The Gallery

At the start are close-ups, they are blurred. Eyes, mouths, noses, hands enter the picture. Scattered, nearly puzzle-like. The tone is also minimal and offers no clues as to what we are actually looking at; we hear paper, glass. We grope in the dark, it is silent. Step by step—after a fade-in of the title—the camera offers more context: the paper that is being written on, the writing, the drying of the paper. It seems as though we are reminded of Japanese or Chinese calligraphy: a ritual that accompanies production of an artwork. Calligraphy, a strongly expressive art form focusing on the development of individual expression within a specified frame. Cordula Rieger’s THE GALLERY documents the eponymous action by the FLINT collective (women, lesbian, inter, non-binary, and trans* people) femplak_wien (feminist posters Vienna). Members of the collective focus on their individual experiences of sexualized violence—together and in solidarity. What was forced into silence for years is written down and exhibited verbatim. This allows a larger picture of omnipresent gender-specific violence to emerge in public space (namely, under the Reichsbrücke, and also virtually on femplak’s Instagram channel). The protagonists arrive at their own specific expression, first by writing, letter for letter, page for page, then also acoustically. They narrate from off-camera, one story becomes many that overlap and flow into a polyphonic choir. THE GALLERY carefully compiles the puzzle pieces—faces, stories, voices—and constructs the larger, collective context. (Sylvia Szely)


Translation: Lisa Rosenblatt

Orig. Title
The Gallery
Year
2021
Countries
Austria, France
Duration
8 min
Director
Cordula Rieger
Category
hybride
Orig. Language
English, German
Subtitles
English, German, french
Downloads
TheGallery_01 (Image)
TheGallery_02 (Image)
TheGallery_03 (Image)
Credits
Director
Cordula Rieger
Script
Cordula Rieger
Cinematography
Anna Viola Haderer
Sound
Selina Nenning
Sound Design
Antonin Dalmasso
1st AC
Zoe Adrion
2nd AC
Lisa Grabner
Editing
Célia Caroubi, Cordula Rieger
Available Formats
Digital File (prores, h264) (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
16:9
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour
DCP 2K flat (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
16:9
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour
Festivals (Selection)
2021
Roma Creative Contest – International Short Film Festival
Ballymahon (IR) - Still Voices Short Film Festival
Girona Film Festival
Porto - Femme - Festival Internacional de Cinema (Special Mention Jury Student Competition)
2022
Landshut - Kurzfilmfestival
Dresden - Filmfest
Porto - Post Porto Doc
Kassel Dokumentarfilm & Videofestival
Espinho - FEST New Directors | New Films Festival
2023
Liverpool - LJMU MA Short Film Festival (Paper Bird Award for Documentary)