Selections from “Digital Fairy Tales: Wassermarchen”
THE POND AQUARIUS
Realization: Jonathan Phelps & Team, 2021, color, 7 min
Statement:
The Pond Aquarius is an exploration of the unlimited potential of the unconscious mind, told in allegory through the fairytale of the same name. Here we follow three women into the willful acceptance of their universal divinity, facing fears in order to fully embrace connection to source and overcoming imbalance. This sacred communion has much to show us, its powerful waters forbidden for far too long.
AQUARIA
Realization: Julia Obst & Mark Fernyhough, 2021, color, 4 min
Statement:
My video “Aquaria’’ is based on the fairy tale “The Pond Aquarius’’. I’ve chosen this fairy tale in particular because of it’s misogynist elements. Women are portrayed as creatures that trick men with their beauty and therefore deserve to be punished. The story has similarities to a witch hunt. I questioned myself how can I transform this fairy tale as a female director? I picked up elements from the original fairy tale and created a new story with a female protagonist. She’s on a journey to connect with her roots and ultimately finds out who she is. I think it’s a story about personal growth. Also, I’m happy to mention that my team on set was 100% female.
YOU & ME
Realization: Vadim Schäffler & Alex Hamadey 2021, color, 3 min
Statement:
The Bavarian fairy tale “Fox and Rabbit” is reinterpreted in the video “You & Me,” a short story about friendship, treason, revenge and regret.
Selections from “Digital Fairy Tales: Transformation!”
DER GREIF
Realization: Juliane Ebner, 2022, color, 3 min
Statement:
The Griffin
A fairytale.
A story of resistance.
An animated movie based on hundreds of watercolour paintings.
With poetic images in both picture and language, this story tells of oppression and liberation.
DEATH AND THE BUTCHER
Realization: Alexis Karl & Adam Torkel, 2022, color, 6 min
Statement:
Death and The Butcher is a short experimental film inspired by a 19th century Germany fairytale, “The Klagmutter,” about The Butcher, who meets his demise at the water’s edge, and Death, who taking the form of various animals, leads the The Butcher to the netherworld. Shot on the frozen shores of New York City’s Rockaway Beach on a winter’s day, the film takes place in the in-between, where The Butcher uselessly fights off Death’s advances to a haunting soundtrack composed of incantations from the Egyptian book of the dead, Tibetan funerary prayer horns, and keening wails from an Indonesian mourning ceremony. The film explores the barren realm of the unknown as the two characters continue in a dance of death through resistance, fear and acceptance.
LIBERATIO NATURAE
Realization: Thomas D. Rotenberg & Josh Graham, 2022, color, 8 min
Statement:
Inspired by the “Swan Maidens” fairy tale, my goal with this piece was to depict the meeting of two souls, both trapped by a force beyond their understanding, coming together to help each other despite never being able to see one another. The swan, longing for freedom, forges a bond with a lost traveler who accidentally enters the witch’s domain. Their connection is not based on any self-interest and is instead selfless, with each having no goal besides freeing the other. The traveler faces off against the witch, solving her puzzle and freeing the swan without any regard for what may happen to himself. With so much isolation present in this modern age, this film aims to explore what it means to connect with and help someone else based purely on mutual respect and shared interest.
VERITAS
Realization: Sandra Ratkovic, 2022, color, 3 min
Statement:
The video is inspired by the fairy tale “Swan Maidens.” I concentrate on the motifs of the green veil and of transformation: What is true, what is not true? What is the true state, the true essence of a person, of a woman?
The fairy tale, which serves as the basis of the work of art, is about the constant transformation of a woman and mother into a swan and back, about the longing for water and freedom, but also the worldly life as a wife and mother. And the conflict in between.
In my artistic work I am currently dealing with the topic of de-industrialization and the situation of women workers, in particular, in former textile factories. Here, too, different choices and life situations exist for women: freedom, being part of a collective, wage labor, life as housewife or as worker.
So I chose the former sewing machine factory “Veritas” in Brandenburg, Germany as location for my video: Veritas (formerly “Singer sewing machines”) was the most important factory in Wittenberge for decades. After the de-industrialization of the former GDR, unemployment rose rapidly in Wittenberge. The sound to the video consists of self-recorded sewing machine noises.
JELLY SKIN
Realization: Adele Oko, 2022, color, 8 min
Statement:
First of all I was very inspired by the theme « Magical animal » proposed by Leo Kuelbs for Digital fairy tale 2022. I wanted to create a video that would show the nature magic, in it’s processus of giving and taking life. « The bird greif » was the fairy tale that caught my attention the most, I like the idea of an animal that was actually a woman before. I tried to imagine a metamorphosis processus of a human, from his first cell till the shedding of his skin to became a new creature. I wanted to represent the cycle of life in an oneiric way and break the traditional boundary between human and animal.