FUNDADA ARTISTS' FILM FESTIVAL

Fundada Artists’ Film Festival is a contemporary film and video event run by artists intending to showcase the best in contemporary screen-based art from across the globe. Fundada believes that art should be fun and inclusive yet conceptually strong and critically engaged. The film festival is comprised of selected short films from an international open call and curated by artists Alice Bradshaw and Nancy Porter.

Open Call for Submissions
2012 to be announced shortly.


Monday 5 March 2012

Fundada TV



Fundada has a vimeo channel with the selected films from 2010 and 2011 festivals vimeo.com/fundada

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Best of FAFF 2011

Fundada are delighted to announce the Best of FAFF 2011.

The viewing audience at Fundada Artists' Film Festival 2011 voted for the best film of the festival and the winners are:

Gold FAFFTA: Sparrow+Castice (UK) - Sparrow & Castice Do Wakefield (2011)

World Première!
On Monday June 13th 2011 Sparrow+Castice went to Wakefield. One week later on Sunday 19th they returned to Birmingham. At some point between these two dates 10 films were made. These are those 10 films.
sparrowandcastice.tumblr.com

Congratulations also to runners up in second and third place:

Silver FAFFTA: Paul B Johnson (UK) - TV of Tomorrow...Today (2011)

The piece explores the formal mechanisms of our assimilation of the television media, particularly reality television. The focus remains on such mechanisms as editing, framing and graphics by removing the characters' faces, reducing them to puppets. This reductive approach gives the piece its childlike quality. The womb soundscape reinforces the concept of television as a pacifier for society.
web.me.com/stripeypaul

Bronze FAFFTA: Gerard Freixes Ribera (ES) - The Homogenics (2010)

The same people living in the same houses. Uniformisation turns everything into stereotypes. The Homogenics family sitcom is an extreme example.
gerardfreixes.weebly.com

Congratulations to our FAFFTA award winning artists and thank you to everyone who voted.

Thursday 28 July 2011

Wolfie interviews Alice & Nancy

The Wolf behind Fundada interviews founding co-directors Alice Bradshaw and Nancy Porter.

Wolfie: Where does the name Fundada come from?
Alice: It’s a mix of 2 of our main interests in art: Fun + dada.
Nancy: Well we wanted something that represented, something that could be a play on words but also something legitimate. It means 'founded' in Spanish and came off a bottle of Havana Club rum. We love rum and this subtle tip of our hats to it seemed perfect.

W: Why a film festival?
N: I think it was an interesting move for me personally as it's something I have never done before. It's been great to be critically engaged in something that we are all exposed to and absorbed in. Instead of looking at the big films that are out there, it's been a great experience to look at the smaller films which have a broad spectrum of talent and are interesting artistically.
A: Last year we were thinking of opening a gallery with a dedicated artists’ cinema space. The space we had in mind fell through but the opportunity to run a film festival as part of Halifax Festival came from Square Chapel who kindly offered us the venue and equipment to screen it. We had no good reason not to run it again this year. We’re planning other projects as Fundada though - not exclusively film.

W: This year FAFF comes to Wakefield. What prompted the move from Halifax?
A: The film festival or any other Fundada activity was never set to be tied to any geographical location. We’re peripatetic and opportunistic.
N: The opportunity came to us through Alice as she is a resident in the studio. Plus it has a pub. What's better? Pint and a film.

W: What's the ambiguous “Yes” / “No” for on the FAFF2011 submission form?
N: Interesting question! Originally we thought it'd be an amusing twist to our application forms. We were intentionally ambiguous what we want people to say Yes or No to.
A: It was an experiment to see if it prompted any surreal answers to the “questions.” It prompted more questions than answers.
N: We get a lot of ticks/crosses to Yes, some smiley faces and some questions. I like the response we've had to it.

