Try Hard Johnny!
super8 | found footage | 4 min. & 11 sec. | color | 2007
directed, written by Valentina Besegher
produced by Valentina Besegher
cinematography by Valentina Besegher
edited by Valentina Besegher and Alessandro Massobrio
music by Alessandro Massobrio
Synopsis
Johnny is a child. Johnny can't play the game, because everyone gets in his hair. It's just a matter of changing, of altering his own face. With a smiley face, he would be considerate of others. But there is a gap between the inside and the outside. Something like an ambiguity of the memory, which is a play that makes fun of us and fixes its rules through time and generations.
The social guidance films of the fifties are deconstructed and overlapped with authors’ super8 films and sound recordings, remarking the deafness which the communication imperative is in and the ambivalence of sound and sense in the human language. The speaking children slid down into a vortex of references and dreamlike analogies, while the music creates a crucial, deep, mental environment.
Festivals
- C.A.R. - Contemporary Art Ruhr - Essen, Germany - 2013
- 9th Berlin International Directors Lounge - Berlin, Germany - 2013
- Alternative Film Video - New film and video festival - Novi Beograad, Serbia - 2009
- 7th Tabor Film Festival - International Short Film Festival - Zabok, Croatia - 2009
- Isff Detmold - International Short Film Festival - Hangar 21 Detmold, Germany - 2009
- Platforma Video - International Film Festival - Athens Technopolis, Greece - 2008
- XIII Canarias Media Fest - Festival Internacional de Artes y Culturas Digitales - Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain - 2008
- Oslo Screen Festival - Cinematheque in Oslo, Norway - 2008
- Paris Victoria Production - Optica Review 2007 - Projection de films d'art video internetionaux - Institut Cervantès, Paris - 2008
- Mir Festival - Performance, live media, image adventures - Athens, Greece - 2008
- Open Ear - Audio-visual events and performances - University of Glamorgan’s Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries, Cardiff, UK - 2008
- Cartes Flux3 - Centre Of Art and Technology - Espoo Festival of New Media Art - Cultural Centre of Espoo, Finland - 2008
- Emaf - European Media Art Festival - Osnabrueck, Germany - 2008
- Optica - International Festival of Video Art - Gijòn, Spain - 2007
- Vad Festival - International Video and Digital Arts Festival - Casa de cultura, Girona, Spain - 2007
- Simultan 03 - Video and New Media Art Festival - Timisoara / Romania - 2007
Archive
This video is included in the Mediaartbase, database for media art and art documentation.