For those aspiring to
stay on the cutting edge of visual media and leap into the millennium
with atom-smashing abandon, then this is the festival for you. For
the first time in Ireland,
The Darklight Film Festival is
showcasing innovative work in the digital arts from Irish and International
artists. The festival sports a digital art exhibition at Arthouse
and two nights of entertainment in the packages of a disco Cabaret
and an Influx records' multi-media extravaganza. Amid the Festival's
cornucopia of technological spectacles will be a two day screening
of the latest advancements in the field of digital media.
Screenings will of course
take place in that bastion of pioneering movies, the Irish Film
Centre on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th May, and will offer the
public the chance to see the innovative new developments being made
in the electronic media. Luddites in the audience who have eschewed
this technology with the dismissing murmur "it won't replace real
film" should take note: George Lucas has already announced to roll
out Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace on four screens
electronically and plans to film the next Star Wars instalment
on digital film. Digital film making is not all hype.
Although the technology
is relatively new and rapidly changing, electronic film making has
become a staple format in music videos and computer animation. Allowing
artists more flexibility of images than conventional film, the digital
medium has already spawned noteworthy and award-winning names like
Pixar Animation (Toy Story), PDI (Antz), and Chris
Cunningham (music video director), all of whom have pieces pixilating
the screens at the festival.
The Darklight Film Festival
also incorporates part of Wavelength Releasing's Electronic Cinema
Tour which commenced in New York, with stops in Cannes, London,
Dublin and Stockholm. Wavelength Releasing broke the mould in October
1998 with its precedent release of the film The Last Broadcast,
the first ever feature film to be theatrically released via
satellite to five cities simultaneously in the U.S., dispensing
with expensive, cumbersome film reels and distribution. The
Last Broadcast will be featured on Friday 28 May at 8.50 pm
and proves to be the not-to-miss film of the Festival. The makers
of the film, Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler, will be on hand earlier
in the day to hold a workshop at Arthouse detailing their head-turning
$900 feature. This rare opportunity provides the public with an
opportunity to delve first-hand into the aspects of digital film
making.
The digital pieces to
be shown have been cleverly arranged into six showcases over the
Festival's two day screening period, allowing flexibility between
much anticipated events and the more tedious viewings. The showcase
line-up reads: Exposure; Visual Motion; Digital Features; Digital
Salon; Digital Light; and Music Videos.
Exposure unfortunately
commences the weekend screenings. Showing on Friday at 2.00 pm,
the showcase provides little more than it's namesake for both viewers
and artists. For those unacquainted with the digital film, the Exposure
showcase will undoubtedly point out the more experimental and pretentious
aspects of the medium. With over 30 Irish and International pieces,
all under a minute in duration, the more painful works should hopefully
pass by quickly. Highlights of the Exposure showcase include:
When Tiddly Winks
(Thomas Moore, Edel Dillon, Stephen McSweeney), a short involving
two physicists who debate the nature of physical existence over
a game of tiddlywinks.
Wouldn't Harm a Fly
(Ray O'Dwyer), a 3D animated piece on the annoyance of the common
household botalis-blutae.
Visual Motion
proves to entertain and thrill as it showcases the best in 3D animation
and special effects from around the world. It kicks off at 6.30
in the I.F.C. Ones to watch in this showcase:
Abe's Exodus: Oddworld
Inhabitants. Gt Interactive produces this first-ever animated
short derived from a best-selling video game. Computer animators
and video game aficionados will revel at Abe, a reluctant hero,
who has to save his species from extinction.
Geris Game.
This delightful short from Pixar won the 1998 Academy Award for
Best Animated Short. It follows the follies of a man who enjoys
cheating at chess, even when he plays against himself.
Digital Features
rounds off Friday's screenings at 8.50 with several films composed
entirely from digital equipment and includes the unmissable home-made
film The Last Broadcast. Funded for a mere $900 by Stefan
Avalos and Lance Weiler, this controversial feature traces the last
steps of two cable access show hosts who put out a live episode
in which the viewer sees them viciously murdered. The question posed
is, "who really did it?" The facts are uncovered in a truth more
horrible than ever imagined.
Digital Salon
starts Saturday 29 May's screenings at 2.00. The programme will
show works from several festivals around the world. Included in
the line-up are pieces from the American Resfest, London's One dot
Zero Digital Film Festival and works from Pandemonium Digital Festival
London.
Digital Light
at 7.00 promises to be the highlight of Saturday's showcases with
a series of digital video shorts from the professional and non-commercial
world. Several award winning pieces feature in Digital Light, including:
Suspension, winner
of the San Francisco International Film Festival 'Golden Spire Award'
by Irish film maker Paul Rowley. Reworking traditional narratives,
this film utilises a collection of images drawn from stereotypical
Western films.
Wanted. A Prize
winning film from Finnish film maker Milla Moilanen which explores
themes of ethnicity, genetics and cloning in a haunting and beautiful
manner.
Digital Music Video
rounds off the Festival's screenings at 8.50 with a look at popular
music videos created in the digital medium. If you want a preview
of this showcase, just turn on MTV.
For those who just can't
get enough of the digital film industry, a seminar entitled "Digital
Future -- Media Convergence and Distribution" and a workshop by
The Last Broadcast film makers will both be given on Friday
28 May. For those who have had enough of electronic media, I suggest
you log off.
Damon Silvester 5/99
