Q&A mit/with Peter Sasovsky (Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis / US)
Sa/Sat 1. 9. 15:30 – 16:00
So/Sun 2. 9. 15:30 – 16:00

Q&A mit/with Sebastian Frisch (Whisper Down The Lane / DE)
Fr/Fri 31.8. 13:00 – 13:30
Sa/Sat 1. 9. 17:00 – 17:30

The BIG PICTURE Cinema screens films that feature literally inimitable images of the world, and showcase human beings whose work crosses borders in amazing and inspiring ways and brings to light new ways of seeing things in the process.

“Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis” by Peter Sasowsky (US) is a portrait of Joe Davis (US), a fascinating scientist, researcher and artist who as a matter of principle ignores all academic boundaries and seamlessly combines artistic practice with scientific work. Ars Electronica has once again honored him for an outstanding work in 2012. His experiments and achievements have included using the vaginal contractions of ballet dancers as a means of communicating with aliens in outer space, translating poetry into DNA, and creating a sculpture to save the world.

On October 10, 2010, 19,000 people in 160 countries cinematically documented episodes, events and moments in their lives and made the footage available to serve as elements of the largest collaborative film ever made. “One Day on Earth” by Kyle Ruddick (US) interweaves the tragedies and triumphs, heartbreaking conflicts and moments of love occurring simultaneously worldwide into a “Big Picture” of humankind.

In “Passage 2011,” Christian Schoen (DE) documents the wacky trans-Alpine journey of two German artists to attend the Venice Biennale. During a torturous three-week trek that was by no means short on rain and snow, Wolfgang Aichner and Thomas Huber (DE) schlepped a homemade boot on a route that included the Schlegeis Glacier at an altitude of over 3,000 meters.

In “Whisper Down the Lane,” a group of Salzburg students headed by Sebastian Frisch (DE) confront the half-truths and rumors about HIV and AIDS that circulate in many African countries. The victims of this information deficit are, above all, women and children. The film is part of a sensitive consciousness-raising campaign.

Dissatisfied with how her country’s mass media was reporting on the Arab Spring, Austrian high school student Agnes Aistleitner traveled at her own expense to Egypt to talk to people on the streets and in marketplaces, and to form her own picture of what was happening. The video she made, “State of Revolution,” garnered her the Golden Nica in the 2012 Prix Ars Electronica’s u19 category.

“This is a Recorded Message” is still a highly relevant statement critical of our consumption-oriented times. This short animated film made in 1973 by filmmaker Jean-Thomas Bédard (CA) and composer Alain Clavier (CA) is on the Big Concert Night program.

One of BIG PICTURE Cinema’s focal-point themes is the pioneering work of Canadian experimental filmmaker Arthur Lipsett (1936-86), whose meticulously edited, collage-like short films strongly influenced Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas and other great directors. “Very Nice, Very Nice” is an avant-garde work featuring brilliant interplay of photography and sound. “Trip Down Memory Lane” works with 50 years of odd headlines to create an explosive remake of the past. “21-87” focuses on the individual in a very spiritual way and is considered Lipsett’s masterpiece.