THU 13 November, at 20.00

Kino Šiška, small hall

Image – Music

Competitive music video programme

Ana Šturm

Music Video Needs to be Taken Seriously

Mommy (2014), the latest work by Xavier Dolan, is one of the most eagerly awaited films of the season. Not many people know that a year ago Dolan made a charming music video for Indochine, which paid tribute to the French New Wave. In the video, featured within the scope of Liffe’s 2013 Image – Music programme, the young Canadian director used a square frame format, quite popular among the New Wave auteurs, which he also employed in his latest feature film.

No, this is no coincidence. This year’s best music videos selected for Liffe testify to the fact that there is a bridge linking music video and film, a bridge over which new ideas, references, actors, directors and musicians cross freely. There are also some highly acknowledged film directors who also work in this genre, such as Anton Corbijn and Michael Gondry. After Time To Dance, a 2012 spot for The Shoes, Daniel Wolfe, whose debut feature Catch Me Daddy was selected for the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, is returning with another music-video masterpiece, Iron Sky.

Although music video’s history goes back to the origins of cinema, the genre is pushed to the sidelines within the context of cinema history and as regards the pragmatic possibilities of distribution. Do not get me wrong, these are not mainstream media (pop) spectacles, but engaged, imaginative, quality and mostly low-budget music videos made using low-key approach. These videos are small masterpieces, full of vitality despite their unfavourable position, direct and free from hackneyed patterns.

Why am I addressing this subject? Because the Slovenian Cinematheque has recently shown a retrospective of films by Norman McLaren, an artist, animator, filmmaker, scientist, inventor, musician and technical expert and, above all, an indefatigable film experimenter. On watching his films, we realise how very vigorous, full of potential and (as yet unexplored) expressive possibilities cinema can be. It is this vigour, this desire to find something new, to experiment with techniques and means of expression, the desire to stretch the limits, that today’s music video reflects.  

Recently, the music video has included a series of innovative technological approaches, apart from new narrative methods, blendings of styles and genres, of animated fiction, documentary and experimental film. Videos have been made under a microscope and radar sensor, they have been made with magnetic resonance and Google StreetView.

That is why it is imperative that these works are also featured at festivals, cinemas, on the big screen, in all their glory.  

The 2014 Liffe includes a competitive programme of music videos. The prize-winner will be selected by members of the audience by vote-taking.

In a word, music videos need to be taken seriously.

Arcade Fire: Reflektor

USA, The Netherlands, 2013

by Anton Corbijn

MGMT: Cool Song No. 2

ZDA/USA, 2013

režija/by Isaiah Seret

Atoms For Peace: Before Your Very Eyes

GB, 2013

by Andrew Thomas Huang

Gesaffelstein: Hate or Glory

France, 2013

by Fleur & Manu

Bob Dylan: Like a Rolling Stone

ZDA, VB, Izrael/USA, GB, Israel, 2013

režija/by Vania Heymann

Boggie: Parfüm

Hungary, 2013

by Nándor Lőrincz, Bálint Nagy

Young Fathers: Get Up

VB/GB, 2014

režija/by Graham Hastings, Tim Brinkhurst

Metronomy: Love Letters

France, GB, 2014

by Michel Gondry

Laibach: The Whistleblowers

Norway, Latvia, Slovenia, 2014

by Morten Traavik

Sia: Chandelier

USA, Australia, 2014

by Sia, Daniel Askill

OK Go: The Writing's On the Wall

USA, 2014

by Aaron Duffy, Damian Kulash Jr., Bob Partington

Jack White: Lazaretto

Francija, ZDA/France, USA, 2014

režija/by Jonas & François

Ulrich Forman: I Got You (Under My Skin)

France, 2014

by Garnier/Le Gallo

Paolo Nutini: Iron Sky

GB, 2014

by Daniel Wolfe

"Weird Al" Yankovic: Word Crimes

USA, 2014

by Jarrett Heather