Delighted to share that the world premiere of AGGREGAT will take place this Sunday at @docnycfest . We are screening as part of the SHORTS: GATHERED ECHOES program on Nov 17, 7:00PM at Village East by Angelika in New York City, and online anywhere in the U.S. from Nov 13 - Dec 1. In these difficult times, pioneering festivals like DOC NYC are more important than ever and we’re honoured to be part of their 15th edition. There will be a Q&A after the screening, myself and @garlenno will be in attendance. We would love to see you there!
AGGREGAT, 2024, 1.37:1, 16:30 minutes. Written & Directed by MJ Whelan / Produced by Siobhan Fanning & Gary Lennon (Gambit Pictures) @garlenno / Funded by Stiftung Kunstfonds @stiftungkunstfonds / Voiceover: Emer Casey @emer.casey / Participants: Elke Lindner, Daniela Teschendorff, Katharina Landl & Burkhard v. Puttkamer / Cinematography: Adrian Langenbach @adrianlangenbach / Composition, Sound Design & Mix: Ben Connolly @benjconnolly / Editing: Katrin Ebersohn. A special thanks to @cultureireland for screening attendance funding. #docnyc #docnyc2024 #aggregatfilm #irishfilm #film #documentary @first_element_postproduction@greynoisedxb@aggregatfilm
Repost from @labocine
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“Primary Organs” directed by Michael John Whelan.
A meditative journey along the shores of the Persian Gulf and deep under its waters.
‘Primary Organs’ intertwines diverse but connected vignettes from historic and contemporary maritime cultures of the Arabian Peninsula: a diver travels to sites once visited by Jacques Cousteau during his 1954 survey for oil, an abandoned pearl diving village built from coral is a site of simultaneous archaeological exploration and restoration, and retired fishermen sing endangered songs once used to add rhythm to their work.
Central to the film is the representation of coral as an eco-marker of our interspecies dependency: the marine biologist keeps samples alive in a laboratory aquarium, a village is built entirely from it, and as a votive gesture a diver brings a piece of it to a former oil survey site. Through its slow-paced language and choreographed underwater scenes, Primary Organs explores local relationships to the sea, echoes of petro-state neocolonialism, and the roles of complicity and gesture within our climate crisis. Punctuating this journey is the voice of the marine biologist who shares her poetic observations and trepidation for the future.
#primaryorgans #bodiesbodiesbodies #labocine #persiangulf
@greynoisedxb@artscouncilireland
Opening this Saturday in the Netherlands - LUPUS - curated by Eric Giraudet de Boudemange at Dat Bolwerck
About the exhibition: Since the wolf’s return to the Netherlands in 2015, the animal has become an integral part of public debate. In the exhibition ‘LUPUS’, Dat Bolwerck explores how the wolf has become a powerful cultural and political symbol – a vessel for collective fears, desires and conflicts. What does our view of the wolf actually say about ourselves? Featuring work by (inter)national artists Eric Giraudet de Boudemange, Femke Herregraven, Jan Kopp, Josefin Arnell, Michael John Whelan, Eva Delville and Katja Novitskova, ‘LUPUS’ unfolds as a multi-layered narrative about what it means to be human. At a time when themes such as polarisation, xenophobia and security dominate the debate, the exhibition reveals how deeply rooted ideas become attached to images of the unknown and ‘the other’. @e_g_d_b@janfkopp@femherregraven@josefinarnell@shipwrecknotebook@marlici@greynoisedxb@datbolwerck
📷: From the Mountain (film stills) 1.78:1, monochrome, sound, 9:30 min. Based on historical texts from a dark period in Irish history, when wolves in Ireland were systematically exterminated under British rule, the opening voiceover by actor Cillian Murphy sets the tone for this meditative journey. The film moves between images of wolves, Irish wolfhounds and historically significant landscapes, including the site where the last wild Irish wolf was killed in 1786. The story of the Irish wolves becomes a way into broader questions of ecology, consumption and extinction. The music and sound design alternate between ambient recordings and a minimal score by composer Brian Crosby.
