I started out my NYFF week kind of late. This past Saturday, I rushed up to Lincoln Center for the 48th New York Film Festival, slightly distressed by the weekend morning traffic to arrive an hour late into Mirror of Shadow and Cinders. Part of a series of Avant-Garde shorts curated by Mark McElhatten & Gavin Smith, Mirror of Shadow and Cinders is a strikingly poetic group of work. I was particularly captivated by “Destination Finale” (2008) originally an 8mm color amateur film, edited by the German filmmaker Philip Widmann. If you question the art of film editing, this 9-minute video will persuade you to think otherwise. Created entirely from found footage that was shot in 1964 and resurrected in Saigon in 2005, the German director Widmann tells a story by using his editing skills. We follow his protagonist, a solo traveler, clad in a suit and leather shoes, wandering across cities carrying nothing but his camera and smiles. The audio and visual glitches from the residue of the film is like being in an impressionist painting which triggered a wave of nostalgia. Who is this man? He remains anonymous even until the end as he reunites with his people at the airport. The end is a bit heavy and unexpected.
RSS
