by Carina Pepene
Picture: Carina Pepene
Romanian director Radu Jude brought two of his latest movies to the “International Documentary Festival Amsterdam” — “Sleep #2” and “Eight Postcards From Utopia” — followed by a talk moderated by IDFA’s artistic director, Orwa Nyrabia.
“My first American movie and I never stepped foot in America.”
In reversed order from Locarno, the night of November 15th debuted with “Sleep #2”, an impressionistic collage of live footage collected via a webcam network from Andy Warhol’s grave. Radu Jude added that he considers this movie his “footnote” to Warhol’s film “Sleep”(1964) containing loop-footage of artist John Giorno.
Source: festival.idfa.nl
“Sleep #2” depicts the liveliness of Warhol’s grave in Pittsburgh, following both human and non-human visitors in a succession of seasons. We observe various passers-by—from tourists smoking, taking selfies, leaving notes, or paying tribute to cemetery workers, and even a series of wild animals. The footage was captured over a span of one year from January 2022 to February 2023 through the live low-resolution 24/7 EartCam which overlooks tourist attractions world-wide.
Constant intercallations from the director—changes of perspective, the sound being turned on or cut—remind the public that all is presented from a third party perspective. The camera is sometimes acknowledged by tourists who decide to wave, pose, or even expose themselves for the world to see. Regardless, I found it particularly lovely to observe the display of appreciation towards the American-born artist: visitors leaving letters, candles, or having thematic lunches next to his grave.
“Eight Postcards from Utopia”, the found-footage documentary on Romanian commercials in the post-communist era, was the second screening of the night. The movie consists of dozens of Romanian advertisements divided into eight thematic acts which explore motives of national pride, consumerism, the human body or globalization. The playful tone slowly shifts as more serious issues within Romanian society are clearly displayed on the screen: strongly-enforced gender roles, hypersexualization, consumerism without filters. During the talk that followed the projection, Jude also also shared his “dirty secret” — after the fall of the communist party in Romania, he also worked in advertising for pragmatic reasons.
Source: festival.idfa.nl
Viewing it through the lens of a born and raised Romanian, “Eight Postcards from Utopia” felt at times like a constructed Romanian inside joke. Romanian pop-culture icons (such as Mutu, Ștefan Bănică Jr., or Dan Badea for connoisseurs ) were often displayed in ridiculous circumstances, which added another layer of humor and nostalgia for the Romanian spectators, myself included. That being said, despite the very telling visuals, a lot of the movie loses its meaning for the international audience.
The night ended with a short talk moderated by IDFA’s artistic director, Orwa Nyrabia , during which the Romanian director talked, among others, about his future projects and burning topics such as AI and TikTok.
“To me, TikTok is like the beginning of cinema. It’s like Lumiére,” Jude added while pulling out his phone and sharing some of the content on his for you page with the audience. He also added on modern technology that he believes AI could be a very useful money-saving tool that he himself used in an upcoming film about Dracula.
