polski
Zmiana Klimatu, 6 Warszawska Street, admission free, 12.9.2022, 18:00
The title of the event comes from a book by David Foster Wallace – the magnum opus of the author, who believed that irony unnecessarily distances one from experiencing the world, so he relied on the new sincerity. Through sardonic black humour, he tried to strip reality of its appearances and find the real feeling of it – a potential source of empathy. Starting with “Infinite Jest” in Jolanta Kozak’s Polish translation: “Niewyczerpany żart” (2022) we will consider what the role of humour is today: does a joke contain a kind of contract with the viewer, serves the drama of the film, reveals something more, can it still be subversive? Or is it just a way of relieving tension and nothing more is left for us in difficult times?
How many jokes, memes, jests do we need, and of what kind, to reassert who we are, because after all, nothing can so aptly describe us as a sense of humour. Does transgressive, incorrigible humour put us in touch with a new sensibility, discover parts of ourselves that were previously unknown? We will watch selected films – from “Angry Dogs” (2020) by Shaun Clark, which allows you to feel like a dog, to “Man or Tree” (2022) by Varun Raman and Tom Hancock, which allows you to feel like a tree. Testing the limits of coexistence by jests, we’ll talk about the extent to which laughter is an inexhaustible source of communication. Even if we don’t tear our sides off, I hope we’ll at least smile together.
Programme:
Angry Dogs, Shaun Clark, 2020, 4’30”
Loop, Pablo Polledri, 2021, 8′
How it feels to be hungover, Victor Hertz, 2018, 10′
Vacation, Andrey Kasay, 2019, 2’25”
Sperm Obsession, Klaudia Prabucka, 2022, 5’41”
Warzywa i owoce, Maciej Jankowski, 2021, 26′
Man or Tree, Varun Raman, Tom Hancock, 2022, 4′
Gruba Kaśka, Julia Pełka, 2019 14′
Curator: Adriana Prodeus
Participants in the debate:
Adriana Prodeus
Film and art critic. In “KINO” she is responsible for cover stories and animation studios. In “Vogue” she publishes the column “Dismantling of attractions”. In Radio Dwójka, every Tuesday at 5:30 pm, she hosts a programme about cinema together with Piotr Gociek.
Author of the book “Themersons. Biographical Sketches” (2009), lectures at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Specializes in avant-garde and animated film. Curator of film programmes, including Anthology Film Archive in New York, at the International Short Story Festival in Wroclaw. Selector of the Gdynia Film Festival, juror. She was a vice-director of U-jazdowski, curator of exhibitions, literary advisor in KADR Film Studio. She often doesn’t understand memes and has a strange sense of humour.
Paweł Mączewski
Sociologist by education, journalist by profession. Editor at the satirical site ASZdziennik, author of texts at Radio Kampus and Noizz. He has published in “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Kino” and NaEkran. In his spare time he watches B-cinema and draws monsters.
Grzegorz Brzozowski
Born in Wysokie Mazowieckie, he graduated from the documentary course at the Wajda School. He also studied sociology, psychology and reportage at University of Warsaw and Yale University. Editor and head of the “Patrząć” review section of the Kultura Liberalna portal. Among other things, he is the author of the documentary “Stranger on My Couch”, awarded Srebrny Lajkonik at the Krakow Film Festival. His photographic likeness made in wet collodion was on the cover of “Wyśnionej historii kina na Podlasiu” of which he is proud.
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