Tuesday, March 18, 2025 at 8:00 pm
$8 general admission, $6 students/seniors, $5 members
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Hallwalls & KLEX Festival present
Curated by Siew-Wai Kok, KLEX Festival Director
“Panorama of Being” is a special programme from the KLEX Festival, showcasing cinematic works by nine female media artists, along with a collaborative piece. The works include stop-motion animation, AI-generated imagery, video performance, diary films, travelogues, and mockumentaries, exploring a range of thoughts, experiences and realities related to humanity and the nature of human existence. At times, we struggle with the limitations of our physical facility and long for a little magic, or a sense of total freedom. Other times, we are fascinated by all these uneven waves - ups and downs, fast and slow, strong and weak, paving our unique paths in life. Let’s cruise along, keep that child in you, and have fun!
What is left of the witches that were burned? What lies behind a word that is often used in a banal way? Witches have nourished the audiovisual imagination with stereotypes that rarely resemble the women who died under this accusation. Humble women, some dissidents, and often slaves of the new order that was built to stay. ‘Ashes’ explores the video-to-video technique in a piece that confronts stereotypes through the claim and the spell: say ‘I’m a witch’ three times and you’ll be a free person. Do you dare?
This video work navigates the enigmatic intersection of physicality and spirit, where the body, stripped of its civilized veneer, transcends its human confines and edges into the realm of the spectral and otherworldly. The filmmaker uses the intersection between day and night to address these transformations, subtly revealing the primal and creature-like metaphors that lie beneath the surface of the human identity.
In an impulsive leap of faith, Deena abandons security in her quest for a fulfilling life in art. Struggling with familial estrangement and societal expectations, she dives into a world where creativity battles with doubt. Her journey oscillates as a neurodivergent struggling to navigate the intricate pace of life in unpredictable emotion. Amidst self-discovery, she finds solace, discomfort and fear in the unknowing. It’s a narrative of the mundane and acceptance — a relentless pursuit to be comfortable in identity amidst the chaos of artistic liberation.
On the evening of March 28, 2022, the Shanghai authority announced the lockdown starting the next day and promised to end on April 5. But it extended with no end in sight, leaving many residents of the Chinese megacity unprepared to be indefinitely housebound.
This video consists of three short videos: 1. Cruising/Meditate 2. Rising/Reflect 3. Pulsing/Live. The footage was shot in Tokyo and Fukuoka, Japan in 2009. I like being a traveler who watches and observes both the environment and one's own internal transformation.
For the past five years, we've heard the roar of airplanes, in the center of the city of Tokyo. It starts in the afternoon at around 3 to 4 pm, and the go-home-music for children, “Sunset glows”, starts at 5 pm. The new evening scene in my hometown makes me bewildered.
Once upon a future, a wingless man yearns to fly and often has vivid dreams about it. When the dreams vanished without a trace, his world crumbled, but that devastation didn’t stop him from wanting to fly.
This animation is a gentle reminder to human beings.
Is the nourishment of nature something we should take for granted?
Do we often ignore the most basic questions?
The continuous turmoil in the world in recent years makes us sad and prompts us to reflect! Can we calm down and think about it seriously?
Carme Puche-Moré (Barcelona, 1977) is a director and screenwriter. She has worked in journalism and communication for more than fifteen years before dedicating herself to audiovisual productions. Her career as a filmmaker began with “Camille” (Best New Screenplay, Sitges Film Festival 2011) and in the field of fiction has explored the fantasy world, horror and inner monologues in pieces such as “Ferrying Fee” , written by Erin Donovan (The Mentalist), “The Welcome” (selected at more than 20 international festivals) or “The Feathers”, in the distribution phase. In 2014 he premiered the documentary “The Jump!” at the IN-EDIT Film Festival. As a freelance director, she has worked for museums developing visuals, and as a screenwriter she has collaborated with Folch Studio, working on Ada Colau’s campaign. Her last work was selected by the Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture (CCCB) to be part of the project City Simphonies.
