
Circulo Roto presents: The Fiction Of Fiction Is Reality
Engels gesproken
“A film is truth twenty-four times a second, and every cut is a lie.”
Círculo Roto is a series of community film screenings showcasing works from independent filmmakers. For this second edition, we present the program: The Fiction of Fiction is Reality at LAB111.
We will be screening short documentaries – meaning all works dwelling in the margins of fiction and documentary, films that in some way refer to their own artificiality and in so doing become more real: Fictionalized accounts of real stories, documentaries about the making-of-process, essay films, meta-documentaries, DIY narratives featuring non-actors, and anything else that suits the bill.
In a time of decentralized truths, the filmmaker’s role as a storyteller becomes ever more critical, and the realm of documentary ever more interesting. Even on a quest for absolutes, we find ourselves playing make-believe, and drawing our own bridges over the narrative gaps.
In this sense, The fiction of fiction is reality invites an investigation of the margin between fact and fiction, and opens space for considering the power of compelling fictions to illuminate deeper truths.
PROGRAM
Djeneba Saccoh – N’fa (2021)
Nfa (2021) is an experimental short film essay of five minutes. A daughter receives voice messages from her father who lives in a different continent. Although they are not physically able to see each other and create new memories, they continue to revisit the past and look back into the family archives. Nostalgia and melancholia come together.
Jules Mathôt and Cinemaximiliaan – In the Palm of My Hand
During September and October of 2023 the Cinemaximiliaan community was invited for a series of film workshops led by Jules Mathôt. The group explored different expressions through film. They interviewed each other, created one-shot stories, drew storyboards and shot some scripted scenes. One shared theme was maintained over all four workshops: our dreams, and how they can reflect our pasts and futures. [finished July, 2024]
Eneja Golob Džananović – There’s Fatamorgana In My Desert
The narrative begins through the archives of nostalgic Yugoslavia, examining footage that celebrates the nation’s idealized sense of brotherhood. These collages of propaganda footage, cultural gatherings, and scenes of everyday life show moments of genuine unity. Yet, beneath this sense of belonging, other truths begin to surface and the film shifts from a broader documentary exploration of the country to a more intimate, personal narrative. The focus turns to the filmmaker’s investigation into her grandfather’s imprisonment and the silent trauma it has left behind. Fragmented memories create a complex picture of political repression in Yugoslavia. As the film progresses, the visuals slowly fade, symbolizing the lack of clarity and the gaps in understanding the full scope of what happened to those silenced under the regime
Elisha Tawe – I Need To Talk To God
Inspired by James Baldwin’s Esquire essay ‘Dark Days’ in which the writer, in a Hughesian manner, ponders ‘What happens (…) when a reality finds itself on a collision course with a fantasy?’ I Need To Talk To God explores race, migration, culture shock and interiority. Through vignettes that serve as peepholes into our protagonist’s memories and fantasies, these non-linear visuals touch on the internal turmoil many young men of color who migrate to the West face and the emotional hangover from this experience that occasionally rears its head in the form of rage. I Need To Talk To God has appeared in exhibitions at The Bomb Factory Art Foundation’s ‘Shades of Resistance’ (2024) , Copeland Galleries ‘How Do We Reconcile?’ (2024), The Peoples Pavilion (2023), Today at Apple (2023) and Kunstrum Galleries ‘We The People’ (2024).
Aileen Ye – Midnight rising
An intimate portrait of London’s East and South East Asian clubbing community, a world in which the allure of raving, extravagance, and hyper pop becomes an affirmation of love, acceptance, and joy.
Juan Palacios – BE A HARD TARGET
I got scammed. Or maybe I let myself get scammed. Truth is, I needed a flashlight for my road trip and this one seemed to be the best. At least this is what a guy with a cowboy hat claimed on the internet. Apart from being the brightest in the world, this flashlight would save me from an imminent natural disaster or bear attack. It would project a blinding stroboscopic light beam into the retinas of my enemy and I could use it to SOS a cargo ship when I find myself stranded on a deserted island. Sure it would help me find my dog at night, but also to free passengers from a flight hijacked by al-Qaeda. This happened to be the freedom flashlight. And because I am drawn to freedom, as much as I was drawn to this marketing campaign, I bought one. With a military-grade, anti-terrorist, tactical flashlight in my possession, I felt safe enough to travel across the USA during the electoral storm of 2016. I just had to let its “thousands of lumens of awesomeness” show me the way.
Elia Kalogianni – Phelia
A night shift security guard in Athens, attempts to escape her suffocating routine by introducing a more intimate relationship into her life. She will soon realize that when it comes to human contact, a scheduled routine is not always the answer.
Milo Sharafeddine – How to Talk to Places
As a viral video challenge encourages people to interview the places in their lives, HTTTP questions what kind of stories places could hold, and what gives them the title of place to begin with.
Pedro Gossler – Fanfictional Politics
Find out about Steve Bannon’s World of Warcraft sweatshop operation and how it contributed to Donald Trump’s presidential win. Think about the symbolic and literal significance of the table in political power struggles––and how it can all be connected to Vladislav Surkov, Putin’s personal advisor until February 2020.
Daniel Jacoby – 315
A sequence of family anecdotes and historical events coinciding with the artist’s date of birth takes on a different tone as he unearths what happened in his native Peru on that specific day in 1989. The monotonous pattern of facts pertaining to the 31st of May suddenly begins to unveil connections to notions of oppressive masculinity, the nuanced tactics employed by imperialist forces, and a neoliberal dream that facilitated the neglect of an important episode in Peruvian history.