EMAF Award

Jury:
Anna Anders, UDK Berlin
Jan Schuijren, NMA Kurator, Amsterdam
Gabriel Soucheyre, Videoformes

Winners:
Reynold Reynolds, Title: "SECRET LIFE"
Installation

Nicholas Provost, Title: "PLOT POINT"
B 2007, BetaCam 13:39

Statement of the jury:
The jury jointly decided to split the EMAF-prize of 3000 Euro, awarding the installation "Secret Life" by American artist Reynold Reynolds, and the video "Plot Point" by Belgian artist Nicholas Provost.

Reynold Reynolds "Secret Life", two channel video installation, 2008

(Quote Reynolds) "One thing that I enjoy about dreams is the way that narrative collapses. Emotion and context replace the question of plot. The subconscious meaning of things becomes prevalent. Reynolds background in physics and philosophy, becomes apparent in both works presented in the EMAF exhibition. The jury decided to award "Secret Life". Set in an apartment, Reynolds frames reality in a laboratory, showing us to what extent our connection with Œreal life_ is a very subconscious or even unconscious one. In ŒSecret Life_, time becomes an entity of its own, contracting and expanding, becoming circular and repetitive time becoming the agent of life. The apartment becomes an activity of life and destruction, and the familiar becomes uncanny and frightening, leaving the spectator hovering between emotional fascination and physical repulsion.

Nicholas Provost / Plot Point / 13:39 min / 2007

The crowded streets of New York City turn into fictive, cinematographic scenery. Provost is playing with our collective memory, its cinematic codes and narrative languages _ questioning the boundaries between a staged, suggested reality and authentic fiction. Although for the most part filmed with a hidden camera, ŒPlot Point_ presents a highly dramatic construction with overly sophisticated images and a subtle but tangible urge in the soundtrack. The meticulousness with which Provost shoots and edits the images and sounds make "Plot Point" the perfect trailer for dramatized experience in our daily life, an ordinary walk on the street will never be the same again.

Dialogue Award:

Jury:
Anna Anders, UDK Berlin
Jan Schuijren, NMA Kurator, Amsterdam
Gabriel Soucheyre, Videoformes
Giesela Rueb, Goethe Institut Paris

Winner:

Julia Meltzer & David Thorne, Titel: WE WILL LIVE TO SEE THESE THINGS, OR, FIVE PICTURES OF WHAT MAY COME TO PASS /USA 2007 / Mini DVD / 47:04

Neil Beloufa, Titel: KEMPINSKI / F7Mali 2007 / DVD / 13:58

Statement of the jury

The ministry for external affairs (Auswärtiges Amt) offers a 2.000 EUR dialogue prize for a work which supports the intercultural dialogue between different cultures and regions of the world.

The jury selected two works. Each of them gets 1.000 €:

1) Neil Beloufa /"Kempinski" / 13:58 min/ 2007

We choose "Kempinski" by Neil Beloufa, who lives in Paris, for the Dialogue Prize because this work questions our expectations and projections of Africa in a very clever way and on a extremely high visual level. The story is set in a small village in Africa. It is night time with little artificial light. The villagers are talking directly into the camera, telling present-time stories of a futuristic, magical world which seems to connect to African culture. It takes some time to realize that it might not be a documentary that we're confronted with, and slowly but surely you begin to wonder about the surrealistic elements they speak so naturally about being married to a cow, telepathy and teleportation, spaceships. Irritation and fascination alternate continuously, culminating in the neon sign of Hotel Kempinski.

2) Julia Meltzer & David Thorne / "We Will Live to See These Things, or, Five Pictures of What May Come to Pass"/ 47:04 min / 2007

"We Will Live to See These Things, or, Five Pictures of What May Come to Pass" is a political and yet poetic documentary in five parts, each stylistically autonomous and concise. The video delivers a kaleidoscopic and subtle portrait of Syria, opening up possible futures. In a very elaborate but simple visual language the work offers a different perspective on a place where people live between the competing forces of a repressive regime, a growing conservative Islamic movement, and intense pressure of the United States. The two American artists provide information without making fixed statements. The essayistic approach evokes an active and engaged reading of the work, turning a highly complex situation into a very accessable one, allowing the viewer to draw his own conclusions.

Prize for Best German Experimental Film:

This year's "Preis der deutschen Filmkritik" in the category "Experimentalfilm", conferred during the European Media Art Festival Osnabrück by the "Verband der deutschen Filmkritiker" goes to Sylvia Schedelbauer for her film "Falsche Freunde" (false friends).

Jury
Leni Höllerer, Marc Heirapetian, Hans-Jürgen Tast

Statement of the jury

With the simple means of old black-and-white archive material and rather familiar, albeit slightly alienated horror soundtrack, the director manages to draw the viewer into the nightmarish atmosphere of the images by the unsettling rhythm of the cuts. "Falsche Freunde" takes place in the undefined space between video art and feature film narration. The oppressive tension never abates, even though the mysteriousness, which is reminiscent of David Lynch, of the dark - in both senses of the word - scenes do not look set to be deciphered.