Organised under the Sea Blindness project, the afternoon was devoted to two screenings followed with a discussion between the curator Régine Debatty and Cyprus-based Palestinian artist Jafra Abu Zoulouf.
All Inclusive, 2018
Today’s cruise shipping companies surpass each other with 24/7 entertainment offers, jaw-dropping interior design and a desire to fulfil the traveller’ most extravagant wishes. The luxury of these mastodons of the seas often makes them as appealing for tourists as the coastal cities and islands they visit along the journey.
Yet, under Corina Schwingruber Ilić’s lenses, the shiny facade hides a critique of society’s insatiable consumerism. The escapism offered by this mass-tailored fantasy in a perfectly controlled space is artificial and a bit gaudy. And although cruises have now become available to the masses, most people across the world can only dream of ever being able to afford one week or two on those floating fortresses.
Corina Schwingruber Ilić. Born in 1981 in Werthenstein, Switzerland. 2004- 06 attended University of Fine Art in Basel and Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade. 2006-09 University of Art & Design Lucerne, in the video department. Since 2010 she has worked as an independent filmmaker & editor. In 2017 she Co-Founder of PRO SHORT (Short Film Association Switzerland). She has shot a number of award-winning short docs together with Nikola Ilic, such as Just another day in Egypt (2015) and KOD COŠKA (2013). Her shorts Baggern (2011) and Ins Holz (2017) became festival hits, All Inclusive was selected for the festivals in Venice, Toronto and Sundance and was honoured with the Golden Dove of DOK.Leipzig and the Swiss Film Award among many others. Her first long documentary DIDA (co-directed with Nikola Ilic, 2021) premiered at Visions du Réel and was shown at numerous festivals and cinemas. It won several prizes (including the Golden Dove at DOK.Leipzig) and was nominated for the Swiss Film Award.
Solo Son Peces / They’re Just Fish, 2019
Three women, Teslem, Dehba and Jadija, work on a fish farm in the Sahrawi refugee camps, in the middle of the Algeria desert and far from their homeland. They no longer live by the sea, but they do have fresh fish.
The short film shows the resilience of women in refugee camps and questions the many absurdities of food production but it also suggests a future when temperatures get so high that ingenuity, perseverance and technical knowledge will produce miracles similar to establishing pisciculture activities in an environment characterised by high temperatures and constant sandstorms.
