Sirens Call

Ocean Hill Drive examines a rare phenomenon, the so-called ‚shadowflicker’, that occurs in a suburban area on the outskirts of Boston. As a result of an erroneously installed wind turbine, the flicker effect, which brings to mind structuralist experimental cinema, appears instead in documentary images showing the landscape and architecture of a Massachusetts coast town. The film focuses on the visual quality of the pulsating shadows that intrude the suburban domestic sphere and disrupt the social and psychological equilibrium of the community. Documentary images are complemented with a female voiceover, which is based on multiple interviews that were transcripted and assembled into a single narration. The film slowly uncovers fragmentary memories from the time when the flicker began. An atmosphere of suspense and intangible fear is generated throughout the film, while the actual source of the flickering lights remains unknown.

The dream of living like the cowboy in a movie can become a reality in fiction, until the smoke of a cigarette recalls the ghosts of days gone by.

Interviews with seamen’s widows form the basis for a loose narration between the poles of distant love, fake luxury and colonial artifacts. Shot on 36-hour ferry cruises between Rotterdam and Hull, and Kiel and Oslo the film as a souvenir itself draws a connection between the ship as the largest arsenal of imagination and the nautic space of the cinema.

One Hour Real explores the coulisses and facades of a contemporary free-time phenomenon, real-life escape games. These games originally emerged in Japan, and their popularity among players in Europe has recently snowballed. In its unbiased observation of the automated mechanisms used in escape rooms, the film raises questions about surveillance, the human yearning to play, and the relation between imprisonment and desire.