The International Independent Film Festival of La Plata Festifreak was born 17 years ago in the province of Buenos Aires (Argentina) and has become a reference festival within the Argentine film circuit as a genuine meeting point between filmmakers, films and audiences. FestiFreak Expanded is a section of the festival that celebrates other forms of cinema, experiments with modes, processes and materials. It explores hybridizations, interactivities, performances, artworks that challenge and break the canons of cinema, building different modes of expression, appropriation and resignification.

/// Narcisa Hirsh in the 70s: Intuitive Freedom ///
Narcisa Hirsh | 1971-1976 | Argentina | 31'

Narcisa Hirsch was a key figure and pioneer of experimental cinema in Argentina. Born in Berlin in 1928 but emigrated to Argentina at age 10, Narcisa began her career as a painter, during the late 60's and 70's – in relation to the political situation of the military dictatorship – her art was mutating into clandestine graffiti (some of which contained phrases such as "I write in full sun" or "the act of looking with one's own eyes" the latter translated from the title of a Stan Brakhage film that refers directly to an autopsy). She produced and produces today a wide range of diverse works that cover existential themes, such as birth, nature, death, interiority, the collective, and transcendence. Her films are difficult poems to translate, understand, or explain. They are works to feel and reflect. Without dramatic manipulation, the viewer goes through her works with freedom, as they were created. 

*This program is also part of Filmhuis Cavia’s series: Clásicos Latinoamericanos.

Canciones napolitanas (Neapolitan Songs)
Narcissa Hirsch | 1971 | Argentina |10' | no dialogue

While listening to romantic Neapolitan songs a mixture of abstract images with a large mouth in the foreground which eats a raw liver and then a postcard.

Testamento y vida interior / Testament And Inner Life
Narcissa Hirsch | 1976 | Argentina | 11' | no dialogue

The inner life is a room that the camera travels very slowly, the voice from the outside enters through the proclamation. The testament is the film companions who carry an orange coffin through the city first and then through snowy Patagonia.

Workshop
Narcissa Hirsch | 1976-1977 | Argentina | 11' | English OV

A fixed image on the wall of a room while listening to the voice of the artist who describes to a man what is not seen.

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/// Experimental works from the analogue film laboratory in Hamburg, Germany ///
Germany | 2013-2021 | 25'

Analogfilmwerke is a member-based, artist-run film lab in Hamburg, Germany. Their mission is to facilitate filmmaking on film for people of all experience levels as well as the exhibition of filmic works. This program represents the breadth of work made by their members on Super 8 and 16mm from experimental to documentary and beyond!

Le Marché d'Aligre
Arne Körner | 2017 | Germany/France, 2017 | 8’

Paris: the 12th arrondissement, the Aligre market. A road with more than forty fruit and vegetable stands. Pure Vitamin C! Day by day tons of goods are moving. The Total condensing: buyers and sellers of all stripes dealing and strolling. The Aligre is a place of cultures, a symphony of things: oranges, apples, mangoes; they are all the stars of the moment in a dense crowd of shouting, hunger, trade and enjoyment. A unique piece of Paris!

Mosagrima
Anna Steinert | 2013 | Germany | 5’

The experimental film shows black and white footage with a handheld camera, captured as a mini road movie in a mysterious landscape. What does this landscape do to you?

Movements
Valentin Schmeißer | 2021 | Germany | 51”

Solo Pt. I Movements is a cross collaboration between moviemaker/musician Valentin Schmeißer & dancer/choreographer Rose Marie Lindstrøm. The film takes place in an undefined studio space where the dancer expresses a set movement pattern while the camera goes in a circular motion around her. It is a love letter dedication where the both creators express their love towards each other.

Constant Agitation
Christopher Gorski | 2021 | Germany | 7’

A film without a camera, a reassemblage of images and memory.

Thermoplastische Elastomere
Karola Pfaffinger | 2019 | Germany | 7’

The documentary film grants insights into an unusual profession and a bizarre working place. It deals with the relationship between human and object and takes up topics of materiality, sexuality and economic success.

Ektadome
Laura Trager | 2020 | Germany | 3'

100 feet of 16mm Kodak Ektachrome shot at a fun fair at night. Dark forces present themselves in plain sight in this magical place of lights and colors.