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
Jury Special Mention – 45. Drama Int. Short Film Festival, Drama, Greece
Wagnis Prize – 22. Flensburg Short Film Festival, Germany
Grand Prix – 27. Split Film Festival, Split, Croatia
FESTIVAL
48th Clermont Ferrand Int. Short Film Festival, Clermont Ferrand, France
34th Filmfest Dresden, Dresden, Germany
45th Drama Int. Short Film Festival, Jury Special Mention, Drama, Greece
31st Filmkunstfest MV, Schwerin, Germany
27th Split International Festival of New Cinema, Split, Croatia
51st Montreal Festival of New Cinema, Montreal, Quebec
12th International Short Film Festival of Cyprus, Cyprus
48th FILMETS Badalona Film Festival, Barcelona, Spain
16th Short Film Festival Cologne, Cologne, Germany
36th Braunschweig International Film Festival, Braunschweig, Germany
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.