The Boundaries of Cinema

The art of film is developing constantly, and an inherent part of its evolution is to draw from various sources. This means not only blurring the boundaries between particular genres, but also combining separate fields of art. Film authors are increasingly bold in reaching for means of expression that traditionally belong to completely different areas, and today's technology allows for never-before-seen forms, modifications, and interactivity. For the fourth time now The Boundaries of Cinema section is to examine the current state of world cinema (not only in the field of documentary film), its freshly set directions, and possible future paths of development. The festival audience will have the opportunity to experience dynamic changes in film art, and to get familiar with new tendencies thanks to TELEPHONE ART, Crossing the Boundaries, and The Academy of Art at SEFF.

 

Ever since its beginnings in 2007, TELEPHONE ART has been open to short films from all around the world. Productions that enter the competition are recorded with the use of handheld equipment, which means that anyone can become a filmmaker. Although such equipment may be called unprofessional, the term is losing relevance in times of such rapid development of widely available technologies.

 

Crossing the Boundaries is a discussion platform for debating on the development of cinema and the increasing tendency to blur genre boundaries and blend fields of art. This section is an original project by Tomasz Raczek (who has been co-creating the SEFF program for the fourth year in a row now) and Bartosz Wójcik.

 

The Academy of Art at SEFF will present a special selection of works by students of the Faculty of Painting and New Media at the Academy of Art in Szczecin. It will, therefore, be a range of the most interesting productions by the young guns of cinema art.

 

The topics and productions presented in this section are stimulating, they encourage the questioning of ingrained traditions and concepts. The festival audience will have a chance to see stylistic and generic hybrids, innovative ideas, and to participate in the deconstruction of already familiar elements of 21st-century film culture.