Seems To Be
Schein Sein

part of the film collection Free Radicals

Live Version
Luxembourg / Austria 2007 l 6:00 min l colour l video l
film sound & music by Morton Feldman, performed live by Klangforum Wien

International Premiere: Biennale di Venezia 2007
Austrian Premiere: Wien Modern Ouverture 2007

Theatrical Version
Luxembourg / Austria 2008 l 8:00 min l colour
35 mm l 1:1.66 l Dolby Digital l Music: Morton Feldman

Worldpremiere: Berlinale - Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin 2008

Script and Direction: Bady Minck
Music: Morton Feldman performed by Klangforum Wien
Camera: Martin Putz, Eni Brandner
Editing & Sound-Design: Frédéric Fichefet
Digital Post-Production: Eni Brandner
Production Manager: Alfie Kral
Producers: Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, Gabriele Kranzelbinder, Bady Minck
Production: Minotaurus Film Luxembourg& Amour Fou Wien

Supported by Film Fund Luxembourg, Innovative Film Austria, ORF Innovation, City of Vienna Culture
Sponsor: Synchro Film Wien

Cast: Beat Furrer, Darko Vidačković, Morton Feldman, the musicians of Klangforum Wien >> Andreas Eberle, Vera Fischer, Thomas Frey, Uli Fussenegger, Benedikt Leitner, Andreas Lindenbaum, Caroline Menke, Florian Müller, Anders Nyqvist, Alexander Rindberger, Lukas Schiske, Christoph Walder

Music: Morton Feldman "Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety"
(c) by courtesy of Universal Edition AG, Vienna

stills l making of l credits l press l web l bio l filmo l free radicals

Distribution & Sales Theatrical Version: Sixpack Film
Distribution & Sales Live Version: Klangforum Wien
Germany Press-agent: Tina Kaiser Filmgalerie 451 t.kaiser@filmgalerie 451.de
International Press-agent: Lucius Barre
lucius@rcn.com

For the film & music project Free Radicals, Bady Minck realised the two short films Being and Nothingness and Seems To Be in collaboration with Klangforum Wien in a shorter live version which were performed in concert halls.

Based on Morton Feldman's "Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety", Seems To Be plays with the levels of optic and aural perception, with the deception of eyes and ears as well as the tension between two-dimensional reproduction and three-dimensional spatial recreation.
Synopsis

Accompanied by murmuring, the sound of scribbling and hummed snatches of music, the camera sweeps over a collection of materials on a desktop, seemingly reflecting a creative frenzy. Musical notes and memoranda, pads and pencils, patterns of various kinds, mixed with slips of paper, half-full Martini glasses, ashtrays, death's heads—then the picture swings around (the coffee cup along with it!) and an ensemble arranged according to musical instrument has been committed to paper. Constant movement, metamorphosis, variation and pleasant uncertainty: a concert hall? A movie theater?
The picture's square remains, becoming in the course of the switch a bright square within the picture: a projection screen with an ensemble in the form of a projection screen in front of the ensemble, which is suddenly no more than a shadow of itself. Madame Press is dead. The imagination lives on. At least that seems to be the case.
Christoph Huber

A meditation on the certainties of being and perceptual illusions, a circling search in time and space, and at the same time a trompe l'oeil; the spatial dimensions of Morton Feldman's steady, apparently timeless music are taken literally in the film: The sketched arrangement of a musical ensemble about to perform Feldman's composition fills with 'real' musicians caught in the paper's two-dimensionality, only to move to the spatiality of the Vienna Konzerthaus. But what is real here, what is a visual fake? Seems To Be dances on this platform of ambivalences, juxtaposing the metaphysics of a solid existential foundation and the agnostic skepticism of an abandonment of being marked by a visual chimera. Godless Feldman, merciless abyss! What we see is looking back at us.
Thomas Miessgang

Festivals (18)
Arts&film Festival Prague, Czech Republic (24.6. - 26.6.2010)
Linoleum Festival of Contemporary Animation & Media-Art Moscow, Russia
Retrospective Bady Minck (11.12. - 13.12.2009)
Festival de Cine Internacional de Ourense Spain (10.10. - 17.10.2009)
Brisbane International Film Festival Australia (30.7. - 9.8.2009)
Hamburger Ostertöne Hamburg, Germany (10.4. – 13.4.2009)
Stockholm Festival for Short Experimental Film (4.4.2009)
BAFF Busto Arsizio Film Festival Italy (28.3. - 4.4.2009)
MUSEEK Music Video Festival, Sankt-Peterburg, Russia (14.11. - 23.11.2008)
Istanbul International Short Film Festival Turkey (5.11. – 12.11.2008)
Tindirindis Int'l Animation Film Festival Vilnius, Lithuania (19.10. - 22.10.2008)
BalkAnima Int'l Animated Film Festival Beograd, Serbia (7.10. – 11.10.2008)
JIMFF Jecheon Int'l Music & Film Festival Seoul, South Korea (14.8. - 19.8.2008)
Cadore Doc Film Festival, Pieve di Cadore, Italy (1.8. - 5.8.2008)
IO Isabella International Film Week Maratea, Italy (29.7. - 3.8.2008)
Animator International Film Festival Poznan, Poland (7.7. - 12.7.2008)
Diagonale Festival of Austrian Film Graz, Austria (1.4. - 6.4.2008)
Int'l Short & Independent Film Festival Dhaka, Bangladesh (14.2. - 22.2.2008)
Berlinale Forum Expanded Germany (7.2. - 17.2.2008)

Screenings (16)
Light Cone Preview Show Paris (September 2009)
Gallery of Modern Art Brisbane Preview Brisbane IFF (August 2009)
Queen Street Mall Brisbane 5 screenings, Preview Brisbane IFF (August 2009)
Ostertöne Laeiszhalle Hamburg "Free Radicals" (12.4.2009)
Chelsea Art Museum New York Special Program Bady Minck (10.4.2009)
Lincoln Center New York City "Free Radicals" (4.4.2009)
Goethe Institut Paris "Die Berlinale in Paris" (15.4.2008)
Palais des Beaux Arts Bruxelles "Free Radicals" (14.4.2008)
Philharmonie Luxembourg "Free Radicals" (13.4.2008)
Rodina Kinoteatr St. Petersburg Showcase Bady Minck (12.12.2007)
Wien Modern Opening Night "Free Radicals" (1.11.2007)
Biennale di Venezia "Free Radicals" (10.10.2007)