The Persol 3-D Award 2011 to Zapruder Filmmakersgroup
Zapruder Filmmakersgroup: David Zamagni, Nadia Ranocchi, Monaldo Moretti
Spell. The Hypnotist Dog, Joule, Evolution (Megaplex) will be screened
The Persol 3-D Award of the 68th Venice International Film Festival 2011 will be awarded to Zapruder (David Zamagni, Nadia Ranocchi, Monaldo Moretti), which has been exploring the possibilities of stereoscopic film for many years, for the production of films and installations that borrow the techniques of 3-D cinema and crossbreed them with visual, performing and film arts.
Their pioneering rediscovery and application of stereoscopic techniques, combined with their coherent radical experimentation, makes Zapruder's use of 3D a necessary and never secondary choice of language, with a specific influence on the temporal dimension of the image. Zapruder's independent and carefully crafted approach, combined with their experimental and creative use of 3-D, produce projects of expanded cinema that invite the spectator to plunge into unsettling tactile, visual and sound abysses.
The Persol 3-D Award 2011 will be presented at a ceremony at the Lido during the 68th Festival (31 August – 10 September 2011) which is directed by Marco Müller and organized by the Venice Biennale, the latter chaired Paolo Baratta.
The Persol 3-D Award – the first international prize of its kind, now being bestowed for the third consecutive year – will be awarded to Zapruder, a group of Italian filmmakers whose work, blending the visual, performing and cinematic arts, is notable for its technique and originality. Zapruder’s pioneering rediscovery and application of stereoscopic techniques, as well as their radical and thorough research, makes their use of 3-D a compelling and always intriguing application of a language of such intensity that it affects the image’s temporal dimension. The group’s independent and artisanal approach, combined with the creative use of 3-D, create expanded cinema projects that invite the viewer to plunge into provocative tactile, visual and sonic depths.
Previous recipients of the Persol 3-D Award have been Joe Dante for The Hole 3D in 2009 and, in 2010, James Cameron for Avatar and Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois for Dragon Trainer (How To Train Your Dragon). The Persol 3-D Award aims to celebrate a new frontier in cinematic language that is attracting increasing creative interest among filmmakers and studios, and is becoming extremely popular among the public. State-of-the-art stereoscopic 3-D films are bringing the movie theater back to center-stage, and has generated talk of a decisive watershed moment in the history of cinema and the advent of a “third cinematographic revolution” (after sound and color). As in previous years, 2011 has seen significant advances in research, and the development of new 3-D equipment. Many leading filmmakers and studios are currently working with stereoscopic 3-D, adapting it to both animated and live-action projects, while a growing number of films are being created and produced for the new generation of stereoscopic 3-D.
Persol is a sponsor of the Venice Film Festival for the seventh consecutive year.
Biographical notes
Zapruder Filmmakersgroup
Zapruder was founded by David Zamagni and Nadia Ranocchi, who were joined in 2001 by Monaldo Moretti. The group has been collaborating with musician Francesco “Fuzz” Brasini since 2006. Starting in 2005, the Zapruder began exploring and applying stereoscopic techniques to the production of films and of installations that recover 3-D cinema techniques. The group designs and builds both stereoscopic recording and projection devices, creating what they define as “Chamber Cinema”, a form of tactile and embodied movie-making that is also a kind of disembodied theater. In January 2011 they launched zapruderie.com, a totally anaglyphic on-line gallery showcasing excerpts from Zapruder’s stereoscopic production.
The group’s work has been regularly shown at leading international festivals and art venues, including Paris’ Centre Pompidou, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Milan’s Triennale, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid, StadtKino Wien, Geneva’s Biennale de l’image en mouvement, the Milanesiana, Graz’s Steirischer Herbst, and Brussel’s Kunsten Festival des Arts. Zapruder has also been involved in important collaborations with Italy’s most prominent experimental theatre companies, including Motus, Fanny&Alexander and Romeo Castellucci / Societas Raffaello Sanzio. Among the awards Zapruder has received are: the Werkleitz Award at the 48th Oberhausen Short Film Festival 2002; the Premio Iceberg 2002; the Premio Riccione TTV Performing Arts on Screen 2006; and in 2010 the “Lo Straniero” Prize, an award conferred by the monthly of the same name founded and directed by Goffredo Fofi, which cited the group for “the hybrid and non-commercial nature of their ‘chamber cinema’, which makes this venture an important example of radicalism and resistance on the national and international scene”.
