Sports can be challenging, scary, even dangerous – and yet, some people actually enjoy the physical activity. This programme attempts to illuminate the phenomenon of sports in all its facets. What is going on in the minds of people engaged in sports? Why do humans practice sports in the first place? And does it really provide the expected balance in life? This is by no means an anti-sports programme but rather an homage to the absurdity of sports.
Recommended dress code: tracksuit.
Viagra Boys – Sports
Simon Jung / Sweden 2018 / 4'9" / colour / English / Clip
Sports, Sports, Sports, Sports.
Kleingolf
Marvin Meckes / Switzerland 2018 / 22'58" / DCP / colour / Swiss German / Doc
What others do for fun is serious business for them: a small community from across the country gathers at the mini-golf course in Amriswil to determine the Swiss champion. Among them is young, ambitious Maja as well as old, seasoned mini-golfer Jörg. The competition for a place on the podium requires both steady nerves and the right equipment.
Kúpele Central
Sabine Maier / Slovakia/Austria 2004 / 4'36" / 16mm / colour / no dialogue / Exp
The inspiration for this film came from a postcard found in an antique store in Bratislava and the discovery of an abandoned, formerly communist swimming pool. The initially playful, associative approach to the images – synchronized movements, colourful costumes, the aesthetics of the space – eventually leads to a deeper, more serious exploration.
Backflip
Nikita Diakur / Germany/France 2022 / 12'15" / DCP / colour/black & white / English / Ani/Exp
Park. Apartment. 6-core processor. My avatar learns a backflip.
Fit mit Jack
Switzerland 1976 / colour / Swiss German / Doc
Movement on the big screen, straight from the SRF archives. Jack Günthard, Olympic champion and the nation's top gymnast, encouraged a whole generation to move more in his morning show. In this episode: «jazz gymnastics» with Damaso and two ladies.
Adalamadrina
Carlota Oms / Spain 2018 / 9'22" / DCP / colour / Spanish / Fic
Ada is a 24 year old Youtuber who claims to be an expert in sex and love online. In real life, she not only lacks confidence and relationships, she also struggles to even speak to her gym trainer, who she is madly in love with. Everything will change if she can get him to do the unimaginable: suck her tits and – why not – deflower her as well.
Hot Chicken
Iain Bonner / Australia 2014 / 13'53" / DCP / colour / English / Fic
A man eats cheap chicken and drinks a cheap drink in a cheap house. He busies himself with chores, keeping the loneliness at bay. This order is disturbed by a door-to-door electricity salesman who also moonlights in another kind of energy, the aerobics kind. The film descends into a joyful and garish take on a cult for spiritual betterment, where the man's loneliness and desperation are put to the test.
Body-Building Exercise
Maggie Menghan Chen / China 2020 / 4'36" / DCP / colour / no dialogue / Exp
Incorporating elements of hiphop, vogue, and metal dance, «Body-Building Exercise» was streamed on social media at the beginning of global quarantine as a response to contemporary body culture, performativity, and spirituality under the guise of potentially viral digital content.