ZOOM SESSION NOTES, RECORDS AND LINKS
(Next we share the exchange-conversation happened on Thursday May 29th 2025 between the group that assist to this 3rd session)
- Zoom Video Record
- If you prefer just to listen the Audio Record as a “podcast”
NOTES ON THE ZOOM MEETING and AUDIOVISUALS SHARED IN THE MEETING
E. Perverse beauty of violence in commercial cinema. Investigation of the relationship between violence and beauty
M. Violence transforming to beauty. Something in beauty that is able to heal the sense of violence or the consequences of it.
Appropriation of subjects that are very violent (ex contemporary art) violence becomes a spectacle. Every time there is a lack of empathy.
Exhibition on Palestine which opened on the date of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the area from nazi-fascism: direct link. Dangers of photojournalism but this time… exhibition about the tricky power of media, showing what was manipulated. Beautiful images that were respectful. Qr codes on the floor reminding the stolperstein (pietre d’ inciampo) linking to videos that were trying to unveil messages not passed by the media. The beauty of the pictures was creating a stronger connection with the resistance of the people. It helped convey the empathy and give value, showing admiration for the people and the resistance.
Film trains: I know these images, they are my memories! Like out of a dream..Tenderness towards our painful moments. What can we bring to our images to make them resonate that way so that there is tenderness.
E. We are always looking for something wrong since we have a critical eye, but we also have to look at the positive things and put in balance. It is not only about the sensibility of the author since most of the times the business is stronger, cinema is also this, compromise.
M. Empathy and connection brings it out.
Concert 47 souls taking up the classical theater. Real moment to share all together, being together was super powerful, we are together, we want to support you!
Va. The theater was reclaimed!
Vanessa’s video with no audio and audio with no video:
- Vanessa’s“ExPo”
- Hidden audio
M. In both some kind of censorship was presented. In the first for some reason the exhibition was cancelled. In the second, that discourse on being hysterical has always been the main discourse used towards women as a tool to say that what they say is not valuable.
Va. The lesson is the same for both movies: stick to places where you are celebrated not tolerated.
L. Clarity: when there is no clarity and honesty there is violence. People are not showing their full selves. No authenticity.
Va.exhibition got cancelled because “it is a north African show and you are not north African” even though I was born in north Africa and my work is definitely not north European.
Not taking into account the other person. Lack of empathy and dysfunctional situation. If I try to adapt I also become dysfunctional. I’ m becoming healthier because I m being pushed out from dysfunctional places. I am happy my anger came to show up. Humiliating experience.
The second video with only the audio is the absolute visualization of psychological-emotional abuse in relationships.
M. One phrase at the beginning of the Trains movie “there’s so much hope in the world but not for us”. We see all these images but we know where we are in the world. Barriers that are being put, history repeats itself.
Vs people trying to connect share the empathy.
All forces that act against what would be an healthy place to inhabit, these forces try to tear you apart and to disconnect so that you cannot have energies to take an action in your personal and collective life. Go against these forces! Maybe stick to healthy environments is a key. Where do you put your things? We face microthings like that all the time.
E. Great courage to translate what happened in a short action. This resonates with Camilo’s audio. The reality that comes out is much stronger than anything that you can create. The author is also the object of violence, in this case they are not trying to recreate.
Va. I studied documentary filmmaking because life keeps presenting stories like that. A. was generous, you need courage to show humiliation. It is a humiliation also for me as I am her friend. Psychological abuse has an effect on longer term. People go crazy, when it is not physical doesn’t get accounted.
J. Involved in groups that discuss violence on women’s bodies, feminist collectives. When a friend supports another friend is a form of co-madre (indigenous women) idea that we have lost in modern life because of hetero-normative life etc. your role is very important and it exists in other parts of the world. History of organising. Accompanying + self worth. There is a preparation that we can do towards that.
Beyond gender you became authority. Institutional violence. A lot of political education is missing in the context of solidarity.
Marlene’s video:
“Study for the movement of nature around a border”
Luz’s video:
“Puerto Escondido Evolution”
M. Video encounter around border. Moose drawing on the sand two semi-circles to climb the border fence. Birds fly around freely.
L. On Puerto Escondido: before everything was sand and now everything is concrete. I felt the anxiety of the earth. The disconnection. Wanted to show also the gentrification but it was too much, for another video. Puerto escondido. There was 1 shop, some houses now it’s building after building and everything tells you: “buy buy!”.
E. Both videos talking about beauty. L. video: beauty shown only by the video, that in reality shows something not beautiful. M video: beauty comes out by itself from a violent situation. The videos are one the opposite of the other.
Vh. Very poetic how everything is coming together in my mind. Footprints of people I remember turtles coming out to the see in the dead of the night and in the morning they are taken away.
Sometimes if you make a problem visible you make it worse.
Va. Denial is the first illness. Important to show contrast. Can become toxic when you don’t denounce.
L. Surf threats. Naming the problem is important and necessary. If not we just conform. It might not create the change but it creates awareness which is the first step for action. We are groomed into conforming starting from school.
Emilio’s video:
E. Video speculation on natural force and violence of nature. How the author can play with nature in order to evoke violence, it is there but you don’t see it.
Va. Emotional flashback, subjective you feel you are the person behind. It fits all the other movies.
E. A lot of diversity in this meeting. All of us have given something very important to the discussion.
Vishva:
- Hanma Baki vs Giant Mantis
E. Vishva you confirm through difference.
V. Story about bus and ticket. importance of intention. Dance rather than following an imposed script.
Something small becomes big.
E. Relationships with time, with the contemporaneity.
OTHER REFERENCES THAT HAVE BEEN COMING OUT DURING THE ZOOM MEETING
Marlene:
- Trailer of the film “Trains” by Maciej J. Drygas (2024)
“There’s a lot of hope in the world, but not for us”
- Zoom Video Record 3rd and ½ session
Discussing a festival create an atmosphere
Talking about important themes through cinema, physical presence of the people necessary for the connection. Necessity of staying together, communal side.
From the past to the present, films made in a different time but resonating now. Audiovisual tool to speak.
How much beauty there is in the middle of all this violence? Start an audiovisual discipline to find beauty every day
Father in Gaza showing videos of his recipes every day
Resources to create an interactive collective moment through audiovisuals during the global gathering around subjects that are important.
Through the window project we could see a bit of the others life.
Now everything I see is violent! Normally I look for the beautiful! Almost all the time there is an equilibrium that maintainsk the world in hope.
Since we started talking about violence I ve had more fear than before.
Feeling of being overwhelmed by the news and destruction, and feeling of impotence.
Side of information that is superficial and depriving us off the ability to go deep and connect.
The window is interesting because it gives us the possibility of presence, it gives places to a corner on the other side of the world, stopping the media/image bombing.
Distopic flow. Violence in the media a lot while beauty we don’t know anymore what it is: your skin needs to be able to take something in!!
Showing virtuous things could create agency! Giving you energy rather than sucking it out.
Window project still growing, it can become a form of art that goes beyond the good and the bad. Improvisation is nice and democratic but it needs to have a source. In order to create something that talks over the information! It talks more with intuition. You go into something you catch something.
What is the Ecoversities AULab?
A space for those who are interested in delving into the art of filmmaking, this unconference generates ideas for analysing paradigms together within the Ecoverse. Each month we propose a new theme related to filmmaking, searching concepts that are the basis for an interpretation of the dynamic image realm. Participants selected short films made by themselves or other authors that were relevant to the proposed themes and share them in the meeting, so that they could speak through images and unlearn, re-think, re-assemble, and discuss together the audiovisual language, coming up with some new ideas and threads to follow!