pillow bowl rose tree

Peter Todd | 2023 | UK | 16’ | 16mm (digital transfer) | silent

A quietly poignant domestic film made of images gathered around the house and its surroundings over a 2-year period. The title might seem self-explanatory, we do see pillows, bowls, roses, trees – but also curtains, tablecloths, saucers, other trees and flowers (in the garden and arranged on vases). We sense the changing seasons and we sense a lived-in space – one that is shared as the pillow arrangements suggest. Working with a Bolex camera involves a tension between the technology and the world surrounding the filmmaker, the maximum shot length is limited to around 20 seconds because of the windup spring motor. As Todd writes “The camera is handheld. The rhythms and timings coming in dialogue with the camera I use, a clockwork 16mm Bolex.”  

Up the River with Acid

Harald Hutter I 2023 I France I 63’ I Digital I English & French spoken, English subtitles

A tender 16mm portrait of the filmmaker Harald Hutter’s elderly mother and father, filmed over the course of 2 days in the small French village where they live. Horst Hutter is a retired university professor now suffering from advanced dementia, his wife Francine Prévost is a poet whose moving writing accompanies the film.

The couple are filmed in the soft colours of their domestic interior as Horst struggles to remember his daily routine. Some habits seem lifelong, others newly formed by the intrusion of dementia. His memory is fading and his sight and hearing are almost completely lost. Amongst these scenes, recorded conversations between Horst and Francine gather memories from their lives together and the moment they met and fell in love.

These quotidian moments are observed in long, still compositions as Hutter achieves the kind of intimacy that comes with familial closeness. The resulting film is not just a document of his father’s journey with dementia, but also the love story of his parents. 

Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers hosted by María Palacios Cruz.