A film by: @michaeljohn_whelan
Voiceover: #CillianMurphy
Music & Sound Design: @briancrosbymusic
Text: #KieranHickey
My video work ‘Now the shadows I measure’ is screening for a month on the @labocine April edition: ‘mathēmatiká’
Filmed in the basement of the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium in Bengaluru (IN), this seamlessly looped video shows a Shive wave generator in operation. Invented by physicist John N. Shive in 1959, the device is used to illustrate wave motion, giving physical form to forces otherwise invisible to the human eye. The title comes from the self-composed epitaph of Johannes Kepler, the German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer. He died in 1630 and was buried in Regensburg (DE), but during the Thirty Years’ War the cemetery was destroyed and his bones were scattered, never to be found again. @greynoisedxb #mathematika #sciencenewwave
Happy to share that AGGREGAT is heading to this year’s IFI Documentary Festival @irishfilminstitute . We are screening in competition as part of the shorts program WHERE WE STAND on Sunday, September 14th at 13:00. Link in bio ✨
AGGREGAT
2024, 2k video & 16mm, 1.33:1, 16:30 minutes.
Voiceover: Emer Casey @emer.casey.35
Participants: Elke Lindner, Daniela Teschendorff, Katharina Landl & Burkhard v. Puttkamer
Written & Directed by MJ Whelan @michaeljohn_whelan
Produced by Siobhan Fanning & Gary Lennon (Gambit Pictures) @garlenno@gambitpicturesireland
Funded by Stiftung Kunstfonds @stiftungkunstfonds
Cinematography: Adrian Langenbach @adrianlangenbach
Composition, Sound Design & Mix: Ben Connolly @benjconnolly
Editing: Katrin Ebersohn #katrinebersohn
Post: @kristina_hoppe@daithimusic1@first_element_postproduction@holsbux@galwayfilm #aggregatfilm #irishfilm #film #documentary @greynoisedxb
What a great Fleadh! Míle buíochas to @holsbux & @maebhmcg ! We had such a brilliant time premiering Sapphire and Aggregat at @galwayfilm 💙💚
📷: Conor Healy, Ben Connolly & Daniel Martin
Very happy to have two films I wrote and directed screening at this years @galwayfilm - the narrative short ‘Sapphire‘ and the documentary short ‘AGGREGAT’. From a former rocket base north of Berlin to the coastline of Arklow, both films explore connections between loss and land. I’ll be in Galway for both screenings, hope to see you there!
Photos:
1: Photographing the photographer @adrianlangenbach during ‘AGGREGAT’ filming at the Baltic Sea.
2: Filming in a quarry with @laura.seward.dop for ‘Sapphire‘.
3-4: Our two beautiful posters.
AGGREGAT, 2024, 16:30 mins
Weary from centuries of war, death and destruction, an imagined collective consciousness of all the oceans and seas of the world takes on corporal form and travels across a former WW2 rocket test site and concentration camp.
Voiceover:
Emer Casey @emer.casey.35
Participants:
Elke Lindner
Daniela Teschendorff
Katharina Landl
Burkhard v. Puttkamer
Written & Directed by MJ Whelan @michaeljohn_whelan
Produced by Siobhan Fanning & Gary Lennon (Gambit Pictures) @garlenno@gambitpicturesireland
Funded by Stiftung Kunstfonds @stiftungkunstfonds
Cinematography: Adrian Langenbach @adrianlangenbach
Composition, Sound Design & Mix: Ben Connolly @benjconnolly
Editing: Katrin Ebersohn
Post: @kristina_hoppe@daithimusic1@aspenlanestudios@first_element_postproduction
#aggregatfilm #irishfilm #film #documentary #FilmFleadh @greynoisedxb
We are so happy and proud to share that Laura Seward has been nominated for the Bingham Ray New Talent Award for her work on SAPPHIRE ✨❤️ @laura.seward.dop@galwayfilm #filmfleadh #binghamraynewtalent
📷: Galway Film Fleadh announcement & Laura filming a quarry for SAPPHIRE
