Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival 2021: Are we human?
The avant-garde films return to the cinemas in the capital, at the 11th edition of the Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival (BIEFF). Between November 17 and 21, the event dedicated to new forms of cinematic language exploration brings to the big screens the most appreciated cinematic experiments of the year, inviting the public to reflect on human nature and the aspects that define it. Are we human? – the theme of this year’s edition, addresses a question to which spectators will seek answers together with the artists invited to the festival, through an extensive program of screenings, installations and debates, organized at Cinemateca Eforie, Cinema Elvire Popesco and the National Art Museum of Romania, in the Auditorium Hall.
The BIEFF.11 program and subscriptions will be available soon on www.bieff.ro
An intersection of innovation and creative freedom, BIEFF continues at this edition its mission to explore unique perspectives on topics relevant to contemporary society, creating a favorable space for debate and dialogue. The theme around which the festival experience will be built in 2021 returns to a topic that has been debated for a long time in the last two millennia, but which has become even more urgent with the acceleration of the evolution of technology: the identity of the human being. Through a generous selection of films presented and awarded at film events around the world, accompanied by a series of discussions and debates in which their creators will participate, viewers in Bucharest are invited to explore innovative approaches to humanity and its fragility.
“As new technologies become an increasingly present part of our expanded self, we are already becoming the cyborgs of the future. Caught between utopian aspirations for our species and dystopian alterations of the world in which we live, we have reached a turning point that demands the radical transformation of human society. So how can we understand and integrate new forms of otherness (robots, cyborgs, AI, etc.) into our ever-changing social realities without re-evaluating our own identity as humans? ”, points out Oana Ghera, the festival’s artistic director. .
“Are you a robot?” Confirm that you are not. Our phones, tablets and computers ask us to assert our identity through denial. And we, as human beings, insist on asserting our power over others by denying singular or collective experiences and identities in the name of ephemeral constructs such as borders, race, gender, religious beliefs, national identities, and / or economic status. Which begs the question: what does it mean to be human today? And what is the value of humanity if we choose to continue to dehumanize ourselves and the others by instrumentalizing otherness? These are the questions we invite the public to answer as they discover the works included in our festival program. ”, adds Oana Ghera.
After the 2020 edition, held in a hybrid formula, in the online environment and art galleries in the capital, the works included in the official selection BIEFF.11 return to the big screen, in a marathon of events for all those interested in exploring new cinematographic languages. The films included in the International Competition compete for the BIEFF 2021 Grand Prize. The jury will award the best Short Films presented this year and the Directing and Visual Concept Awards, but will also nominate the winner of the National Competition, the first edition in the event’s history.