Andrea Gatopoulos: Digital Prophecies
He started out as an editor and cinematographer but eventually began working as a director, producer, distributor, and teacher. He is just 31 years old, but Andrea Gatopoulos is clearly one of the most active figures in the European film industry today. He studied modern literature in Rome and learned about film at workshops given by leading international directors such as Radu Jude, Werner Herzog, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. His projects, which stand out for their unusual poetics and explore the mysterious and often gloomy corners of virtual reality, are frequently characterized by a sense of existential angst or a critique of progressivism. At the same time, they demonstrate new models of cinematic production – efficient, low-budget, and freed from traditional models of financing.
The block of selected films presents the many different roles Andrea Gatopoulos plays, including three examples of his work as director. Happy New Year, Jim (2022), a finely sketched depiction of digital isolation, was the first film set in the world of computer games to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Eschaton Ad, shown a year later at Locarno, plays cleverly with the viewer’s mind as it announces the apocalyptic new era of artificial intelligence. The Eggregores’ Theory, which was shown at the Venice Film Festival, takes place in a dystopian future and uses a black-and-white AI aesthetic to tell an intimate love story set in a world where art has been outlawed.
Complementing this colorful selection of films are two others, Homunculus and The Most Beautiful Man in the World, that were made thanks to Gatopoulos’s Nouvelle Bug avant-garde film workshop. And the final film is The Lost Memories of Trees, a contemplative work shot in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, on which Gatopoulos was involved as producer.
On Friday, 27 February at 11:30am in Světozor’s Small Hall, Andrea Gatopoulos will hold a practical master class on alternative approaches and tools in the areas of film development, financing, production, and distribution.