Sim Hoi Ling is an interdisciplinary artist whose praxis is influenced by photography, with her subject often revolves around themes of decayed and daily absurdities. She enjoys exploring unconventional ways of image-making and has exhibited works in the form of printmaking, media/video art, installation and performance. Her work was presented at festivals across Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, also collected internationally by collectors from the United States, Canada, Germany and Malaysia. She loves collecting sound in her free time and occasionally releases her experimental sound works under the group name DSGN.
Lena always wished he was good with words, but the fact that he isn’t has pushed him to find an alternative medium of expression. Initially drawn to documentaries, he shifted towards narrative cinema. Raised in Penang, he pursued his education in Perth and London before embarking in the Indian film industry. After years abroad, he returned to Kuala Lumpur, where he now creates short films and ads for local features. His current focus is on “Buku Conteng films,” a personal filmmaking style akin to a scrapbook, where diverse ideas coalesce in a fluid narrative, eschewing strict dramaturgical conventions.
Born and raised in Shanghai. After graduating from Shanghai Film Academy of Shanghai University with BA in scriptwriting and directing 2008, Clarissa ZHANG started her career as a producer. The first feature-length film she produced “Dead Pigs” directed by Cathy YAN and executive produced by JIA Zhangke had its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival and won the Special Jury Award and has been screened in various film festivals including Pingyao, London, Göteborg. She also produced five seasons of National Geographic Channel’s documentary series Route Awakening that won Asian Television Award. She participated in the Berlinale Talents and Talents Tokyo.
From Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Siew-Wai Kok started out as a video artist, now active as a vocal improviser and artist-curator/organiser. She was based in USA from 1998-2005, received B.A. in Media Study at the State University of New York (Buffalo); and M.F.A. in Electronic Integrated Arts at Alfred University. Siew-Wai shown her videos, curatorial video programmes and performed in Asia, Australia, Europe, and beyond, including Suspaustas Laikas Film Festival 2024, CTM Festival 2019, Image Forum Festival 2019, Instanbul International Experimental Film Festival 2019, allEars Improvised Music Festival 2018, Kaohsiung Film Festival 2018, Singapore International Film Festival 2015, ARKIPEL 2015, Asian Meeting Festival 2015 International Film Festival Rotterdam 2007 (Netherlands), Les Rencontres Internationales 2007 (France) amongst others.
Born in 1976 in Tokyo, lives and works in Cologne. As a curator and filmmaker, Aki Nakazawa is involved in various venues and forms of visual media and also writes columns and other articles from her perspective in two cultures. 'Drawing wishes' (2006) was screened and awarded at Berlinale, WRO and other festivals around the world, and is in the collection of the City of Cologne.
Wey-Yinn Teo is a Kuala Lumpur based non-binary film worker whose career revolves around filmmaking since 2014. Her works of sound and moving image often drift away from realms of reality and truth, where she explores the idea of liminality and the spectrum of the human experience. Her debut short film ‘Enflightenment’ (2023) won the audience award at Short waves Festival, Poland; the film then screened at Beijing International Short Film Festival, XPOSED Queer Film Festival Berlin, and Leiden Shorts in the Netherlands. Yinn is deeply passionate in translating the synthesis of art, music, stories and fantasy into a symphonic sky of stars on a cloudless dark night – an encompassing space that is sincere, complex, and has power to touch and heal.
Yun-Sian Huang is a stop-motion animation director since 2010. She is dedicated to animation creation and loves working with a team of artists, while also enjoying solitude and quiet contemplation.
Raito Low Jing-Yi, an animation director from Malaysia based in Taiwan. Specializing in stop-motion animation. Currently studying at NTUA MAA master’s program, director of Raito’s Art Studio. Adhering to the spirit of experimental animation, using plants as medium to create visuals that combine humanities and nature. Personal work including <Blüte>, has been shortlisted in more than 100 film festivals. Published “Like Water, We Flow ” together with Ma Li.