Filmform (est. 1950) is dedicated to preservation, promotion and worldwide distribution of experimental film and video art. Constantly expanding, the distribution catalogue spans from 1924 to the present, including works by Sweden’s most prominent artists and filmmakers, available to rent for public screenings and exhibitions as well as for educational purposes.
Two American women, former classmates Alexis Hall and Hanna Hellsten, meet again after five years for an artist residency at Le Fresnoy in France. They decide to collaborate during their eight-month stay with this test in mind: they will become each other’s double for the entire time creating a lab test, a real psycho game with no end in sight. The result is a mental scramble, lying in ambiguous territory between performance and low-budget drama. Elaborate variations and games upon identity and sexuality take place in a series of individual acts exploring their competitiveness as well as the relationship between the spectator and their on-screen presence, their often provocative and sensual behaviour. For the performances they adopt visual cues from Shakespeare and literature to talk-show drama, bulimic expression to sexual prowess. The result is this 90-minute drama entitled ‘You Look Better Still…’
Screenings include Pumelo Independent Film Festival and the Enoma Mumbai International Film Festival, India; 31st International Film Festival of Rotterdam, Panorama 2, Le Fesnoy, France and the Venice Art Biennale.
Brief Profile of the Directors:
Feelings of tension and rivalry are triggered between Alexis Hall and Hanna Hellsten during their Master of Fine Arts studies at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California. Cause for stress derives from these two young American artist/filmmakers’ work being so similar using the medium of video, photography and writing questioning conventional approaches of identity construction within film history, literature and image-making. They both use themselves as main characters while playing with alternating identities, issues of schizophrenia and private/public intimacy. Each of their work is considered narcissistic and eccentric.
Feelings of tension and rivalry are triggered between Alexis Hall and Hanna Hellsten during their Master of Fine Arts studies at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California. Cause for stress derives from these two young American artist/filmmakers’ work being so similar using the medium of video, photography and writing questioning conventional approaches of identity construction within film history, literature and image-making. They both use themselves as main characters while playing with alternating identities, issues of schizophrenia and private/public intimacy. Each of their work is considered narcissistic and eccentric.
Hanna Hellsten
Born in 1970 in Stockholm, Sweden, where she now lives and works.
Hanna Hellsten is a visual artist working mainly with video and painting, incorporating performance, text and installation in the process. She lived in Los Angeles, California, for 25 years, and has a Master of Fine Art in Film/Video and Painting from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena and a Bachelor of Fine Art in Studio Art and English Literature from Pepperdine University, Malibu. Recent exhibitions, projects and screenings include: feature-length film “You Look Better Still…” during 8-month residency at Le Fresnoy, France with screenings at “Pumelo Independent Film Festival” and the“Enoma Mumbai International Film Festival” in India, ”31st International Film Festival of Rotterdam”, “Panorama 2” at Le Fesnoy in France and the Venice Art Biennale; “’Queen Bee’” at Tyresö Konsthall and Münchenbryggeriet, Stockholm; “’Trash Girl’” on ”Bellissima T.V.,” The Netherlands and at “Test Portal 2003,” Docklands Hall, Amsterdam; and “Gränser: The Transformer” at Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm. Her latest exhibition is at konsthallen Passagen in Linköping https://www.corren.se/kultur-noje/hon-kompromissar-inte-om-konsten-om5857163.aspx