W: Were there lots of submissions and does it take ages to review?
A: There were loads. We had them delivered to Westgate Studios and every week there was a new stack by the pigeonholes waiting for collection.
N: The reviewing process is a fairly long process but it never seems to drag because we get so many interesting and varied films, there's always something for us to discuss and muse over.
A: We really impressed by how far our open call went. We had submissions from every corner of the world and it was great reviewing them all.
W: What are the criteria?
A: The submission criteria this year was a maximum of 20 minutes duration and the submissions had to be DVD pal. Last year there were no criteria as we had 5 screening days to play with so feature lengths were not out of the question. We found that despite receiving good quality feature lengths from around the world, short films were much more interesting for us. I think there’s definitely a subtle distinction between film film and art film. It’s not a simple one eg having or not having narrative. And we like film film too.
N: We called it Fundada Artists’ Film Festival because we particularly wanted films made by artists rather than films made by filmmakers. It’s not specifically a criteria though - it’s just suggested in the title, because essentially filmmakers are artists and artists who make films are filmmakers.
A: We also had to make submissions postal only on DVD pal because we had serious issues with film formats last year. Filthy little mov files caused so many problems as they are so incompatible. We had to go to Lumen in Leeds and use their Macs with Final Cut Pro just to convert the files into a workable format. With films already in DVD pal there’s no conversion and quality loss.
N: Essentially, the selection criteria is a mix of quality and subjectivity and also if the films will work together curatorially.

W: What is the selection process?
A: The selection process is we’ll watch all the films together and discuss each one and make a longlist. Once we’ve reviewed all of them we’ll make a shortlist knowing what we’re working with. Then we’ll make the final selection and decide the running order.
N: Last year we didn’t have anywhere suitable to review films so we ended up in bars across Manchester with laptops and wine. We know all the best places to plug in for power, and the preferred seats nearest the plug sockets as well.
A: This year we have a very comfortable HQ with all the facilities.

W: Do you ever disagree about the selection?
A: I don’t think we have... sometimes we’re both unsure about a film and have different levels of enthusiasm for it, but it’s generally an easy process to decide and a good conversation in the process.
N: I don't think we've ever had a disagreement over a film, no. We're both very much on the same page. Plus we're a democracy, like U2 but with the Irish vibe and tax evasion.


W: What have been the worst films to review?
N: Dance. And experimental dance. I have no clue over this as an art form. It's not my place and never will be. Oh and scrotum footage. Can we say scrotum in an interview?
A: Swinging scrotum were the low point of our career as Fundada. We discussed the potential for screening a Worst of FAFF and the ethics of doing that. We haven’t ruled it out. Video documentation as video documentation and not a piece of work in its own right is not a good start and neither of us are particularly keen on dance as a medium, less so as documentation and not live.

W: And the best?
N: Scrotum footage. No, I kid. The best are the ones that when we watch them they instantly strike us as being Fundada. They're normally a little surreal, sometimes they'll feature a woodland animal or a flying rum bottle.
A: We also ran a public vote for best film of the day each screening day last year and have awarded the following Best of FAFF2010 FAFFTAs to: Splitty McCheeks (UK) & NTSC VHS VJ Barry Valentino (US) live, Eagle & Feather (UK) KIPPLE: VHS Art for the Digital Age, Sebaldo (UK) - Bomb Ed, Paul Tarragó (UK) - The Badger Series Episode 1, Kathy Toth (UK) – Loop, Jorge García Velayos (ES) - La Bestia (The Beast), Lemeh42 (IT) - Inner Klänge (Inner Sound) and Sai Hua Kuan (SG/UK)- Space Drawing No.5.

W: What's next for Fundada?
N: We have big plans. We're thinking of something abroad - we want to take Fundada to Europe. And perhaps something printed like a zine.
A: We’re both interested in language and are developing a project around multilingualism and the inherent strangeness of language. Research trips are going to be an important part of the next year. Showcasing artists’ films will still be a big part of what we do though. Fundada TV is here!




http://vimeo.com/fundada

FAFF 2011 Success!

Fundada had a full house at Westgate Studios last night and received some lovely feedback.



"..a great mix of quality short art films ranging from narrative pieces to more abstract works. Films with humour and some with a more serious edge. All wonderfully unpredictable." - BLPT

"[Sparrow+Castice Do Wakefield] was hilarious but moving as there was an implied abstract narrative."

"I think we should guard against making video films that copy the techniques used in television!"

"I liked that you could follow the story even though it was in a foreign language and the colours were so rich."

[On Women In Sheds] "I have an enduring love of sheds. An affinity. Faffing around. Escapism. Sanctuary. Bloody Lovely."

"Thank you!"


We also asked our audience to vote for their favourite film of the festival and will be announcing the FAFFTA award winner shortly!