Zapruder is based in Roncofreddo (FC). Other core members are: Mattia Dallara, sound designer; Andrea “Mario” Marini, web and digital effects; and Elena Biserna, press officer.
Zamagni and Ranocchi presented the experimental 3-D films Cock-Crow and Daimon at the 66th Festival, and also participated at the 67th Festival with their first feature-length 3-D film All Inclusive (Italy/Austria) which was not incompetition.
Spell - The Hypnotist Dog (2011), written and directed by David Zamagni and Nadia Ranocchi and the first episode of Zapruder’s new stereoscopic project SPELL, and Joule (2010), the “other half”of the film All Inclusive which was previewed at last year’s edition of the Festival, will be screened during the presentation ceremony. Furthermore, the award ceremony will be opened by the screening of Evolution (Megaplex) (2010), a stunning 3-D video collage by video-artist Marco Brambilla, who has an extraordinary career in genre cinema.
Spell. The Hypnotist Dog
(20’, HD stereoscopic/col., 2011)
The story of Oscar, a dog with supernatural powers, and of his master Werner Hirsch, as told by a television crew.
The SPELL project was conceived as a hybrid composition, reflecting the multi-faceted nature of the term from which it takes its title. Spell can refer to an enchantment, a magic charm, but also to a moment, a lapse of time (what meteorology calls a wave) as well as giving the letters of a word in order. The common denominator to all the Spell projects is duality, the double, understood as sharing in a unitary economy. The combination of elements in Spell tends to produce cryptic and solemn events whose manifestation is uncertain or at least dubious. The project is composed of two short films, two audiovisual installations, and a concert/performance.
Joule
(22’ HD, Col/B&W, 2010)
The “joule” is a unit of energy, work, or heat, and the term is adapted here as a sort of prayer, an exercise in devotion and the act of letting go. In the sequential frames of Joule a daily practice manifests itself in the form of worship, of liturgy; it is an expression of economies and tensions straddling the realms of the political and the sacred.
Joule is part of Chiavi in Mano, a two-faceted project, consisting of two complementary and autonomous wholes, Joule and All Inclusive. Both explore the certain and contradictory relationshipsbetween work, giving and sacrifice. The project’s effigy is a fish, a perfect example of a living being that can eat members of its own species as long as they are smaller.
Marco Brambilla (video-artist)
Born in Milan in 1960, he currently resides in Los Angeles and New York. His career spans the fine arts, film and commercials. He has had solo shows at the Projectraum Kunsthalle (Bern, 2000), the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York, 2003), the Contemporary Art Forum (Santa Barbara, 2004) and this year at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, besides having his works the collections of some of the most prestigious international museums (the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the ARCO Foundation in Madrid). The New Yorker praised his work as: “absorbing and delicate enough to restore one’s faith in the medium”. Brambilla makes his work using found film footage that is edited, layered, and spliced to create compelling new narratives and stunning visual mosaics.
Brambilla’s multi-layered tableaux of interconnecting images and looped video blend into an expansive landscape that forms his hallmark style. This year he also presented his work in the group exhibition Neoludica, a collateral event at the 54th International Art Biennale in Venice. He debuted in cinema in the ‘90s with Demolition Man (1993) directing Sylvester Stallone. Later he co-directed the controversial collective film Destricted, presented at Cannes Film Festival in 2006 and directed with Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Larry Clark, Gaspar Noé, Richard Prince, and Sam Taylor-Wood.
Evolution (Megaplex)
(3’40’’, 3D HD/col., 2010)
Evolution (Megaplex) is a large-scale video collage which displays the history of human kind, woven together with more than 500 moments from approximately 400 individual epic and iconic Hollywood films into a rich tapestry that scroll horizontally across time. The source material is primarily genre films where historic milestones are interpreted as spectacle; the theatricality of the images presents us with a satirical take on the origin and destiny of Man as told through the lexicon of the “Hollywood” epic.
ZAPRUDERfilmmakersgroup
Based in Roncofreddo (FC) Italy, ZAPRUDERfilmmakersgroup was formed in 2000 by David Zamagni, Nadia Ranocchi and Monaldo Moretti.
