The focus is on experimental film, but Cristina Binetti’s visual art project also includes her directorial work, photographs, documentaries and books. The video artist was born in 1976 in Frankfurt am Main, but has her roots in Apulia near Bari. Many of her films have therefore been made in Italy. As a child, she wrote short stories, later screenplays, until she was finally able to sell her screenplay debut “Transire” to an international film production.
At the Independent Film School, she explored analogue film, was fascinated by the masters of Italian Neorealism, such as Fellini and De Sica, and discovered her passion for „authentic“ film. Here she met great directors, including Ludwig Wüst, Ralf Marschalleck, Reiner Etz and Josephine Ahnelt. Her screenplays and short films are produced independently and most of her experimental films are shot in black and white and 8mm and no sound.
She works on the celluloid with her hands, with paint or with small notches. During her development as a filmmaker and inspired by directors such as Chris Marker, she produced, among other things, the photo film „Absolution“, a photo novel that works without dialogues and only lives on the expressiveness of the protagonists. Cristina Binetti is constantly looking for actors for her film projects. Whether profile or first-time, if you are interested, all contact details at the end of the article are in the Infothek.
We talked to the artist in an interview about her work, the independent film school and new projects. The podcast is in German, but the conversation is written down in the following part below.
Inventafilm is your film project, tell us a bit more about what you are doing there.
Yes, that’s why Inventafilm basically covers scripting. So I write scripts myself, make films of any kind. So documentaries are among them, experimental films, also scenic, but you can also find photography under Inventafilm. It’s such a hodgepodge of creativity.
In the dream Traumschläger Kollektiv Streetfestival recently, there was this film box with contributions from various filmmakers here from Frankfurt, Offenbach and the Rhine-Main region. So smaller clips and there were also things from you.
Yes that’s right. We had exhibited there “ Ma Soeur – Stills“. This is my sister in an experimental film that takes up the relationship between two sisters. They are twins, but not identical, and each enters the dialogue in their own way with the other through expressive dance. While the one performs more classical, the other goes into a rather poppy dance and this quite expressive.
So twins, but very different.
Exactly, I found that very exciting. Then we had a documentary work called „Gioco Fazzoletto“. This is the „handkerchief game“, which is often played on the beach, when all the people are already gone and everything is so relaxed and the beach just deserted. The work is also very interesting and the work can also be seen on the homepage. As I said, I think it’s a nice potpourri of films.
The school of independent film was founded on 16th September 2017 by Arnd-Tibor Koch
Yes, we are coming to the second year now. I did the first one and I do not want to miss that. So that really is also an impulse and also an inspiration. You learn a lot about analogue photography and analogue film. That is, you also turn to 16 mm and 8 mm and get into the subject of film. So movie as such, that you can just touch a movie and see what you can do with a movie, if it is not digital. I found that very exciting. That has also moved and set things in motion for me.
So it’s a school, but by concept, it’s one-semester courses. Such a mixture of university, school and community college with seminars that you can then book and then it goes on for several months.
So it’s a whole year and every second weekend you have the Saturday and the Sunday, where you really go to action, both in theory and a lot in practice. At the end of the day you really have the intensive practice time, in which you can really work on your own projects and then even try yourself a bit and see where you actually want to go. There are a lot of different students, we had some who realized that photography was very important to them. Others turn to the film again. Many work documentary, others prefer scenic. So that’s very different, where you find yourself then again.
So that also runs very well extra-occupational. On the one hand, it can be used as a further education, if one is already active in the field and would like to acquire new additional skills. On the other hand, it is also something for someone who has not even dealt with the subject to get to know the whole thing.
Maybe then. Because then you do not have so many reservations. Since you are still relatively untouched and can just get involved fully on it. So I think that’s even helpful. Even at the age of the school is quite free, very mixed. Anyone who wants and finds time can come.
Where can I find the school and how does the recording work?
The school is in Bockenheim in the city office, which is right next to the excess. If you go to the website, you can also register for the next semester. Then you start talking and see if that’s the right thing. Tibor will also talk to each one again and see how it fits and if that really meets the expectations. Not that you start under completely wrong expectations. It is important that you also see what awaits you. And yes, then nothing stands in the way of the whole thing.
The nice thing about the courses is that they are held in small groups where you can really work and learn.
