SIRENS
Writer & Director: Ilaria Di Carlo
Produced by Schuldenberg Films in co-production with Paradies Works & LHOOQ Films
13 Minutes / Experimental Documentary / Germany, Italy 2022
Arri Digital / Colour / 2.35:1 / Stereo & 5.1 / no dialogue
SYNOPSIS
Monolithic power plants; billowing columns of smoke; the backdrop of a red sun. Sirens is an experimental short documentary that captures Germany’s coal-fired power plants in their final years of generating energy. Shot entirely from helicopters, the film takes us on a journey through industrial wastelands, thus recalling the passage of Ulysses’ boat through the Sirens’ strait. An odyssey through the dystopian industrial world that has left a permanent mark on earth’s ecosphere.
CREDITS
Writer & Director: Ilaria Di Carlo
Producers: Sophie Ahrens, Fabian Altenried, Kristof Gerega
Co-Producers: Caroline Kox, Antonio De Luca, Ilaria Di Carlo
Music: Demetrio Castellucci
Film Editor: Sofia Angelina Machado
Director of Photography. Francisco Mece
Aerial Cinematographer: Christian Wiege, HD Skycam
Aerial Unit Technician: Oliver Ward
Pilot NRW: KMN Helicopter, Torben Koopmann
Pilot Brandenburg – Saxony: Aeroheli International, Dirk Franzke
Line Producer: Fabian Altenried
Dramaturg: Marko Milosavljevi
Production Manager: Marlene Götz
Production Assistant: Julia Franke
Location Scout: Charlotte Reibell
Drivers: Oona von Maydell, Selma Gültoprak
Postproduction Supervisor & DIT: Ethan Folk
VFX & Title Design: Sascha Töpfer
Image Postproduction: Volte Films
Colorist : Sergi Sánchez Rodriguez
Sound Supervisor: Antonio de Luca
Re-Recording Mixer & Sound Editor: Ricardo Murga
Funded by
Federal Government Commissioner for Culture & the Media (BKM), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (MBB), Film- und Medienstiftung NRW & German Federal Film Board (FFA)
AWARDS
Best Short Film – 40. Torino Film Festival, Italy
Grand Prix – 27. Split Film Festival, Split, Croatia
Wagnis Prize – 22. Flensburg Short Film Festival, Germany
Short Film Award, 21. NaturVision Film Festival, Germany
Jury Special Mention – 45. Drama Int. Short Film Festival, Drama, Greece
Honorable Mention, 23. Landshut Short Film Festival, Germany
FESTIVAL HISTORY
Clermont Ferrand Int. Short Film Festival, France (Market Screening)
Filmfest Dresden, Germany
Torino Film Festival, Italy
Drama Int. Short Film Festival, Greece
Montreal Festival of New Cinema, Quebec, Canada
Split Film Festival, Split, Croatia,
International Short Film Festival of Cyprus
Visioni Italiane, Cineteca Bologna, Italy
Filmets Badalona Film Festival, Spain
Short Film Festival Cologne, Germany
Braunschweig International Film Festival, Germany
Beirut Shorts Int. Film Festival, Lebanon
Filmkunstfest MV, Schwerin, Germany
Flensburg Kurzfilmtage, Germany
Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Germany
Int. Regensburg Short Film Week, Germany
Ismailia Int. Short & Documentary Film Festival, Egypt
Landshut Short Film Festival, Germany
REGARD – Festival International du court métrage de Saguenay, Canada
Ecological Film Festival Zagreb, Croatia
International short film festival 2ANNAS, Riga, Latvia
Akbank Sanat Short Film Festival, Turkey
Neisse Film Festival, Germany
Werkleitz Festival Mein Schatz/My Precious, Germany
Asolo Art Film Festival, Italy
In The Palace Int. Short Film Festival, Bulgaria
Aigio Film Festival Theo Angelopoulos, Greece
NaturVision Film Festival, Germany
OpenEyes Film Festival, Germany
Festival Inventa un Film, Italy
PROYECTOR Video Art Festival, Spain
Concorto Film Festival, Italy
Filmfest Weiterstadt, Germany
Int. New Media Art Festival Videomedeja, Serbia
Labour Film Festival, Italy
Filmfestival Münster, Germany
Ibrida Media Art Festival, Italy
Blicke Ruhrgebiet Film Festival, Germany
Corto Dorico Film Festival, Italy
Lublin Film Festival, Poland
Festival CinemaZero, Italy
Brno16 Film Festival, Czech Republic
Videobardo Poetry Film festival, Argentina
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Sirens is a continuation of my artistic research on documenting architecture and landscapes employed in the construction of narratives. The film is a poetic attempt to reinterpret myth in our modern times. Aerial imagery of Germany’s industrial wastelands and their mesmerizing smoke and steam emissions show how the world dies in front of the lenses. As sirens in Greek mythology, who lured sailors to destruction by the sweetness of their song, mastodons of smoke are seen as an embodiment of the ideals of industrial revolution, the age in which the promise of better living standards lurked humanity to depletion of natural resources, air and water pollution. The term “siren” is used both in ancient mythology and in contemporary language, to describe something that is simultaneously dangerous and fascinating. Such an aesthetic experience is also referred to as sublime, which has gradually shifted from nature to technology, having the sense of awe and terror been transferred to factories, war machines and wastelands. While technology is an expression of the grandeur of the human intellect, we experience it more and more as a force that controls and threatens us. Technologies such as power stations and factories reflect our hope for the benefits they may bring as well as our fear of their uncontrollable, destructive potentials. Industrial landscapes are potent expressions of the unsustainable practices of the global economy that hold the sublime experience.