Vertical Cinema to be screened in Zürich
Sonic Acts' Vertical Cinema programme is set to be screened at videoEx festival in Zürich. On Friday 1 June, ten works by Joost Rekveld, Tina Frank, Manuel Knapp, Johann Lurf, Billy Roisz & Dieter Kovačič, Makino Takashi & Telcosystems, Esther Urlus, Lukas Marxt, HC Gilje and BJ Nilsen & Karl Lemieux will be presented by videoEx in collaboration with Rote Fabrik and Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur. Vertical Cinema is a series of commissioned large-scale works by internationally renowned experimental filmmakers and audiovisual artists, which are presented on 35 mm celluloid and projected vertically with a custom-built projector at special locations. Since its premiere in 2013, the Vertical Cinema project has traveled the globe: from Kontraste Festival Krems in Austria, to multiple screenings in Holland (IFFR, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, STRP), the UK (Leeds Film Festival, Glasgow Short Film Festival), Germany (GEGENkino), Latvia (Balta Nakts), Australia (Melbourne International Film Festival) and the US (SXSW in Austin Texas). In February of 2017, four new films were premiered during Sonic Acts Festival, which have since been presented in Sweden (Göteburg Film Festival) and Russia (Inversia). Many Vertical Cinema screenings took place in churches, maximising the vertical characteristics of these buildings and offering a new take on stained glass. Other venues have included a 19th century market hall and other industrial buildings with vast open spaces that allow for maximum screen size and theatres (old and new) for which the scale and ratio of Vertical Cinema causes a disruption and rethinking of conventions.