Happiness Machine, anthology feature
Suggestion of Least Resistance
Riot: by definition a violent disruption of the existing order. A dazzling, poetic and political audiovisual trip on the notion of the individual vs. the historic. This earnest, impressionistic project presents iconic images that simultaneously celebrate beauty and warn of the violence facing us in this volatile time.
Bloomers
Animated fabric brings the story of a lingerie factory in Manchester to life. Silk, cotton and lace go under the camera, as the workers recount the history of Headen & Quarmby, the UK garment manufacturing industry, and British family traditions of making. A specially composed soundtrack by Swedish composer Malin Bång, inspired by sounds of sewing machinery, evokes the ups and downs of the factory.
Lickalike
Someone falls off the scene and a tree is upside down. In search of the roots, people are torn from their usual order, while in the dark connections are made. A woman tastes of the primordial soup and we end up in a system of people spinning around themselves. Only one person remains alone, but he gets unexpected comfort from somewhere.
Pantopos
Austria, Slovakia, 2019, dcp, 8:
Starting out in a seemingly old-fashioned world of grandeur and glamour, Pantopos takes us on a journey to discover a surreal and peculiar place of new and abstract ideas, where nothing is as it used to be. The only thing left that is familiar to us, are the people who inhabit this place and their gestures. In the end we are left with the question if this new place is just a dream or already a part of our reality.
Iverka / Die Flunder / The Flounder
One day a humble fisherman catches an enchanted fish. Can the fish help him and his wife improve their lot? The Flounder is an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm tale ‘The Fisherman and his Wife’, with painted animation by Elizabeth Hobbs and an original score by composer Carola Bauckholt.
Generator/Operator
Switzerland, Austria, 2019, dcp, 6:
Translating the ideas of cooperation, trust, sharing and solidarity into separate working microcosms that run in an endless loop.
Music Box
Acrobats are trying to create perfect pyramid from human bodies. One of them hurts his arm and the pyramid tumbles down. The ringmaster has three possibilities for solving the situation. The result is the same regardless, but it is upon each of us to decide which way to take to it.
The Happiness Machine
Serbia, Austria, 2019, dcp, 7:
A simulation of a non-existent video game concerned with the business practices of a company which at first sight seems ideal.
Merjenje razdalje / Vermessung der Distanz / Measuring the Distance
Exploring urban edges as they correspond with the marginality of the social groups who inhabit them.
Hierarchy Glitch
Bulgaria, Austria, 2019, dcp, 6:
In a purely abstract way, Hierarchy Glitch deals with a core idea of the Common Good Economy model. Both its visual patterns and the ensemble’s voices are tied up in hierarchical behaviour that restrains the full potential and mobility of each individual element. Soon the matrix pattern collapses, connections and directions are lost, resulting in entropic disorder. This is the moment when individual units autonomously connect with the rest, forming organic and balanced constellations. They develop a collective organism, a resilient entity.