Special Mention for Ivan Faktor’s Pain at 70th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
The experimental documentary short directed by multimedia artist Ivan Faktor, who passed away in November of last year, receives a Special Mention screening in competition at the 70th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. The award was accepted by the film’s producer Jelena Duh and editor Damir Čučić.
“We wish to pay our respect and tribute to Ivan Faktor for his extraordinary concluding project, and also thank the filmmakers who brought back to life and edited this footage and now made it available to the Oberhausen community”, said the jury statement.
The experimental documentary short Pain was presented at Oberhausen by the film’s producer Jelena Duh and image and sound editor Damir Čučić.
“Even now that he is no longer with us, this award proves that Ivan Faktor was a great filmmaker who always succeeded in teaching us how to live for film until one’s last breath”, said Damir Čučić on the occasion.
The anniversary edition of the festival boasting the oldest short film competition in the world, is held in Oberhausen, 1st – 6th May, while its various competition programmes offered the visitors a chance to see 117 films from 36 countries.
Pain had its world premiere earlier this year, at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.
After receiving his diagnosis and battling the initial fear of illness progression, Ivan Faktor decided to visualise his condition living with Parkinson’s disease using the camera on his phone. After 50 years of filmmaking, his passion for art and life remained unwavering. He films himself, his wife, their back yard, the street, his studio, and most of all, the light installations at his home. Faktor captures the everyday, but disrupts the daily structure by intervening in reality with light attractions or optical obstacles such as his own trembling fingers. Through interventions into documentary situations, he creates a captivating inner world of an artist confined in space.
Faktor wrote, directed and shot the film. Sound and image editing was done by Damir Čučić. Assistant editor was Marta Bregeš, while assistant cinematographer was Aleksandar Muharemović. Marinko Marinkić was in charge of image post-production, while sound design and re-recording mixing was done by Krešimir Šušljek. The film’s producer is Jelena Duh, for production company “Sve gore i gore”.
Cover photograph: Jelena Duh and Damir Čučić; audience at ISFF Oberhausen