“The idea for FATHER, MOTHER, WHAT SHOULD I FILM TODAY? came to me one summer when I was visiting my parents at their vacation house in France. While they were working in the garden, my father and mother would call out to me at least five times a day: ‘Isabell, quick, there‘s a praying mantis/a snail/a flower, etc., you have to film it!‘ Provoked by this other idea of how to make films, I decided to do interviews with my parents, in which they could describe their film wishes as precisely as possible. Then I made some of these wishes come true. FATHER, MOTHER, WHAT SHOULD I FILM TODAY? juxtaposes my parents‘ descriptions of films with my own translations into film: wishes for films in words are followed by the wished-for films in images.” (Isabell Spengle)
FATHER, MOTHER, WHAT SHOULD I FILM TODAY? is part of a series of experiments with visual description, carried out between friends, relatives, and the public; between filmmakers, interpreters, and the audience. The experiments mark out clear positions for those involved–behind, in front of, and in the film image. Spengler‘s split-screen video installation Telephathy Experiment I was shown in the Forum Expanded in 2007. Two friends attempt to send thoughts over a spatial distance (and from one half of the image to the other). While Telephathy Experiment I operates with the links between simultaneous streams of signs, FATHER, MOTHER, WHAT SHOULD I FILM TODAY? presents verbal descriptions and their visualizations in succession. The film is also the portrait of a passionate relationship to the image of nature.
Isabell Spengler, born in 1972 in Berlin, works with film, video, and photography. From 1999 to 2004 she lived in Los Angeles. Since 2004 she has been teaching at the University of the Arts in Berlin in the area of experimental film production. Her works have been screened around the world at film festivals and exhibitions since 1998.
Films/installations: 2009: Osmosis of the Unicorn, 2009: Lint Lent Land, 2008: The Pitch, 2007: Telepathie Experiment I, 2007: Syncpoint, 2006: Lantouy, 2006: Mummy, 2005: Permanent Residents, 2004: The Natural Life of Mermaids, 2003: Transformation in the Land of Enchantment, 2002: Snowdrift, 1999: Chicks with Guns – gay girls in the IDF (Israel Defense Force), 1998: Psychic Tequila Tarot.
Format: HD Video
Running time: 53 min