Zapruder’s work creeps into the interstitial area between visual, performance and cinematographic arts; audiovisual outputs driven by an ongoing challenge to language and medium that give rise to what the group defines as “Chamber Cinema”, a sort of incarnated and tactile cinema, as well as a form of incorporeal theatre. Since 2005, the group has been exploring and employing stereoscopic techniques in its production of films and installations.
A significant part of Zapruder’s work has taken place within the context of Italian experimental theatre throughout collaborations with Motus, Fanny & Alexander and Romeo Castellucci/Societas Raffaello Sanzio.
Zapruder’ works have been shown in many leading festivals and venues including Biennale del Cinema di Venezia, Oberhausen Kurzfilmtage, Steirischer Herbst Graz, Centre Pompidou Paris, Transmediale Berlin, Netmage Bologna, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid, StadtKino Wien, Biennale de l’image en mouvement Ginevra, Milanesiana, Santarcangelo Festival, Contemporanea Festival Prato, Kunsten Festival des Arts Bruxelles, Uovo Festival Milano, Festival d’Avignon, Art Fall Ferrara. Among awards: Premio “Lo Straniero” 2010 ‘for the hybrid and non-commercial nature of their Chamber Cinema’ that makes this venture a meaningful example of resistance and radicalness’’, Werkleitz Award at 48° Oberhausen Short Film Festival 2002, Premio Riccione TTV Performing Arts on Screen, 2006. Authors and directors of Zapruder’ projects are David Zamagni and Nadia Ranocchi.
Regular team members:
David Zamagni and Nadia Ranocchi authors and directors of Zapruder’ projects
Monaldo Moretti Photography Director, actor
Francesco ‘Fuzz’ Brasini, musician, since 2006, he is involved in Zapruder’ films soundtracks, sound installations and concerts as (S)wing and Criptofonia
Giancarlo Bianchini builder
Alessandra Brunelli e Mirco Guidi scenographers
Elena Biserna press officer
Mattia Dallara sound designer
Andrea ‘Mario’ Marini web and digital effects
Gerardo Pieri mechanical gears
Leonardo Monti (LM Cineservice) coproducer
FILMOGRAPHY
2010
ALL INCLUSIVE
JOULE
(S)WING
2009
SLUGHTERHOUSE / COCK-CROW
CRIPTOFONIA
FAULT
2008
PLETORA
2006/07
DAIMON
2005
MORNING SMILE
2004
REBUS PER ADA
2002
DOGGY BAG J.G.
TOTENTANZ
2001
SPRING ROLL
2000
HOLY
1999
O.F. ovvero Orlando Furioso
FESTIVALS AND EVENTS
2010 'Chiavi in Mano' Steirischer Herbst Festival, Graz (A) 'All Inclusive' 67 International Venice FilmFestival curated Out of competition (S)wing at Ipercorpo Festival Forlì (FC) (S)wing and 'Pletora.Il Dono' 40º Santarcangelo Festival curated by Enrico Casagrande (Motus) (S)wing, curated by Xing, Prepared Room, Raum, Bologna 'All Inclusive' StadtKino Wien 'Joule' StadtKino Wien 'Cock-Crow', StadtKino Wien 'Cock-Crow' at Nobodaddy, Artificerie Almagià, Ravenna 'Cock-Crow' at DENTRO! Arti in Scena dal Vivo, curated by Luca Camilletti, Florence Art Factory, Osmannoro (Fi) 'Cock-Crow' Rencontres Internationales Paris / Berlin / Madrid. Nouveau Cinéma et Art Contemporain, Museo Nacional, Centro de arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (E) 'Cock-Crow'Rencontres Internationales Paris / Berlin / Madrid. Nouveau Cinéma et Art Contemporain, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (D) 'Cock-Crow' Una certa idea dell'Italia curated by Simone Menegoi, Interzona, Verona 2009 'Cock-Crow' and 'Daimon' 66. Mostra del Cinema di Venezia directed by Marco Muller. Special event/Section new Horizons, Sala Perla, Palazzo del Casinò, Lido di Venezia. 