The 15th International Festival Signes de Nuit / Paris / 2017

The 15th International Festival
Signes de Nuit
Paris

5 - 15 October, 2017

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AWARD CELEBRATION

Cinema in trangression

The 15th International Festival Signes de Nuit
5 - 15 october 2017, Paris

Sunday, October 12, 2017 / 6 pm
Maison du Portugal André de Gouveia
Cité internationale universitaire de Paris

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Cinema in Transgression Competition

Main Award

In Paradisum - le véritable dragon rouge
Ricardo Bross

In Paradisum - le véritable dragon rouge
Ricardo Bross
Mexico
2017 | 0:14:00

Whom who inhabits occult in thy skin, thy flesh, thy bones, behind blinded eyes, behind unvirtuous hands, behind foul tongues and fading faces, I walk amongst ourselves… I am our Beast.

FRENCH PREMIERE

Jury Statement :
We decided to give the main award to the movie In paradisum - le véritable dragon rouge by Ricardo Bross because of its great evocation strength and its demanding formal research. Thanks to its astonishing editing work, which submits the audience to an uninterrupted torrent of hypnotic images, the director overcomes its subject and offers a strong re-reading of it, which haunts lastingly the mind. A singular work which does not fear to maintain its own radicalness in order to remember and prevent in the same universal artistic gesture.

Directors Statement :
I have no means of expression to show my gratitude towards the International Festival Signes de Nuit and the International Jury. This is my first award and I'll remember it as long as I live. By the means of expression we lurk in, to be awarded declares a definitive statement, there's room for those who seek still to differ with the usual and there's still room for an audience that seek to stand with us.

Cinema in Transgression Competition

Signs Award

Abandoned Land
Simo Saarikoski

The Signs Award honors films, which treat an important subject in an original, convincing and surprising way. .

Abandoned Land
Simo Saarikoski
Finland
2017 | 12:15

"Abandoned Land” is a documentary and experimental video. It captures and documents abandoned places, infrastructure and phenomenon in Finland. The video uses Finland as an allegory to approach recent changes of the European society with visually effective images, prosaic narration and music. When still in use, the abandoned environment had grown to match to the demands of society and now time has made it useless. The video observes and documents that change. With the abandoned phenomena the video explores history and its relation with today.

FRENCH PREMIERE

Jury Statement :
Dès l'ouverture, Simo Saarikoski met en perspective des bâtiments en décrépitude avec leur environnement géographique, avant de glisser de ces plans extérieurs aux échos post apocalyptiques vers leur intérieur peuplé d'objets abandonnés. Par l'agencement équilibré de ces reliquats d'une vie qu'on devine déjà lointaine avec la bande son soignée (musique, effets sonores, texte et comment il est énoncé), on ressent cette ville fantôme comme une allégorie de la désertification de nos sociétés, dépeinte d'une façon originale, plus par le ressenti que par une explication de texte scolaire.

Director Statement :
Filmmaking for me is something where I can combine my three passions together: Image, music and text. I want to thank the jury for appreciating and sharing my vision. I am very honored for the award.

Director Statement :

Cinema in Transgression Competition

Edward Snowden Award

300 Miles
Owa Al Mokdad

The Edward Snowden Award honors films, which offer sensible (mostly) unknown informations, facts and phenomenons of eminent importance, for which the festival wishes a wide proliferation in the future.

300 Miles
Owa Al Mokdad
Syria, Liban
2016 | 1:35:00

Orwa Al Mokdad starts a journey from Daraa, southern Syria, to Aleppo, northern Syria, to understand the reasons that have shattered the whole Arab region over the country’s history and the distance that has grown for the past five years, since the beginning of the Syrian war. A distance that has split the region and its inhabitants into North and South.

FRENCH PREMIERE

Jury Statement :
The Edward Snowden Prize goes to 300 miles by Owa Al Mokdad, a remarkable document shot within the syrian civil war, which shows what it precisely means to live during war time. Directed in extreme conditions, with nearly no material means, it tells the everyday life of people catched in the vice of horror. It also reveals through oral accounts the truth of an armed conflict which goes on and on : nostalgia, pain, despair, of course, but also the nonsense of a situation which seems impossible to end.

Director Statement :

Cinema in Transgression Competition

Night Award

Meijing
Qu Youjia

The Night Award honors films, which are able to balance ambiguity and complexity characterized by enigmatic mysteriousness and subtleness, which keeps mind and consideration moving.

