Linz Short Film Festival 2024, Austria (Austrian Premiere)

Les Instants Vidéo numérique et poétique 2024

Competition Videoformes 2024, Clermont-Ferrand, France (French Premiere)

International Student Competition, Drama International Short Film Festival 2023, Drama, Greece (World Premiere)

Selection Kasseler Dokfest 2023, Kassel, Germany (German Premiere)

Short Film of the Week by AG Kurzfilm 2023

title: δ

duration: 5 min

genre: photo film, experimental, videoart

direction, editor, sound design, title design: Julia Diệp My Feige

countries of production: Germany, Greece

production year: 2023

Two men shake hands as if closing a deal. The few people around them seem to feel the happiness of this moment. We see cars backstage, or a car showroom. Then the close shot of a key. The dealers, supposedly friends, hug themselves; at first shy, then warmly. The group of men poses for a photo together. The showroom’s display window separates them from other indoor cars; in a corner, the Greek letter δ (delta) can be read imprinted on the glass.

Objects are endowed with their own unique histories, and sometimes they can be (or become) a medium unto itself. Created over a sequence of photos found next to a dumpster in Athens, Greece, My Feige’s photo film δ magnifies on the unprocessed nature of its raw material to forge fresh connections between the elements shown in them. Essentially, the film reveals a hidden world inside the photographic pores, transforming the found images into a new, interconnected narrative or microcosm.

There are several parallel layers that add up in the way we experience the work. On the one hand, we may ask ourselves questions, seek narratives: Who are those people? What’s behind them, what’s actually their story? What is this scene about? Does the filmmaker know them? Although we are set in a place of imagination, all these questions don't appear to be imperative to immersing oneself in the film. δ is rather about “retouching the real with the real.”

Looking at the photos, scanned directly in their plastic sleeves, we see traces of decay - organic defense mechanism against time and forgetfulness - and soon we get entranced into an abstract, mutable canvas. This is achieved by the sensitive work of juxtaposition and montage. The reflections on the plastic sleeves remind us that a lot of what is seen and understood is a projection by the viewer which is a main theme throughout Feige’ s

work. We may then just allow ourselves to be carried away and wander throughout the film’s journey. To be seen are mold-like stains, chemical entities, air-water- and fire-damaged corners.

The characters themselves are revealed as an aftermath out of that landscape of disintegration. They are torn, deformed by it. Like ghosts, their solemn faces and gestures crawling through eternity... Slowly fading away, coming back, and merging again into the void. Moments kept alive by chance or fate. To watch δ is to somehow feel the concrete passage of time.

written by Bruno Christofoletti Barrenha