'Pletora. Il Dono' at Uovo Festival, Palazzo della Triennale, Milano 'Pletora.Il Dono' at inFUTURA teatro contemporaneo in forma di festival, curated by Anagoor, Castelfranco Veneto/ Castelminio di Resana (TV) 'Slaughterhouse' and 'Criptofonia' at Santarcangelo Festival 39º, directed by Chiara Guidi, Supercinema e Sferisterio, Santarcangelo (RM) 'Criptofonia' Acusmatic 4.0, curated by Paolo Bragaglia, Mole Vanvitelliana, Ancona 'Cock-Crow' Rencontres Internationales Paris / Berlin / Madrid. Nouveau Cinéma et Art Contemporain, Cinema Reflet Medicis, Paris (F) 'Pletora.Il Dono' Artefiera Bologna, Enrico Fornello Gallery 2008 'DAIMON' Netmage 08, curated by Xing, Palazzo Re Enzo, Bologna 'DAIMON' Transmediale.08 - conspire...! festival for art and digital culture, Podewils'sches Palais, Berlin (D) Festival d'Avignon, Parc des Expositions, Avignon (F) with 'Divina Commedia / Purgatorio' by Romeo Castellucci, Societàs Raffaello Sanzio) 'Pletora.Il Dono' and 'Daimon' at Dissenso. Un taglio nel caos. Crisalide 2008, curated by Masque, Ex Filanda, Forlì 38 ºSantarcangelo dei Teatri Festival, Sala San Girolamo, Longiano (FC) with 'Emerald City' by Fanny&Alexander) 'Pletora. Il Dono'Contemporanea Colline Festival 08, Loggione Teatro Metastasio, Prato 2007 'Daimon' Circuito OFF, Venice International Short Film Festival, Isola di San Servolo,Venezia 'Morning Smile' at Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid/..., Circulo des Bellas Artes, Madrid (ES) 'Morning Smile' Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid/..., Babylon Movie Theater, Berlin (D) 'Daimon' Contemporanea07, Galleria Enrico Fornello, Prato 'Daimon' Spina Festival 07, Palazzo Bellini, Comacchio (FE) 'Daimon. L'Hegemonikon' Non ho mica vent'anni, organized by ERT Ente Emilia Romagna Teatro Longiano (FC) 2006 'Morning Smile' Festival Riccione TTV Performing Arts on screen, Bologna 'Morning Smile' VIS, 3rd Vienna Independent Shorts (A) 'Morning Smile' Milano Film Festival, Milano 'Morning Smile'Circuito OFF, Venice International Short Film Festival, Isola di San Servolo,Venezia 12th International Short Film Festival in Drama (GR) 'Morning Smile' at Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid/..., Cinèma du Monde, Paris (F) 'Morning Smile' at Curtacinema Festival Internacional de Curtas do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 'Morning Smile'Corto Imola Festival, Imola (BO) 'Daimon. Il Laceratore' Santarcangelo dei Teatri, Lavatoio, Santarcangelo (RM) 'Daimon. XXX (Trente)' at Cinemarte. Neverending Cinema, Cinema Lumière, Bologna Il Teatro e il suo doppio, Spazio Oberdan, Milano 'Vaniada' by Fanny & Alexander) Presentation of the DVD 'Rebus per Ada' (Luca Sossella editore, Roma, 2006), Museo Laboratorio di Arte Contemporanea dell'Università di Roma, Roma with Fanny & Alexander) 2005 Festival delle Colline Torinesi, Cavallerizza Reale e Teatro Gobetti, Torino Ardis II by Fanny & Alexander) Ravenna Festival, Ardis Hall, Ravenna (with Fanny & Alexander) Morning Smile, curated by Xing, Raum, Bologna Rebus per Ada, Fanny & Alexander and Zapruder Filmmakersgroup, curated by Xing, Raum, Bologna 2004 Rebus per Ada by Fanny & Alexander/ Zapruder at Video Dance International Thessaloniki Film Festival, Athens (GR) Rebus per Ada Netmage 04, curated by Xing, Raum, Bologna (with Fanny & Alexander) Kunsten Festival Des Arts, Bruxelles Ardis I and II by Fanny & Alexander) JG Space is the Place_03, curated by Marco Altavilla, Officinema, Bologna 2003 Ravenna Festival, Ardis I by Fanny&Alexander Ravenna 'JG' Iceberg Bologna 2002 'Spring Roll' Festival des Cinémas Différents, Paris (F) 'Spring Roll' 48º