Throughout centuries, generations of fisherwomen from Rodrigues Island have practiced the traditional métier of piqueuse ourite, octopus spearing, which was then a warrant of self-sufficiency, emancipation and social prestige. With the avenue of major economic and climatic changes in the past years, the métier alongside its stoical self-reliant way of life, is at stake.
SEC ROUGE, a creole term for an optimal dry tide to fish octopus, was an omen of prosperous catch for the elders. Today a “dry-red” tide is a rarity; a mirage-image of precarious times for the few remaining fisherwomen who are still struggling to practice their métier. SEC ROUGE, an evocative filmic immersion into the fragile reality of a dying métier.

D 2018, HD, 1:1,78, Color, Surround, 26 Minutes

Two women spend a weekend together at the North Sea. Walks on the beach, fish buns at a snack stand, mobile weather forecasts. Sky, horizon, water. One of them will soon return to her family in Argentina ,whereas the other one will try to come a step closer to the ocean. She travels to the Caribbean and the unknown makes her vulnerable. Then, the land gets out of sight. On a sailing vessel she crosses the Atlantic Ocean. One wave follows the other, they never resemble. Thoughts go astray, time leaves the beaten track and the swell lulls to deep sleep. The sea takes over the narration. And when she reappears, the wind is still in her hair while the ground beneath her feet is solid. She returns and the other one could ask: „Have you changed?“

D 2017, HD, 1:1,78, Color, Surround, 97 Minutes

FESTIVALS

72. Settimana Internazionale della Critica (74. Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica di Venezia)
Berwick Film&Media Arts Festival
Filmfest Hamburg
Festival du Nouveau Cinema Montreal
Nordic Filmdays Lübeck
Filmwoche Duisburg
EYE Film Institute Amsterdam / Dag van de Dwarse Film 2018
ZINEBI Bilbao (SPECIAL JURY MENTION)
Kaunas Int. Film Festival
Lacenodoro Int. Film Festival (BEST FEATURE FILM AWARD)
IFF Rotterdam
Stranger Than Fiction Cologne
Ton, Zeit, Bild, Filmladen Kassel
Independent Film Festival Istanbul
FICUNAM Mexico

PRESSE

"Man fragt sich, wie Wittmann, die ihren Film völlig unabhängig produziert hat, so jung zu einer so entschiedenen, klaren Ästhetik gelangen konnte. Und wie mag angesichts dieser Mischung aus visueller Perfektion und Empfindsamkeit ihr nächster Film aussehen? Manchmal sind die schönsten Bilder eines Festivals die noch nicht gesehenen zukünftiger Filme, denen man jetzt schon entgegenfiebert.“ Katja Nicodemus, Die Zeit

The archive is a technical apparatus; a place to dissect, prepare, and preserve. Culture needs a place to store and document the things of nature.

To document and preserve nature is in need of human culture - a need that is institutionalized in natural history museums and zoological collections. Karsten Krause visited such „archives of life“ in Stuttgart: at the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde and the Wilhema, he pointed his camera at the human at appropriation of nature for the propose of gaining insights. Within this framework, he focossed especially on taxidermally stuffed animals and the reconstruction and animation in museum presentations.
It sometimes looks as if the camera had replaced the animal’s extinguished gaze at the human being. Krause directs this gaze towards the work of taxidermists and the post-mortem craft they carry out in the museum workshops, where they counter decay with preservation techniques. The filmmaker studies their actions, and the kill and familiarity with which they handle the dead creatures. Often the focus is entirely on their facial expressions, which speak of concentration, experience, accuracy and dedication as they cut, skin, flay, stuff and mount. The animals are to look as natural, alive and aesthetically appealing as possible for the exhibition in spectacular dioramas. It is there that they make their final appearance alongside other stuffed animals against backgrounds imitating idealized biotopes - and there that they encounter the species that arranged them.
The visitors’ curiosity is mirrored in the panes of the display cases. Amazed off-screen whispers are heared. The wild is viewed and marvelled at as an art product that, although based on human phantasms, nevertheless continues to resist its object status. The video thus revolves primarily around the contradiction between scientific neutrality and creative interpretation, but also around the pleasure researchers, museums and visitors derive from the imagination.

D 2016, HD, 1:1,78, Color, Stereo, 24 Minutes

SCREENINGS

Akademie Schloss Solitude
Punto de Vista
Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen
IKFF Hamburg
Split Film Festival
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart