Platform for experimental and anthropological film,
sound, and landscape cinema.
sound, and landscape cinema.
Year round activity
Direct Action
Guillaume Cailleau & Ben Russell
2024, France, 216 minutes, French and Moroccan Arabic, English subtitles
Wednesday 12 February 2025 at WORM Rotterdam
Direct Action by Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell explores collective resistance and ecological activism through the ZAD (Zone to Defend) in Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France. Filmed in 2022-2023, it follows activists and farmers resisting environmental threats, including the 2023 Battle of Sainte-Soline. Shot on Super 16mm with a slow cinema approach influenced by Chantal Akerman and Frederick Wiseman, the film captures the rhythms of communal life.
Landshaft
Daniel Kötter2023, Germany, Armenia, 96 min., English subtitles
Wednesday 2 October 2024 at WORM Rotterdam
In Landshaft, filmmaker Daniel Kötter explores the lingering conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Karabakh region. From Lake Sevan to the Sot gold mine—now occupied by Azerbaijan after the 44-day war in 2020—Kötter travels through a border valley surrounded by mountains. Along the way, he meets people caught in the middle, anxiously witnessing the ongoing power struggle threatening their lives and livelihoods.
Known for his interdisciplinary approach to filmmaking, Daniel Kötter blends documentary and experimental forms to explore landscapes shaped by geopolitical and social tensions. Landshaft brings out the haunting beauty of the region while quietly examining the human cost of ongoing conflict, offering a film that is both visually evocative and reflective of its political context.
Parsi
Eduardo Williams & Mariano Blatt2018, Guinea-Bissau/Argentina/Switzerland, 23 min, English subtitles
Wednesday 2 October 2024 at WORM Rotterdam
Using a 360-degree camera, Parsi features Argentinian poet Mariano Blatt reciting his poem 'No es' ('It isn't') over volatile scenes of Guinea-Bissau filmed by its queer community. The poem's repetitive structure, with each line starting with 'Parece que' ('Seems like'), mirrors the film's continuous movement through everyday life. Rejecting the traditional divide between filmmaker and subject, Parsi offers an immersive exploration of perception, blending poetry and visuals to create a dreamlike portrait of Bissau and its people.
Eduardo Williams is an Argentinian director known for his work in avant-garde and experimental cinema. His recent film trilogy, The Human Surge, was shot in various locations across the globe, employing a fluid mode of observation and shifting between physical and virtual spaces. Uncertainty of unfamiliar contexts and spontaneous connections between people are central to his filmmaking process. Eduardo Williams will be Field Recordings 5 artist in focus!
A nigh of Knowing Nothing
Payal Kapadia2021, France, India, 96 min., English subtitles
sunday 17 april 2022 at WORM Rotterdam
In A night of knowing nothing, nostalgic black and white grainy images of student protests and state oppression linger on the screen. In between socialist chants, a defeaning silence underscores the reading of unsent love letters by L, a student whose lover leaves her to witness the uprise alone, while failing to stand up to his parents who forbid their love due to them belonging to different social classes.
South
Morgan Quiantance2020, UK, 28 minutes, English
20 October 2021 at worm rotterdam
In his short film South, artist and writer Morgan Quaintance traces two anti-racist and anti-authoritarian liberation movements – in South London and Chicago’s South Side. Interlinked with the filmmaker’s own history and biography, South is an expressionistic exploration of what happens when speech is muted, bracketed, and ignored.
Trailer
One Says No
Zhao Dayong
2020, People’s Republic of China, 96 minutes, Mandarin with English subtitles
20 October 2021 at worm rotterdam
The feature documentary One Says No traces the expansions and contractions of gentrificiation and urban development in China's Jilin Province. Chronicling the life of an activist who aims to resist and challenge property developers, filmmaker Zhao Dayong points towards the perflexing power relations between government and citizens. Filmed in the tradition of observational cinema, One Says No is a poignant portrait of a village in flux.
2020, People’s Republic of China, 96 minutes, Mandarin with English subtitles
20 October 2021 at worm rotterdam
The feature documentary One Says No traces the expansions and contractions of gentrificiation and urban development in China's Jilin Province. Chronicling the life of an activist who aims to resist and challenge property developers, filmmaker Zhao Dayong points towards the perflexing power relations between government and citizens. Filmed in the tradition of observational cinema, One Says No is a poignant portrait of a village in flux.