Oberhausen International Short Film Festival (D) Festival Riccione TTV Performing Arts on screen 'R for Redrum' Fanny & Alexander) 'Spring Roll' Circuito OFF, Venice International Short Film Festival, Isola di San Servolo, Venezia 2001 'Spring Roll' Anteprimannozero Bellaria Film Festival, Bellaria (RN) 'Spring Roll' Unimovie Versity Video & Short Film Festival, Pescara 'Spring Roll'Corto Imola Festival, Imola (BO) 'Spring Roll' Fano Film Festival, 13º edizione, Fano (PU) 2000 'HOLY' Bellaria Film Festival, Bellaria Igea Marina (RM) Festival Riccione TTV Performing Arts on screen OF ovvero Orlando Furioso with Motus, Brescia Music Art, Brescia Revolver VM18 with Isabella Santacroce Selected solo exhibitions 2009 Fault, curated by Maria Luisa Pacelli on the occasion of Art Fall 09 - Ferrara Contemporanea, PAC, Ferrara 2008 Zapruder. Pletora. Il Dono, Museo Giovanni Boldini, Ferrara 2007 Rebus per Ada (with Fanny & Alexander), Digifestival tecnologia e teatro, Palazzo Ducale, Genova 2006 Habemus Papam? video and sound machines installation (with Fanny & Alexander) Neon>Campobase, Bologna Habemus Papam? (with Fanny & Alexander) Museo Carlo Zauli, Faenza (RA) Group exhibitions 2010 VideoReport Italia 2008_09 curator Andrea Bruciati, Monfalcone Contemporary Art Gallery 2009 Noi Siamo Qui. InCONTEMPORANEA 2009, curated by Gabi Scardi, Triennale, Milano Re-volt #9: ETERNALUCE, curated by Cristian Scarola, on the occasion of Fotografia Europea, Ex Centrale, Reggio Emilia 2007 Da O a Z! curated by Daria Bertolaso, Massimo Marchetti, Silvia Meneghini, Zuni Arte Contemporanea, Ferrara SIfest (Savignano Immagine Festival) curated by Laura Serani, Villa La Rotonda, Savignano (FC) 2006 Cinema Infinito / Neverending Cinema, curated by Fabio Cavallucci, Galleria Civica di Arte Contemporanea, Trento Indiscipline, curated by Matteo Chini, Fondazione Lanfranco Baldi, Pelago (FI) 2005 OutsideArt#6, curated by Francesca Pagliuca, Villa Serena, Bologna 11th BIM. Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement, Centre pour l'Image contemporaine Saint-Gervais, Ginevra (CH) 2003 Tu che mi guardi, tu che mi racconti, curated by Michela Arfiero, Verbo Essere, Bergamo 2002 Brand New Bohemians, curated by Chiara Leoni, Palazzo Marini, Rosignano Marittimo (LI) 2001 Cityscapes - Modular Living, 5th Graz Biennal on Media and Architecture, Graz (A) 9th BIM, Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement, Centre pour l'Image contemporaine Saint-Gervais, Ginevra (CH)
AWARDS
2010 Prize 'Lo Straniero' 2010 2006 First prize Riccione TTV Performing Arts on screen with 'Morning Smile' 2005 Ubu special prize for the project 'Ada, cronaca familiare' (with Fanny & Alexander) 2002 Werkleitz Award for 'outstanding use of digital media' with 'Spring Roll' at 48º Oberhausen short film Festival, Oberhausen (D) Production prize, Riccione TTV Performing Arts on screen (with Fanny & Alexander) with 'Rebus per Ada' Prize Iceberg, Bologna with 'JG' Premio D.A.M.S., Bologna, special mention for 'Doggy Bag with Spring Roll' 2001 Prize Fiaticorti Nuove Frontiere 2001, Istrana (TV) Prize Arrivano i corti, Festival del cortometraggio, 5º edition, Ferentino (FR) Unimovie Video & Short Film Festival, Pescara, special mention FanoFilmFestival, 13º edition, segnalazione della giuria Anteprimannozero, directed by Enrico Ghezzi, Bellaria (RM), special mention 2000 Ubu special prize (con/with Motus) Production prize Riccione TTV Performing Arts on screen (with Motus), Riccione (RM) Bellaria Film Festival, directed by Enrico Ghezzi, special mention for the 150 sec. section
