SCFZ

Warned:Yes 27d to go wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:17 pm Acupressure: Fading Images of Life (Irena Gosmanová, 1984, 19m)

Irena Gosmanová alias Pigi, born 1960 in Prague.
In the 1970s, she was expelled from her studies at the grammar school due to accusations of distributing illegal publications. In 1979, together with Čaroděj OZ (Wizard of OZ, Lubomír Drožď), she went to Ždírec in the Kokořín region, where she worked in menial jobs, later as a map draftsman for the Czech Geological Institute. In the 1990s, she briefly supported herself by creating art, currently, she works as an artistic gilder - restorer. Her film work began in the early 1980s in parallel with other creators of the informal film group around the Wizard of OZ (Karra, Pablo De Sax). A significant impetus for it was the relatively unlimited access to the Super 8 Quartz camera, which the group purchased for itself. A para-documentary position is typical for her films. It is based on an amateur approach to filming, captures authentic situations, which it combines with acted scenes, or places stylized characters in a directly real environment. In terms of genre, her films are straddled between grotesques, documentaries, video clips, comic horrors and essays. Thematically, it is based on the everyday experience of late socialism, it captures social and family rituals, public celebrations, amusement parks, or spending free time in general. Their female protagonists are typical underground film characters: strong and independent characters in a hopeless conflict with the surrounding society. In her case, it is almost exclusively female heroes who are the source of chaos leading to a tragic conclusion, or comic escapades. Pigi made twelve films between 1982 and 1986, which at the time of their creation were shown to a limited audience at underground shows and festivals. After 1989, they partially fell into oblivion and were shown again after their digital reconstruction at the Center for Audiovisual Studies of the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague in 2015–2017. (edited google translate)

teaser to the screening of her films ↓
https://youtu.be/EveN_Vagkzs

A sensitive youth despairs, as he cannot endure life without his beloved.

This short film, Feelings (1984), is a strange look into the life of a youth who cannot live without his beloved, so he chooses suicide to escape the pain. Jan Meredith plays himself–an estranged teen who walks a nearby beach to seek respite from his lover’s departure. The song “Feelings” plays eerily in the background. Feelings is the story of this teen trying to deal with sadness. As he sings, “Woah, oh, oh feelings,” he tries to express his emotions through drawings, songs, and reflection. He draws a frowning face in the sand and stares longingly at the water. His final stop is on the edge of the rocks at the shoreline. After jumping, a woman rushes over to see if she can save him, but it’s too late. The film’s closing image is Jan Meredith in an angel costume, indicating that the boy has killed himself.

Feelings is a two and a half minute movie made as an NYU film school assignment in 1984. Solondz himself takes the lead role of a sensitive young man who finds he can no longer endure life without his beloved (Jan Meredith).