The 12th annual international Impakt Festival for innovative audiovisual arts was held from October 2 to 7, 2001, in the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, The Netherlands. A video of highlights of this festival include works of rising stars in the worlds of fine arts and film, and prize-winning artists such as Annika Larsson and Miranda July. The program combines aesthetic visualizations of the human condition, investigations in innovative narration, Freud, family life and subversions of mass media.

Lasso, Salla Tykkä (Finland 2000, 4min)

A short movie about dramatic puppy love, or the beauty of a limber boy's body. About desire, being young and how a whole range of emotions can be evoked without words.

Getting Stronger Every Day, Miranda July (USA 2001, 6min)

An alienating video that deals with the scary thought of not taking part in society any longer. The feeling of not belonging and not fitting in, becoming estranged from daily life.

15.000.000 parachutes, Sebastian Diaz Morales (The Netherlands 2001, 25min)

"15.000.000 parachutes" is a story both inside and outside the frames of what we understand as real. 15.000.000 refers to the number of inhabitants in Jakarta, Indonesia. One parachutist attempted various jumps from the national monument of Jakarta.

Candide, John Davis (USA 2001, 9min)

A stream of TV images leads the viewer of this video to a state of superficial awareness of reality. Sounds from cartoons are heard with these TV shots through which even the most shocking images become surreal. Where is the line between fiction and reality?

PDOA public display of affection, Guillaume Graux (Belgium 2000, 24min)

In this video people meet, make love and read books in the midst of endless supermarket shelves. Graux shows us an absurd society in which people are very intimate with each other in public, yet at the same time they never really seem to connect. As closed entities they move through endless vacuums.

Cigar, Annika Larsson (Sweden 1999, 7min)

An elderly businessman offers a cigar to another man, who could be his younger protégé. The significant part this cigar plays in the typical business like environment is blown up to indecent proportions. This particular portrayal of the cigar evokes speculations on all details of the behaviour of the two.

Recruitment Video, Ann Course and Paul Clark (UK 2000, 3min)

A video filled with Freud, family life, sexual lust, mass production of babies and parents depicted as sharks or sexmachines. All this supported by the thrilling music of an old punk hit.

Special Report, Bryan Boyce (USA 1999, 4min)

With some subtle cutting and pasting, Boyce unmasks TV hosts as maniacs eager for power and sex, who use electronic hypnosis to lead the entire world population into slavery.

If you would like to screen the 'Impakt Festival 2001 Highlights' please contact:

Arjon Dunnewind, arjon@impakt.nl, tel + 31 30 2944493

Impakt Festival, PO Box 735, 3500 AS Utrecht, The Netherlands, to arrange for rental. Fees from the rental will be shared among participating artists.