Yes exactly. You sit at a table and can relax there quite relaxed, which I also found very pleasant. There is this direct exchange at a small table, where you sit together and have his workshop talks and also the material sift. They are rather smaller groups and that’s what they wanted. One has rather one I say one-to-one training, so a kind of individual advice. That is pretty good.
Today is photographed on a continuous basis and everything uploaded directly to Internet platforms. What do you think of the whole new technical development? The independent film school is more back to the roots.
Yes, I think the problem with this is that you stop giving things a certain value when you walk around with the camera. Now I’m back to the analogy or the analog photography. There you have carefully considered what you photographed and what not. Of course, I can give meaning to anything. I can give meaning to the leaf in the wind, as well as to the little child sitting on the roadside. So I think it’s important to reflect and reflect on the area without constantly capturing every meal. Then, with regard to this social media story, that one says, I photograph this now, because I want to say that I’m eating something vegan right now. Or I photograph that because I want to share that with 20,000 people now, or because I just want to tell you that I’ve made new cookies. I think you just have to think a little bit more to give things time and value. This is very important.
You work yourself with many techniques, you do analogue as well as digital and you also have plays with performances.
Yes exactly. I’m always on the lookout too. This is also a very official call for people who want to play theater. But they do not have to be professionals either. In some places, that’s just right for me, if it’s people who just want to step in front of the camera and just want to try it themselves. Or maybe actors and performers, who always had to work on screenplay, where everything was precisely clocked through to the smallest detail and planned through. With me you can also play relatively freely. That’s important to me too. Most of the time one comes to the conclusion that one finds something that one did not expect before and that one could not have planned. That is very important to me. So, people from the theater, nimble actors, people who have never been on stage or never came to the camera, so everyone is welcome. Interested parties are welcome to contact me via the Inventafilm website. That would be great, because I’m always looking forward to new projects. I’ll get in touch with you, let me know and you can go and shoot.
What will be on projects in the near future?
So there are always some. It also runs a lot in parallel, of course, depending on the time. At the moment I have something in a combination of digital and analogue with the theme of game and woman. There are also deer and antlers and this is then projected onto a naked female body with a 16 mm film. That was and is a very exciting work, which also develops in the course of the independent film school, because we also use the school as a studio or workroom. It’s always exciting, because you have everything there and you’re well equipped. Furthermore, there is a kind of children’s theater piece, which also acts as a film. Here we are still looking for a stage or someone who will provide us with a stage. Otherwise, I’m constantly busy with a mix of experimental films. Right now we are desperately looking for a platform or a place where we can show our films and where we can talk. A place where you can find like-minded people who also want to make experimental films. Here we need a place where we could play these films, which is then also considered a fixed reference point and where you invite people and every now and then makes experimental film evenings. That’s missing here in Frankfurt. So an underground cinema. In Berlin and Vienna you can find something like this everywhere on every street corner and I think that really needs Frankfurt.
What are your roles for the projects, what do you expect from the actors?
I always find it important to try to play reduced. Often I have the impression that people are going to the camera and want to do it very well and somehow it is then plastic. That’s why I always say that it is very nice to have people who are not used to it. In part, they have an incredibly quiet way to play, and yet very expressive. Of course it’s always nice to balance documentary films. You are then also rather as an observer on the road and there is also a bit of what you perhaps lacking in the scene.
Interested people who would like to act and participate in a film shoot or a play, they can get in touch with you.
Yes gladly. Or people who also like to go beyond certain limits, who would like to discover themselves. It is always in a very closed frame. You do not have to be afraid that you have to work together in a big team. That is not the case. It is always manageable and it is also important to me that people feel comfortable. If anyone feels like it, then just let me know, then I’ll be happy.
INFOTHEK
Inventafilm
Email: cb@inventafilm.com
Website: http://www.inventafilm.com
Contakpage: http://www.inventafilm.com/contact.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stina.nolli.7
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCigvvPz_AnMTU8cAJ74enBA
Schule des unabhängigen Films / School of Independent Film
Post Adress: Schule für unabhängigen Film, c /o Arnd-Tibor Koch, Waldschmidtstr. 34, 60316 Frankfurt
Location: Leipziger Straße 91, 60487 Frankfurt
Phone: +49 69 200 23 600
Email: schuleunabhaengigerfilm@mail.de
Website: http://www.schuleunabhängigerfilm.de
