Cinema is based on the premise that we accept the fake as real. The six short films in this programme force us to shift perspective. They don’t show the world as it is. Instead, they demonstrate how images shape the world into what we believe to be true. To enjoy We Think Cinema, we encourage viewers to look closely and think twice.

The Film You Are About to See
Maxime Martinot / France 2023 / 10'45" / colour/black & white / English / Exp/Doc
Please note that the film you are about to see is made with real material taken from film history, namely the disclaimers and warnings that frame the existence of many films. However, any collusion between art and industry, any conflict of interest between creative freedom and the law, or any hint of moralism on the life of images is purely incidental and unintentional.

Indefinite Pitch
James N. Kienitz Wilkins / USA 2016 / 23'18" / black & white / English / Doc/Exp
A pathetic pitch for a movie set in Berlin slips into the murkiness of memory, and histories best forgotten or purposely ignored.

Ciel Dégagé 3/10ème
Jérôme Cognet/Karen Luong / France 2018 / 6'6" / DCP / colour/black & white / French / Exp
This film is composed of photographic flashes from filmic works and refers to the idea of projection, both in the cinematographic sense and in its most devastating form: the nuclear bomb. The title refers to the words of Major Claude Eatherly, chief pilot of a weather reconnaissance aircraft, the B-29 Superfortress «Straight Flush», which flew over Hiroshima on 6 August 6 1945. Eatherly sends Paul Tibbets, pilot of the «Enola Gay» carrying the atomic bomb to be dropped on one of three Japanese cities (Hiroshima, Kokura, Nagasaki), a weather message indicating «Cloud cover less than 3/10 at all altitudes». In other words, the weather conditions are largely favourable for dropping the atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.

The Girl Chewing Gum
John Smith / United Kingdom 1976 / 12' / black & white / English / Doc/Exp
In «The Girl Chewing Gum», a commanding voice-over appears to direct the action in a busy London street. As the instructions become more absurd and fantasized, we realize that the supposed director (not the shot) is fictional; he only describes – rather than prescribes – the events that take place before him.

Hacked Circuit
Deborah Stratman / USA 2014 / 15'8" / colour / English / Doc/Exp
Multiple layers of fabrication and imposition are laid bare by this fluidly choreographed, single-shot embodiment of control. Sonic surveillance meets the black art of foley.

People on Sunday
Tulapop Saenjaroen / Thailand 2020 / 20'53" / colour / Thai / Exp/Fic
«People on Sunday» (2020) is a reinterpretation, response, and homage to the 1930 German silent film «Menschen am Sonntag». However, this response comes from a different context, a different country, a different era, and different working conditions. It tells episodic stories of moving-image workers who are employed in the same performance-art video project about free time.