in Hong Kong has transposed the artist duo into an unsettling situation of digital error of 404 in the present time. Originally taking their inspiration from the concept of Room 666 by Wim Wenders, Elysa Wendi and Wai Shing Lee invited various artists to the hotel room 525 during an art residency in 2019. Being affected by the situation of social movements in the city, they began to question the function of artists, or rather filmmakers like themselves, in times like this.
Room 404 is an essayistic response to the documentary Room 525 shot by the same artists. The film marks the transition from documentary to essay, from the real space of the room to the reality marked by the most common error of the digital age, 404: file not found. The desire to express the objective truth of the situation, which drove the makers to experience the calamity as it unraveled, gives way to the doubt that permeates the situation that emerges in the post-calamity state.