Catalogue > At random

In an initially deserted room objects slowly begin to move; they are manipulated from the off-screen space, being pulled and dragged by strings, cables or the carpet. Thus a ‘ghostly’ choreography emerges, with the objects taking on a life of their own, vanishing and reappearing. The control of these processes from the off-screen is made visible, by showing the strings attached to the objects as well as parts of the acting persons on the edge of the frame. This is accompanied by superimposed subtitles, which consist of a collage of existing film dialogue: Lines from the sub-genre of ‘gaslighting’ films are combined, taking the eponymous Gaslight (1944) as a starting point. A text assemblage on seduction and betrayal unfolds. At the same time the ambient lighting of the room gradually becomes increasingly colored, reaching an almost excessive saturation point as off- and on-screen space become reversed and a muffled pop music penetrates the room. A kind of karaoke video comes into being with the music – like many elements of the film – taking on the notion of a copy of something vaguely familiar.

Benjamin Ramírez Pérez, born in Hutthurm, Germany. Lives and works in Cologne. Studied at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne from 2009–2015. His works have been screened at Locarno, Edinburgh and Toronto International Film Festival, among others. In 2013, he was awarded the Prize of the German Federal Association of Film Journalists for Best Experimental Short. In 2015, he received the Chargesheimer Scholarship for Media Arts by the City of Cologne.