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Fundada Artists' Film Festival 2011

Fundada Artists' Film Festival 2011
Wednesday 27th July 2011, 5-9pm
1st Floor, Westgate Studios, 55 Westgate, Wakefield, WF1 1BW
FREE ENTRY

The programme will run 5-7pm and 7-9pm

Sparrow+Castice (UK) - Sparrow & Castice Do Wakefield (2011) 08:00 World Première

On Monday June 13th 2011 Sparrow+Castice went to Wakefield. One week later on Sunday 19th they returned to Birmingham. At some point between these two dates 10 films were made. These are those 10 films.
sparrowandcastice.tumblr.com

Simona da Pozzo (IT) - Exclave (2010) 15:33

Portable Grounds is an intervention about territory, identity and mobility: it acts as a compulsive reflex that pushes to transport, to have objects –or parts of them- with the idea to have a physical link with that we love, to despite distances. A attitude to condense sadness in objects that nourish nostalgia.
www.simonadapozzo.net

Marius Leneweit & Rocío Rodríguez (DE) ...niland 2 (...no land 2) (2011) 09:56

...niland (no land) is a visionary work about the adaptation and transformation of humankind to a life beneath the water surface. The work is based on themes of climate change and develop, particularly the way it has produced a grotesque notion of the sea's rising water table. The interface of air and water functions as the indicator of a climate influenced by humanity, raises questions regarding the ambivalence of the symbiosis human-environment and examines the stringent concurrence of climate change and cultural change.
www.gruppefisch.com

Patrick Moser (US) - Patty Goes (2011) 02:10 UK Première!

An animated homage to the Patterson footage that inspired me as a child.
www.patrickmoserpaintings.com

Fin McMorran (UK) - Women and Sheds (2010-11) 10:50

9 women tell their stories, about their sheds – private space, workshops, refuges and occasional disaster areas. A representative of the local shed community replies, detailing some of her hopes and aspirations and revealing some truths about the complex nature of sheds.
www.finmcmorran.co.uk

Chiara Malta (IT) - D'attends une Femme (Waiting For A Woman) (2010) 20:00

Mireille is drawing a naked woman and a dog for olivia. Anna is wearing some makeup. Priscillie and Virginie are taking their clothes off. Milo knows girls' legs. Annie is very comfrotable with the instruments of her profession. Francoise reas the cards. Christian is jealous. And I, I am filming this little theatre.
www.sacrebleuprod.com

Jennifer Ross (UK) - Caught in Mise en Scene (2010) 03:35

Popular culture is characterised by paranoia; some system or organisation controlling our moves. We crave to break free of the constraints of life and to be a free individual. But what, and how is shaping our existence? Are we able to escape it?
www.jennifer-ross.co.uk

Alice Bradshaw (UK) - Rubbish (2011) 01:00

A montage from the Museum of Contemporary Rubbish.
museumofcontemporaryrubbish.blogspot.com

Rémi Mazet (FR) - Siggil (2010) 18:03

Dakar is a popular district. An old man, Lamine, is getting ready to go to an important meeting. At the other side of the city, in a sumptuous villa, someone is waiting for him anxiously.
www.sacrebleuprod.com

Marzia Moretti (IT) - Azione Sovversiva Minima 6 (Minimal Subversive Action 6) (2010) 00:44 World Première

Intake, compression, power, exhaust.

Paul B Johnson (UK) - TV of Tomorrow...Today (2011) 01:10

The piece explores the formal mechanisms of our assimilation of the television media, particularly reality television. The focus remains on such mechanisms as editing, framing and graphics by removing the characters' faces, reducing them to puppets. This reductive approach gives the piece its childlike quality. The womb soundscape reinforces the concept of television as a pacifier for society.
web.me.com/stripeypaul

Gerard Freixes Ribera (ES) - The Homogenics (2010) 04:00

The same people living in the same houses. Uniformisation turns everything into stereotypes. The Homogenics family sitcom is an extreme example.
gerardfreixes.weebly.com

