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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Slovakia / Czech Republic

Slovak filmmaker Viera Čakányová brings her “post-human trilogy” to a close with Notes from Eremocene

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- The experimental video essay, which explores the potential of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence, will premiere in the Forum section of the Berlinale

Slovak filmmaker Viera Čakányová brings her “post-human trilogy” to a close with Notes from Eremocene
Notes from Eremocene by Viera Čakányová (© guča films)

Slovak experimental documentary filmmaker Viera Čákanyová is returning to the Berlinale next month to introduce her latest audiovisual essay, Notes from Eremocene [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Viera Čákanyová
film profile
]
, as a world premiere. The film will bow in the Forum section (see the news), which is focused on reflections on “the medium of film, socio-artistic discourse and a particular sense for the aesthetic”. Notes from Eremocene is not Čákanyová’s first entry in this particular section; her first feature-length documentary, FREM [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Viera Čakányová
film profile
]
, a sci-fi doc about artificial intelligence, world-premiered there as well. Notes from Eremocene rounds off the cinematic “post-human trilogy” that FREM began, which also includes White on White [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, the winner of the main Opus Bonum prize at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival in 2020 (see the news).

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Čákanyová calls Notes from Eremocene a prologue to FREM. “Like a message in a bottle cast out into a sea of data, or an analogue fossil waiting to be unearthed by digital archaeologists to come, the work is conceived as a personal project that will be reconstructed and interpreted by my future, virtual self. It is a vision from the present of the world to come, one soon to be transformed beyond all recognition by technologies we encounter today in merely a state of genesis,” says the director.

Čákanyová questions the ideal techno-optimistic model of the future, and explores the potential of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. She also addresses the topic of a dystopian future for humankind and the motifs she touched upon in her previous films: analogue versus digital, nature versus civilisation, climate change, and the representative democracy crisis. The director shot the movie on a combination of 8 mm and 16 mm film, and the 3D scenes were shot with Lidar technology. “Notes from Eremocene grapples with the key questions facing us today, in a formally rich language. It is a finely tuned, personal, auteur-driven form of narration straddling film genres and different media, and these qualities undoubtedly contributed to the Berlinale programmers’ decision to include the film in the Forum section,” says Slovak producer Matej Sotník, of guča films, who is also the creative director of the distribution company Film Expanded, which is handling the domestic release.

Film Expanded is preparing gallery screenings and site-specific events to show Notes from Eremocene to audiences in Slovakia. The domestic premiere is set for March at the 30th edition of the International Film Festival Febiofest Bratislava. The film will then enter local theatrical distribution in the first half of the year. DAFilms Distribution will release the movie in Czech theatres after the local premiere at the Ji.hlava IDFF. The Czech co-producer Nina Numankadić, of Marina Films, is handling the international sales.

Notes from Eremocene is being produced by Slovakian outfit guča films, and co-produced by Czech company Marina Films and Radio and Television Slovakia. The Slovak Audiovisual Fund and the Bratislava region supported the film.

You can watch the trailer below:

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