The Film Comment Podcast

At this year’s Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Future of Attention”, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera italiana. A continuous 24-hour live talk moderated by three hosts—including Devika—and involving a new guest each hour, the event began at noon on August 10 and went on all the way to noon on August 11. Attendees were invited to sit, lounge, or even sleep in the audience as and when they wished. The idea was to not just discuss the workings of attention in contemporary film and media culture, but also to actively experience and challenge the various forms our attention may take over a sustained period of time. We hope you’ve been following along the last two weeks as we’ve shared excerpts from Devika’s hosting shift at the event, featuring conversations with filmmaker Helena Wittman, curator Giovanni Carmine, this year’s Golden Leopard–winner Julia Murat, and others. Our final episode is with a guest who has a job like no other: it’s Kevin B. Lee, Professor for the Future of Cinema and the Audiovisual Arts at Locarno Film Festival and USI. Kevin joined Devika to close out the 24-hour event with a fascinating discussion on how labor, pleasure, and the special state of attention that we call cinema. Listen to the complete series here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/podcast/the-future-of-attention/

Welcome to the Film Comment Podcast! I'm Devika Girish, the Co-Deputy Editor of Film Comment. Recently, I was at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, where I participated in a fascinating experimental event called The Future of Attention, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera Italiana. It was a continuous 24-hour live talk, moderated by 3 hosts—including yours truly—and involving a new guest each hour. The event began at noon on August 10, and went on all the way to noon on August 11, with attendees invited to sit, lounge, or even sleep in the audience when they wished. The idea was not just to discuss the workings of attention in contemporary film and media culture but also to actively experience and challenge the various ways in which we pay attention over a sustained period of time. We hope you’ve been following along the last two weeks as we’ve shared excerpts from Devika’s hosting shift at the event, featuring conversations with filmmaker Helena Wittman, curator Giovanni Carmine, this year’s Golden Leopard–winner Julia Murat, and others. Next up is a very exciting guest: artist, filmmaker, and critic, Hito Steyerl, who talks about teaching on Minecraft during the pandemic, maintaining techno-optimisim in very pessimistic times, and the distinction between attention and voyeurism.

At this year’s Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Future of Attention”, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera italiana. A continuous 24-hour live talk moderated by three hosts—including Devika—and involving a new guest each hour, the event began at noon on August 10 and went on all the way to noon on August 11. Attendees were invited to sit, lounge, or even sleep in the audience as and when they wished. The idea was to not just discuss the workings of attention in contemporary film and media culture, but also to actively experience and challenge the various forms our attention may take over a sustained period of time. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be sharing excerpts from Devika’s hosting shift at the event, which featured some exciting guests: filmmakers Helena Wittmann and Kamal Aljafari; curator Giovanni Carmine; this year’s Golden Leopard–winner, Julia Murat; artist Hito Steyerl; and scholars Kevin B. Lee and Noa Levin, among others. Today's episode features the Brazilian filmmaker Julia Murat, whose film, Rule 34, won this year’s Golden Leopard. Check back here for our next episode from “The Future of Attention” at the Locarno Film Festival, featuring filmmaker and writer Hito Steyerl.

At this year’s Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Future of Attention”, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera italiana. A continuous 24-hour live talk moderated by three hosts—including Devika—and involving a new guest each hour, the event began at noon on August 10 and went on all the way to noon on August 11. Attendees were invited to sit, lounge, or even sleep in the audience as and when they wished. The idea was to not just discuss the workings of attention in contemporary film and media culture, but also to actively experience and challenge the various forms our attention may take over a sustained period of time. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be sharing excerpts from Devika’s hosting shift at the event, which featured some exciting guests: filmmakers Helena Wittmann and Kamal Aljafari; curator Giovanni Carmine; this year’s Golden Leopard–winner, Julia Murat; artist Hito Steyerl; and scholars Kevin B. Lee and Noa Levin, among others. Today’s conversation explores the spaces and infrastructures of attention with Levin and Carmine, the director of Kunsthalle St. Gallen and the curator of Art Basel's Unlimited Section.

At this year's Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Future of Attention”, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera italiana. A continuous 24-hour live talk moderated by three hosts—including Devika—and involving a new guest each hour, the event began at noon on August 10 and went on all the way to noon on August 11. Attendees were invited to sit, lounge, or even sleep in the audience as and when they wished. The idea was to not just discuss the workings of attention in contemporary film and media culture, but also to actively experience and challenge the various forms our attention may take over a sustained period of time.  Over the next two weeks, we’ll be sharing excerpts from Devika's hosting shift at the event, which featured some exciting guests: filmmakers Helena Wittmann and Kamal Aljafari; curator Giovanni Carmine; this year's Golden Leopard–winner, Julia Murat; artist Hito Steyerl; and scholars Kevin B. Lee and Noa Levin, among others. Today's episode features Aljafari, who discusses his new short, Paradiso XXXI, 108, and the ways in which his filmmaking draws attention to what he calls the “camera of the dispossessed.”

