Audience, please give a round of applause for the latest episode of…
Indie Beat!
On today’s ‘cast we have filmmaker Aleksandra Niemczyk, a former student of Bela Tarr‘s Film Factory in Sarajevo.
Aleksandra started her work as a painter before eventually turning to cinema. One of her first shorts, “Hide and Seek,” is an unsettling horror-tinged art film about two young girls who play the titular game in an abandoned house. It’s a really stunning piece that explores the various norms and expectations of womanhood in a figurative manner. The short went on to nab the jury prize at the 2009 Locarno Film Festival and you can watch a clip of it here.
Her next short, “Centaur,” continued in a similar fashion with slow, painterly compositions and an undercurrent of tension throughout. The plot deals with a married couple’s ongoing battle with the husband’s polio, focusing on the visceralness of the disease and the shame and exhaustion it brings to both parties. You can check this film out on TAO Films.
With her sights set on a longer form project, the filmmaker next tackled the figure of Baba Vanga — a Bulgarian mystic who claimed to have had visions of the future up to the year 5079 — in her appropriately titled first feature “Baba Vanga.” Far from a straight-up biopic, Niemczyk instead focused on the person of Baba Vanga and how she might have felt both having these intense visions and dealing with certain public demands of her powers. With aesthetics that are reminiscent of Tsai Ming-liang with a fair amount of experimental excursions, “Baba Vanga” is an incredible experience and cements Niemczyk as a major talent.
Aleksandra joined me to talk about her cinematic influences, applying for artist residencies, and knowing (and understanding) the audience of your work. Please give us a listen and share with your friends!
You can read more about Aleksandra Niemczyk over at her website right here.