Art of the Real 2019 Shorts Program

Q&A with Eric Baudelaire and Elena López Riera

Julio Iglesias’s House / La casa de Julio Iglesias
Natalia Marín, Spain, 2018, 13m
U.S. Premiere
Natalia Marín’s schematic, clever essay film about a Shanghai municipality’s attempt to build a replica Spanish town is an atypical investigation into the concepts of globalization, housing, and repetition, taking as its inspiration Vilém Flusser’s thought that “we will no longer understand the world through written lines, but through imagined surfaces.”

Walked the Way Home
Eric Baudelaire, France/Italy, 2018, 26m
North American Premiere
Initiated by the song written by the American composer Alvin Curran, Eric Baudelaire’s ominous film charts an itinerary through Europe’s normalized state of armed surveillance. Employing slow motion and vertical video footage, Baudelaire observes armed soldiers as they patrol the streets of various European cities in this reflection on the power structures of modern life.

Those Who Desire / Los que desean
Elena López Riera, Switzerland/Spain, 2018, 24m
Spanish with English subtitles
The formalities of courtship and traditional masculinity are acutely observed in this portrait of “colombiculture,” a male-dominated pigeon breeding competition that takes place in the director’s home region of Orihuela, Spain. Winner of the Pardino d’oro for Best Swiss short film at the 2018 Locarno Film Festival.

On Guard / Bo-cho-seo-neun Sa-ram
Jeamin Cha, South Korea, 2018, 18m
Korean with English subtitles
World Premiere
The symmetry of security guarding and caretaking are carefully tracked in this sly hybrid that breaks both jobs’ repetitive rules down to a series of trivial and mysterious events, highlighting a tacit apprehension that fuels both occupations.