At this year's Locarno Film Festival, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish participated in a fascinating experimental event called “The Future of Attention”, curated by Rafael Dernbach, a researcher at the Universita della Svizzera Italiana. A continuous 24-hour live talk moderated by three hosts—including Devika—and involving a new guest each hour, the event began at noon on August 10 and went on all the way to noon on August 11. Attendees were invited to sit, lounge, or even sleep in the audience as and when they wished. The idea was to not just discuss the workings of attention in contemporary film and media culture, but also to actively experience and challenge the various forms our attention may take over a sustained period of time.  Over the next two weeks, we’ll be sharing excerpts from Devika's hosting shift at the event, which featured some exciting guests: filmmakers Helena Wittmann and Kamal Aljafari; curator Giovanni Carmine; this year's Golden Leopard–winner, Julia Murat; artist Hito Steyerl; and scholars Kevin B. Lee and Noa Levin, among others.  First up is Wittmann, who talks about her new film, Human Flowers of Flesh, and the ways in which her practice is rooted in embodied and communal experiences of time and space.  Check back here for our next episode from “The Future of Attention” at the Locarno Film Festival, featuring Kamal Aljafari.

This week's podcast initially began as a sequel to our episode about Irma Vep from a few weeks ago, in which Adam Nayman and Beatrice Loayza joined us to discuss Olivier Assayas's new HBO series. We had only seen four episodes at the time, and we wanted to reconvene our guests, now that the miniseries has finished its run of eight episodes. But as we dug into the film-within-a-film rabbit holes of Irma Vep, its commentaries on auteurism and autofiction, and how it blurs the lines between reality, narrative, and fantasy, we realized that it echoed the themes of another series everyone has been talking about recently: The Rehearsal, by Nathan Fielder. So this episode brings you a double dose of meta: Irma Vep and The Rehearsal, and the ethics of making movies about oneself, other people, and movie-making itself.

This week we have a special treat for listeners: a conversation with avant-garde filmmaking legends Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, and programmer and Light Industry co-founder Thomas Beard. Thomas, along with Film at Lincoln Center programmer Dan Sullivan, has curated New York, 1962–1964: Underground and Experimental Cinema, an upcoming series spotlighting the rise of what Jonas Mekas described as the "New American Cinema." Opening on July 29, the series takes place in conjunction with related programs at the Jewish Museum and Film Forum. In a wide-ranging conversation about a pivotal moment in American film history, Dorsky—whose Ingreen (1964) screens as part of the FLC series—and Hiler regaled us with anecdotes about their partnership in life and filmmaking, the state of moviegoing and movie-making in the New York of the '60s, and the culture-shifting exploits of Jonas Mekas, Gregory J. Markopoulous, Stan Brakhage, Bruce Connor, and others. We also chatted about Hiler's fascinating in-progress project about medieval stained glass, "Cinema Before 1300," and a new book, Illuminated Hours. Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, which was published in Spanish earlier this year and will be available soon in English.

In a recent Film Comment Letter interview, Academy Film Archive preservationist Mark Toscano said: “to me, restoration has a variable definition, because it’s not embodying any specific technique or approach. It is more of a conceptual process by which you’re making sure that the film retains its qualities as a work that was made by a person—especially experimental work made by an individual.” Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish wanted to dig a little deeper into Mark’s comments, and into the technically and philosophically challenging ins and outs of film preservation and restoration, so they invited two experts to join the podcast and guide them through the subject: critic and media conservator Ina Archer and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder and director of the Film Heritage Foundation. Both also provide details on some exciting projects they’re engaged in: Ina talks about preserving Robert Goodwin’s independent blaxploitation flick Black Chariot and Jessie Maple’s 1981 drama Will, while Shivendra breaks down the restorations of two major works by Indian filmmaker Govindan Aravindan, Kummatty and Thamp̄.

This week, Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish talk to a cinematographer who’s worked with everyone from Agnès Varda to Wim Wenders to Eliza Hittman to Alice Rohrwacher. Over the last three decades, Hélène Louvart has acquired a reputation for her gorgeous lensing of women’s stories and her ability to capture movement with rare immediacy and grace. Hélène’s talents are on striking display in Murina, a new coming-of-age film directed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic. Murina tells the story of a Croatian teen (played by newcomer Gracija Filipović) navigating a treacherous passage to adulthood in an intensely patriarchal milieu. With intimate close-ups, breathtaking underwater sequences, and beautiful shots of the island where the film is set, Hélène’s images give arresting form to the protagonist’s awakening to her own desires. The cinematographer called in from her home in Paris to talk about how she crafted the film’s visual language, the care required to capture women as both subjects and objects of the gaze, and the technical challenges and pleasures of shooting underwater.