Other Ways of Watching Together

Open Call for Entries
“Other Ways of Watching together”
Neverland Cinema (@) Showroom MAMA

From January 24th till February 9th Neverland Cinema and Showroom MAMA join forces for a program of various events and screenings in Rotterdam. On this occasion, this open call is launched for works that would think on these subjects together with us.

In the past three years we have been thinking together about the events and processes happening every day around us in the world, and reflecting on these by means of hosting informal screenings of moving image and performances. We feel like today, if not more than ever, we are in need of (safe) collective spaces in cities to exist and think in; where we hear the vibrations of our own voices, and of ones around us. For us, other ways of watching entails listening, hanging out, telling stories, talking, moving, being silent, meditating, publishing, and sensing. This open call is for entries to be part of our common effort in shifting attention from today’s established notion of cinema to ways of enabling the possibility of togetherness around film and performance; resisting especially the prevailing commodification of cinema. The show will create a communal space to hang out, share, and experiment with (other) ways of watching together; shifting the attention from the cinema itself, to ways of enabling the possibility of such practice. Especially, in the current economic climate that such practices face hardship and even cease to exist, we would like to shed light on the importance of self-organised structures, that resist the commodification and individualisation of cinema as a space of possibilities.

Neverland Cinema has been organising an informal non-commercial weekly screening program and collective space, deliberately kept simple and (proudly) unprofessional, in Rotterdam Noord. With an always-free-entrance policy, these events have been experiments in reviving the idea of watching together around issues that concern us on a daily basis; either get our blood boiling, or fascinate or comfort us. In January 2020, the facilitation of Showroom MAMA gives us an opportunity to expand on the notions and experimental lo-fi practices it has been addressing in a more time-intense and focused manner. For this program (taking place in parallel timing to International Film Festival Rotterdam, IFFR) we are looking for entries that pose an alternative to ways in which film practices (from production to programming and watching) have been conceptualised and are being practiced. And re-conceptualise those in formats more than watching films, in ways that amplify not only marginalised voices but also marginalised concerns, and temporally shift the coordinates of spaces we think together in.

In this context, we invite independent filmmakers and image makers are not entirely comfortable to submit their work to established festivals because of exclusive criterion, or ones who have ‘rejected’ entries’, artists who would like to show their video work or who think on notions addresses in this open call, or practitioners who would like to experiment with a talk or a workshop, to consider this call. We are fascinated by so-called amateur productions, works that use archival material, projects of any format that use the medium of film in their research/process, among the many other entry forms we wish to see.

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Selected films or moving image will be publicly screened during the show. Contributing practitioners/collectives are more than welcome to be present, but at this moment we are unfortunately not able to secure travel and accommodation expenses.

 

◊ Eligibility
Everyone and every proposal is eligible for this open call. We invite filmmakers, animators, researchers, performers, artists, archivists, writers, musicians, architects, etc, and any practitioner who finds this open call of relevance. No limitations on production date, age, no-premiere rules, location, length, etc applies. No limitation on number of entries. No application fee, obviously.

◊ Important Dates
Application closing date: 29 December 2019
Results Announced: 2 January 2019
Public program: 24 January – 9 February 2020

◊ Categories
This open call welcomes a variety of submissions:
A: Films and Moving Image (incl. feature films, short films, video essays, amateur films, video-based projects, film-based archives, video art, animation, documentary, docufiction, low-budget / lo-fi productions, etc)
B: Performance (incl. Storytelling sessions, open mic nights, music performances, (experimental) sound performances, artistic performances, readings, choreography, etc)
C: Workshop or Talk
D: Open Format (other proposals free in format that are particularly relevant in content and positioning to this open call; incl. installation, book launch, radio program, etc)

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To share your work with us kindly use THIS ENTERY FORM that eases the organisational labor for us : )

*If you do not want to use google platforms, please fill in the form in pdf and email us at stoker.cinema@gmail.com