arsenal on location – Sommerkino: Sweetgrass

silent green presents

The open-air screening of Sweetgrass takes place on the occasion of the exhibition Breathing Matter(s), which shows works by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel in the concrete hall of silent green from 17 July to 24 August. The accompanying programme to the exhibition will include further long and short films from the SEL environment as well as listening sessions, performances, public discussions and workshops.

Sweetgrass (USA 2009) is an early work by the Sensory Ethnography Lab (SEL) at Harvard University, which is headed by Castaing-Taylor and which gained international recognition in the film and art scene at the latest with the film Leviathan (2012) made by him and Véréna Paravel. The SEL stands for a form of cinematic and artistic ethnography that favours sensual, physical experience over linguistic explanation.

Sweetgrass   
Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Ilisa Barbash
USA 2009 engl. OV 109‘
Guest: Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Introductory talk: 9 pm, film starts: 9:30 pm
Moderation: Stefanie Schulte Strathaus

Sheep as far as the eye can see. Anthropologist and filmmaker Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Ilisa Barbash spent three summers in the Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains documenting sheep farming on one of the last family-owned ranches. When a sheep eats, we see and hear the chewing movement and the sheep's bell. When it discovers the camera, its gaze freezes the image, only the wind can still be heard. The original sound contributes to the accuracy of each shot. During the shearing, we can literally feel the shepherd's physical effort and the sheep's dazed state. The arrangement of views in the room analyses the relationship of a newborn to the flock, the mother and the shepherdess. When thousands of sheep walk through a gate or follow the grass trail of a feeding machine, it looks like a mass scene from a monumental film. 

By the time we reach the top of the mountain and the shepherd, suffering from knee pain, calls his mother, our image of the lonely shepherd has to give way to that of the western cowboy. The rough humour between the ranchers as they go about their business of branding the animals also tells a story of free sheep farming in the American West, which began in the 19th century and is slowly coming to an end.

Friday, August 15
Lawn
Start: 9 pm
Tickets

The screening will take place with headphones.
In case of bad weather, the movie nights will take place in the dome hall.

Arsenal on Location is funded by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.