Retrospektif program focuses on the journey of filmmakers and their contribution to documentary film in the world. This year, Retrospektif presents the experience of watching the amazing works of Chris Marker.
Who was Chris Marker? He was a writer, photographer, editor, filmmaker, videographer, and digital multimedia artist; Marker was one of the biggest secrets of the cinema world. He was not very sociable and was covered with aliases. But, the atmosphere of film festivals that has been growing makes his secrets revealed and consumable so he got admitted as one of the significant figures of contemporary visual culture.
Chris Marker encouraged the presence of essay film culture which explores how the shift of human perspective affects film production practices. Marker’s works often picture times and events which have a reflective manner. The understanding of every approach in Marker’s works stands on subjectivity and textuality. Polysemy that he used to question and deliver the complexity of history became a unique character of his cinematography.
Marker reflected the memory-building process by dialectic play and creative montage that involved the past by giving it purpose, not by cult history. Using replicated and timeless photographs, footage, or any other form of archives, Marker brought back memory and nostalgia. Through reflection on images, the works kept living and going around the world. Marker did not try to synchronize politics and arts. Instead, he brought both by keeping images that are questioned and resonated with this era over and over again.
Retrospektif presents 4 works of Chris Marker, consisting of 3 long feature films and 1 short film as an attempt to look back at Marker’s work since his death 10 years ago. Lettre de Sibérie (1958) is his work in his early career. In the film, he takes us to witness the lives and culture in Siberia. Le Fond de L’air Est Rouge (1977) is his work that focuses on global politics in the 60s and 70s, especially the rise of the New Left in France and the growth of the socialist movement in South America. Then Sans Soleil (1982), tells the story of a woman who is reading contemplative writings of an experienced world traveler.
On October the 21st, 1967, more than 100.000 protesters gathered in Washington DC, trying to end the war in Vietnam. The gathering is the biggest protest gathering ever, which happened to unite various communities; the liberal, radical, hippies, and yippies. Chris was there, then La Sixième face du Pentagone (1968) was born.
