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In memory of

Director

Mattia Bioli

Year of production

2021

How does a fading memory look like? A forgotten person faces the material disappearance of what it passed. Oblivion gradually consumes everything, destroying every possible illusion of eternity.
In memory of those who no longer exist, neither as a face, nor in our memories, nor in a short film.

Director Statement

“Going around flea markets, it is easy to find old photos. These often represent our last testimony of time on Earth, but nevertheless they are sold at very low prices with no sentimental value. Through ‘In Memory Of’ I wanted to deal precisely with this emotional ambiguity related to oblivion. I was fascinated by the ironic contrast that firmly links importance and irrelevance of a memory. When our very last photo disappears, it is like we physically never existed.

Based on this perspective, also my short film could be forgotten, destroyed or lost in time. For this reason, I wanted to study a process of breakdown of the video itself (through a Datamoshing process). In fact, everything is destined to corrupt and deteriorate, including the digital file of this short film during its playing time.

The significant challenge was to find a new language regarding the alienated and distorted humanoid shapes that I got by simply turning the focus ring. The resulting unfocused image was completely physical and concrete, although it represented something apparently abstract as a memory. The out of focus had to transform from a classic medium of hiding to an original one of visualizing the fine line between what exists and what suddenly no longer exists.”

General comments about the work and movement concept: This short film deals with the ironic contrast between the static image of a memory and the dynamic dance movement of its disappearing. When I simply turned the focus ring on my camera, with a single proper light, the perception of the world completely changed, bringing to life the alienated humanoid shapes you can see in the final result. Because of the intrinsic challenge of this experimental technique, almost nothing could be predicted in detail, and the same was for the camera and body movement themselves, which were completely improvised according to the physical and concrete unfocused images I got. During the editing, I also added a process of organic breakdown of the file in order to include deteriorating pixels in this fatal oblivion dance. This consists in Datamoshing, a unique artistic technique of manipulating the data of media files in order to achieve visual or auditory effects when the file is decoded, which allowed me to literally “break” the film during its playing time.
Comments on sound and music: Music and sound have been completely designed especially for this work in post production by the composer Enrico Tosi, following the unpredictable actor movements. The idea was to give indefinable and suspended connotation to the unfocused visual atmosphere, particularly in visual destruction moments as a longly stretched and distorted track. In reality, this consists of a piano 20 seconds song, but through an 800% audio slowdown every instrument or even voice could not be recognizable in its tone, giving life to something new and unique but still concrete as the images.