Meet the curators of Go Short 2023

Aleksandra Skowronska

Even though machine learning is a rapidly developing phenomenon, algorithmic-driven reality still has its limits. With her film selection, Skowronska wants to delve deeper into the world of Humancore, that which is most human in the inhuman world. Despite a number of attempts, it’s what cannot be outsourced, mediatized, algorithmized, automated. It is the essence of humanity in a post-human, post-technological, post-capitalist world.

Aleksandra Skowronska is a PhD student at the Department of Theater and Media Arts at UAM Poznan working on a dissertation on technological art, social imaginaries and media infrastructures. As a Tech/Art/Culture publicist, researcher, curator and communication strategist, she’s a Jack of all trades. She’s also a member of the Humanity, Art and Technology Research Center and Pawilon’s cultural programmer. Last but not least, she’s a scholarship holder at the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sports (2021) of Poland.

Jori(k) Amit Galama

“In my film program, I would like to focus on shorts that tell the small and big stories of bodies and desires that fall outside of ‘normality’ (or are even deemed disposable), who fight extractivist politics, care for their communities and ecosystems, and – maybe most importantly – celebrate their belonging as part of nature.”

Jori(k) Amit Galama (1992) moves between literature, fine arts, and documentary film. After studying philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and Image and Language at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, they were selected for the Slow Writing Lab. In 2021 they finished their master’s in Artistic Research in and through Cinema at the Netherlands Film Academy (with distinction). Their fiction stories and art criticism have been published in De Revisor, Kluger Hans, Tirade, Tubelight, and Metropolis M, as well as in various artists’ publications. In 2022 they won the jury prize from the Flemish-Dutch erotic writing competition Het Rode Oor. They are currently working on two feature documentaries.

Aderinsola Ajao

A selection of films based around contemporary filmmakers and how they approach the notion of masks and masquerades (traditional totems and ancestral spirits that are common in African tradition, as well as in other traditions around the world), bringing them into the mainstream and making them relatable to newer, metropolitan audiences. That’s the gem that Ajao will bring to the table. The story idea will focus on masquerade manifestations across the digital and physical divides, including masks as a metaphor for migrant-diasporic experiences, and new roles for masks and masquerades in a digital world.

Aderinsola Ajao is an arts manager and journalist based in Lagos, Nigeria. Her work cuts across the creative and cultural industries, and her writing has appeared in publications including Chimurenga, Africiné, Awotele, The Notebook, Glänta, The Sun, La Furia Umana and The Hollywood Reporter. She was previously Program Officer at Goethe-Institut Nigeria, and is currently Regional Program Manager for West/Central Africa at the Johannesburg office of Pro Helvetia: the Swiss Arts Council. Aderinsola has participated in the Fespaco/Africiné Critics’ Workshop; the Berlinale and Durban Talents Press; CICAE’s Arthouse Cinema Management Workshop, and the Southern Africa – Locarno Industry Academy. She was on film juries at DOK Leipzig, Márgenes Film Festival, Film Africa, and CPH:DOX. Aderinsola is also the founder and curator of Screen Out Loud, an independent cinema program, organized in partnership with Alliance Française Lagos.

Anna Kryvenko

Kryvenko lives in Prague, but she’s originally from Ukraine. As Ukrainian, it may not be a surprise that her incentive to create a film program is the war in Ukraine, more specifically the information war that has unleashed since the war of the Donbass in 2014. Film archives with war material from today are increasingly different than those from past modern wars. In her film program, she’ll walk a fine line between valid video content that serves the truth and video content that’s being used for manipulative purposes, addressing the fragility of our memories and the importance of documentation, that crosses generations. She hopes to discover the visionary dimension of art through retrospective orientation.

Anna Kryvenko (Ukraine) is a visual artist and film director. She’s a graduate of the Centre for Audio-visual Studies at Film and TV School (FAMU, Prague). Her films were screened at Dok Leipzig, ZagrebDox, Visions du Reel and Ji-hlava IDFF. She participated in several group and solo exhibitions, for example Subversive Tactics at Czech Center NY (USA). Her film Listen to the Horizon won the prize for Best Czech Experimental Documentary, Jihlava IDFF (CZ). Her first feature documentary film My Unknown Soldier won the Last Stop Trieste Award, Special Mention at Zagreb Dox and the Prize of Andrej Stankovič. Her newest feature work in progress project Sun of the Living Dead was presented at Marche Du Film by Cannes Film Festival 2020. During Other Vision Competition at 2021 and 2022 (PAF, Czech Republic), her newest 2 short films Class of Collective Loneliness and Easier than you think were finalists. She made a curators program of Ukrainian experimental films at Marienbad Film Festival 2021 and was a participant at Sarajevo and Berlinale Talents programs.

Kyllian Opdam

The internet as an additional parent. That’s what Opdam’s been fascinated about. Ever since he was thirteen years old, he received his very first pc with an internet connection. Even with a parental control program, he was still able to find the anarchistic cookbook where he learned how to create his own bomb and he played violent videogames. Now he’s older, he questions whether this freedom, resulting in a kind of Pandora’s Box, was something good in the end.

Curator Kyllian Opdam (1999) likes to dig deep into the depths of the internet for the weird and beautiful shorts. High or low brow it doesn’t really matter. Growing up he watched a healthy dose of Villa Achterwerk (with the likes of Purno de Purno or Ffukkie Slim) and the films of Monty Python. Currently, he’s in his last year of a four years’ Bachelor of Education in theatre in Leeuwarden. He likes to explore different ways of telling stories, whether it’s through theatre or film. His previous experience as a curator was with the Huiskamer Filmfestival in Leeuwarden, where he made a program to comfort people in these trying times. This time he’s inspired by the internet as an additional parent. When he’s not curating, he likes to watch films, read or make theatre.

Joanna Baranowska

The film selection of Baranowska shows her search for the prototype of a weapon of mass healing. “Wars will come to an end, patriarchy and capitalism are bound to collapse,” she says. “Humans and non-humans will survive the apocalypse, we always do. Therefore we shouldn’t only diagnose diseases or analyze means of revolutions. We desperately need to think about what’s next. Fantasies are the weapon of mass healing.”

Joanna Baranowska (1981) holds a degree in theatre studies and studied Slavic Philology, Philosophy and Physiotherapy as a student of Psychology. She’s a member of the International Competition Selection Committee of Short Waves Festival and an intern Psychology at Substance Abuse Treatment Center in Warsaw. Baranowska created and coordinated numerous multidisciplinary international art projects and collaborations with Goethe-Institut and Malta Poznan. She has worked as a creative producer, casting director, editor of humanities publications, anti-discrimination and LGBTQIA+ script consultant/script doctor. Currently, she carries out a study on radicalism as a psychological phenomenon.

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