Meijing
Qu Youjia
China
2017 | 0:34:00

Nine-year-old Zhu Meijing always goes to the film sets alone. Through a tutor of the orchestra, she got a part in a child movie, to play a bit of the flute. The leading actress Hanhan somehow cried and screamed all day, for which the shooting could not proceed. The director had to change the actress, and Meijing was asked to play the Chinese traditional instrumental music “Fisherman’s Song at Sunset”. After a frustrating day, Meijing got home, feeling the air was even colder than her loneliness.

Jury Statement :
We gave the Night Award to Meijing. Its story is quite simple at first glance. A little girl is asked to take over when the young lead actress breaks apart. Qu Youjia ends the film on a last scene that makes us think twice about what happened before. The effect thus created carries us beyond the vision of the film. Is it a straight story of a lost girl or something more peculiar? We wonder… What was real, what is not ? An interrogation that goes well with what that award means.

Director Statement :

Cinema in Transgression Competition

Special Mention

The Colour Out of Space
Patrick Müller

The Colour Out of Space
Patrick Müller
Germany
2017 | 0:04:28

A meteorite, strange vegetation, a colour: an experimental take on H.P. Lovecraft's spiral into madness, shot with a vintage camera on truly unique LomoChrome 16mm film. This is a beautiful exercise in the surreal. A fish in a sea of wind, and nature discarding.

EUROPEAN PREMIERE

Jury Statement :
The jury was mesmerized by this adaptation of a Lovecraft short story. The poetry of the writer is enhanced by the cinematographic ideas displayed here. The story is told through titles taken from the content of the original text, a vivid soundtrack and images with a strong poetic appeal. A visual gem shot on LomoChromice 16mm that takes us into a cryptic journey.Le jury a été séduit par cette adaptation de Lovecraft qui sublime la poésie de l'écrivain et en préserve le mystère, uniquement par quelques intertitres extraits de ses pages, un bel accompagnement sonore et des images d'une grande force poétique. Le réalisateur nous offre un joyau esthétique sur LomoChrome 16mm et nous embarque dans un univers étrange dont il ne nous livre pas toutes les clefs.

Director Statement :
Thank you so much for the SPECIAL MENTION of my film THE COLOUR OUT OF SPACE. I am very proud and happy that my film was considered by the jury. To turn Lovecraft’s favorite short story into an experimental silent short film is a bold venture. I got the idea two years ago, when that strange coloured purple 16mm film stock by Lomography hit the market. Filming only with my old mechanical Keystone camera and many ours spent in my darkroom hand-processing the extraterrestrial footage were a lot of fun. An essential role played composer Uwe Rottluff aka WellenVorm, whose score is the perfect match to the moving pictures. I thank my family for supporting me and most of all: my girlfriend Anne, who had a lot of patience walking through England’s Dartmoor in order to find the right filming locations. Thank you very much again and the warmest greetings from Germany!

Cinema in Transgression Competition

Special Mention

Tijuna Tales
Jean-Charles Hue

Tijuna Tales
Jean-Charles Hue
France
2017 | 0:12:00

Jean-Charles Hue follows a few Tijuana folks, from the arid desert to the night world. Very early on, reality gets diluted and the film changes skin the way a viper would. Amongst these more or less fantasized figures that suddenly loom before Hue, some are little devils who could just as well be angels. With the feeble light of a bulb, Hue tries to follow the steps of a certain Roxana, who no sooner appears than she vanishes. Maybe she’s in the hands of the devil?

Jury Statement :
Tijuana Tales-from the first scene ,"Tijuana tales" 'captures the audience with mysterious and seductive character of Roxana,,,Tijuana tales'' is a characters driven film with night atmosphare like a smoke in the mexican bar. Strong characters mixtured with poetic film language make the film unique.

Director Statement :
Je vous écrit ces quelques mots pour vous remercier, le festival ainsi que le jury, pour le prix que vous avez accordé à mon film Tijuana Tales. C'est toujours une double satisfaction de recevoir un prix pour un film dont le sujet et le traitement ne propose pas une lecture aisée au publique. Mais malgré cela lorsque finalement le film trouve son publique et suscite l'intérêt alors on se dit que l'on peut encore compter ne pas être seul à se débattre. Cela donne assez de courage pour repartir à la rencontre d'autres personnes et situations dont on souhaite témoigner et se dire qu'un certain regard que nous avons tous aimé dans certain films par le passé est toujours possible. Je me permet de vous adresser aussi les remerciements des personnes qui à Tijuana on participé à ce film.