Andrew Branscombe (UK) - Retrograde (2011) 05:15

Our lives today our driven by storage, the Internet is built upon huge databases, but how long can this storage last, and does the constant replication of this data cause the original qualities or meanings to become diluted or erased? The film depicts the interior of a VHS VCR, the HD footage has been deliberately deteriorated by reproducing it on various 'older' technologies, from DVD to the infamous VHS. The VHS media has been re-recorded repeatedly until the resulting image becomes completely incoherent.
andrewbranscombe.blogspot.com

Rudolf Costin (RO) - O Dada (2010) 01:43

O Dada is an illustration of a literary exquisite corpse assembled by chance in a coffee shop in Cluj-Napoca. The video is a subjective view of the produced poem, with sudden cuts in the image and sound, the same way as the words are divided in dada poetry. By definition, a dada poem is an assembly of verses with no links between them, just like the sliced up storyline of this video.

Fin McMorran (UK) - Paper (2009) 04:30

At the end of a long and weary art conference, full of long words and longer papers, the audience is doodling and dreaming of teabreaks. Then, the final paper comes unexpectedly to life with an unplanned demonstration of theory becoming practice allowing the metaphorical fish to tell it like it really is.
www.finmcmorran.co.uk

Katriona Skinner(UK) - I Will Brush Them Again if You Want (2010) 01:24

The everyday is a structure and sequence of familiar patterns formed into routines of repetition. The insignificant becomes significant. I sort through the mundane, patch-working humdrum monotonous moments together creating a glimpse of the reality of the everyday.  I investigate the trivial, the uncanny and the absurdity of the quotidian by removing its structure to create a new order, using staged and real home movies to capture rhythm,  like the ticking of a clock; to capture the beat of the day.
www.katrionaskinner.com

Anna Francis (UK) - Emoticon (2011) 08:00

Within my work as an artist and as a child of the 70s struggling with the digital age I use social media a lot within my practice. While I see the great benefit of this astounding connectivity I am also perturbed by the limitations and dumbing down of meaningful connections which can, on occasion, be the result. In Emoticon I am exploring the limitations and possibilities of the emoticon in adequately representing a broad range of human emotion. The shorthand of the emoticon is used by many to attempt to add a human and emotional level to what are often kneejerk, quick-response messages. The immediacy of email and text has meant that the nuances of human emotion are often lost in translation, misunderstandings frequently occur. www.annafrancis.com

THANKS
Fundada would like to thank the following people without whose help FAFF2011 would not be possible: The artists, Westgate Studios for the use of the space, The Arthouse for the use of their projector, Facelessco for the use of their speakers, Bob Milner for his amazing illustrations, The Hepworth Gallery for the cardboard, Sparrow+Castice for the transportation of the cardboard, Our friends, family and colleagues for their ongoing support.

Saturday 16 July 2011

Fundada TV Launches!

Fundada TV is a new online channel showcasing the Best of Fundada Artists' Film Festival.



A new film uploaded each week!

http://vimeo.com/fundada/

FAFF2011 Programme Confirmed!

FAFF2011 will take place on Wednesday 27th July 2011, 5-9pm
1st floor, Westgate Studios, 55 Westgate, Wakefield, WF1 1BW
Screenings: 5-7pm and 7-9pm


Programme:
Sparrow+Castice (UK) - Sparrow & Castice Do Wakefield (2011) World Première!
Simona da Pozza (IT) - Exclave (2010)
Marius Leneweit & Rocío Rodríguez (DE) ...niland 2 (...no land 2) (2011)
Patrick Moser (US) - Patty Goes (2011)
Fin McMorran (UK) - Women and Sheds (2010-11)
Chiara Malta (IT) - D'attends une Femme (Waiting For A Woman) (2010)
Jennifer Ross (UK) - Caught in Mise en Scene (2010)
Alice Bradshaw (UK) - Rubbish (2011)
Rémi Mazet (FR) - Siggil (2010)
Marzia Moretti (IT) - Azione Sovversiva Minima 6 (Minimal Subversive Action 6) (2010)
Paul B Johnson (UK) - TV of Tomorrow...Today (2011)
Gerard Freixes Ribera (ES) - The Homogenics (2010)
Andrew Branscombe (UK) - Retrograde (2011)
Rudolf Costin (RO) - O Dada (2010)
Fin McMorran (UK) - Paper (2009)
Katriona Skinner (UK) - I Will Brush Them Again if You Want (2010)
Anna Francis (UK) - Emoticon (2011)