ALAN

Event series and gathering programs / Berlin / initiated with Dilsad Aladag

ALAN #2
January 18, 7pm
Film Screening & Reading & Music Performance
daadgalerie, Oranienstraße 161, 10969 Berlin

ALAN #2 presents the film Drift directed by Helena Wittmann. The second event creates a space for the different layers that weave the film, Drift thanks to the generous contributions of Helena Wittmann, Theresa George and Nika Son.

In Wittmann's words, Drift is "about states of being, places, emotions and movements.’’ In approaching these complex concepts, the film chooses to confront an abstract entity like the sea. In the sublimity of the ocean, when some things are beyond the possibility of understanding and learning, the film explores how this can be quite reassuring.

In the film, ‘‘Two women spend a weekend together at the North Sea. Walks on the beach, fish buns at a snack stand, mobile weather forecasts. Sky, horizon, water. One of them will soon return to her family in Argentina, whereas the other one will try to come a step closer to the ocean. She travels to the Caribbean and the unknown makes her vulnerable. Then, the land gets out of sight. On a sailing vessel she crosses the Atlantic Ocean. One wave follows the other, they never resemble. Thoughts go astray, time leaves the beaten track and the swell lulls to deep sleep. The sea takes over the narration. And when she reappears, the wind is still in her hair while the ground beneath her feet is solid. She returns and the other one could ask: „Have you changed?“’’

The screening will be accompanied by a sound performance by Nika Son who composed the film's soundtrack, did sound recordings and design, and a reading performance by Theresa George, who contributed to the conceptual preparation of the film as well as being part of the cast.


Helena Wittmann
Film Screening: Drift (2017)
Helena Wittmann, born 1982 in Neuss, Germany, is a filmmaker and visual artist based in Hamburg. Her films, among them her latest feature film HUMAN FLOWERS OF FLESH (2022) and her debut feature film DRIFT (2017) have been shown internationally at film festivals as well as in exhibitions (including Locarno Film Festival, Venice Int. Film Festival, Tate Modern, MoMA, Toronto Int. Film Festival, Int. Film Festival New York, Int. Film Festival Rotterdam, Int. Film Festival Mar del Plata, Int. Shortfilmfestival Oberhausen, Int. Film Festival Ann Arbor, Viennale, FID Marseille, FICUNAM) and have received several awards. She has been teaching at Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts from 2015–2018 and worked as mentor at Elias Querejeta Zine Eskola in San Sebastian, Spain. Besides her films she does installation works and as cinematographer collaborates with various other directors and artists.

Theresa George
Reading Performance: This is Not the End
Theresa George studied cultural anthropology, political science and journalism in Leipzig and mediates between theory, film and socio-political contexts. She teaches visual anthropology, works for film festivals (currently Kurzfilmfest Hamburg, Kasseler DokFest), conceives film series/ lectures/ installations in diverse collaborations and co-developed numerous film projects. Currently, her main interest lies in post-Soviet film culture on the territory of the former GDR, which is the subject of the mediation and research project VIDEO2089.

Nika Son
Music Performance
Nika Son works as a musician, artist, film composer and DJ in Hamburg. Influenced by Musique Concrète and the outer space of electronic music, her compositions are built from modified and fragmented field recordings, interwoven with analog synthesis, broken rhythms, rare voice scraps and modulated tape. Sounds of various origin are translated into a very unusual musical language, as if one watches the audible. Her latest album "To Eeyore" was released on the label Entr'acte in 2020. Since 2011 she hosts regular art and music events at the Golden Pudel Club in Hamburg and has been curating the Papiripar Festival together with Felix Kubin and Florian Bräunlich since 2019.