Rasendes Grün mit Pferden
2019 82min 16 mm Opt SoundArsenal Distribution; gefördert von der Medienboard GmbH
Rushing Green with Horses
2019 82min 16mm opt
Arsenal Distribution; Supported by Medienboard GmbH
3 / 8
Rasendes Grün mit Pferden ist eine Sammlung kurzer Beobachtungen und Begegnungen, gefilmt zwischen 1999 und 2018 auf Reisen, zu Hause, mit Freund*innen und allein. Es sind private Gesten, die meine Aufmerksamkeit wecken: Anton in seiner Wohnung, Lilian und Nanouk 10 Tage alt, Jóns 94. Geburtstag, Sofia tanzt, Schnee auf Cape Cod, Detel in ihrem Atelier, Franz und Sabrina heiraten, ein Besuch in Detroit, stürmisches Meer in Schwarz-Weiß. Wir sehen die gleichen Menschen in verschiedenen Lebensaltern, als Kind, als Teenager, als junge Frau... manchmal hören wir jemanden sprechen, hören eine Musik oder Stille. Irgendwo mittendrin im Film steht: „A child asleep in its own life“. (Ute Aurand)
Welt-Premiere: Berlinale / Forum Expanded 8.2.2019, Kino Arsenal
Art award - Nominierung, Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019
Rushing Green with Horses is a collection of brief moments, filmed between 1999 and 2018 on journeys, at home, with friends and alone. Private gestures attract my attention, spontaneously filmed beyond narration or documentary: Anton in his apartment, Lilian and Nanouk 10 days old, Jón’s 94th birthday, Sofia dancing, snow at Cape Cod, Detel in her atelier, Franz and Sabrina get married, a trip to Detroit, a stormy sea in black-and-white. We see the same people at various ages, as a child, as a teenager, as a young woman… sometimes hear someone speaking, hear music, or silence. Somewhere in the middle of the film there is a handwritten sentence: “A child asleep in its own life”. (Ute Aurand)
Worldpremiere: Berlinale / Forum Expanded 2/8/19 - Art award nomination, Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019
Intimacy, Distance and Detail in Ute Aurand’s ‘Rasendes Grün mit Pferden’
(‘Rushing Green with Horses’) by Esmé Hogeveen
Watching Ute Aurand’s Rushing Green with Horses is like being spirited sideways into a pastoral. Shot entirely in 16mm with a handheld Bolex camera, the film’s lush observational shots rush, roll, and wash over the viewer. A loose, essayistic kind of film, Rushing Green features footage of the filmmaker’s family life and celebrations, as well as moments of work and travel. (…) Made up of footage collected by Aurand over the last 20 years, Rushing Green conflates and exceeds categories such as ‘experimental’ or ‘diaristic.’ The resulting posy – for Aurand’s film is replete with unkempt beauty – of scenes, images, sounds, and silences is a rich study in atmospheric portraiture and a testament to the value of looking closely. (…) Rushing Green has a [similar] kind of withheld intimacy, full of tender moments that we are welcome to explore – within reason. True to its title, the film’s moods, emotions, and imagery rush by, captured in quick, bird-like edits that simultaneously invite proximity and disavow straightforward interpretation. (...) We do not know the particulars of the occasions, characters, and gestures that Aurand captures, but observe them from the sidelines. This distance could be disorienting in a less carefully constructed picture, but Rushing Green’s hyper-attention to the world asks for a different kind of engagement. Denied full access to Aurand’s life and context, we must independently interpret the sights and scenes presented, creating our own narratives and associations. What this adds up to is a self-reflexive, autonomous viewing experience. Like a magician, Aurand understands that the spectator’s truest pleasure lies somewhere between seeing and understanding, and wisely leaves us wanting more.
Published online in: ANOTHER GAZE, Oct 2019