Filmmakers Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi create a stylized, surreal portrait of life in the Balkans in the ’20s, ’30s, and ’40s in this feature. In Inventario Balcanico, Gianikian and Lucchi manipulate found footage through slow-motion re-photography and selective framing of the image, while using new music by Djivan Gasparyan to create a heightened sense of mood and meaning that renders different sequences as joyous, ominous, or tragic. Inventario Balcanico was screened as part of the “Balkan Survey” series at the 2000 Thessaloniki Film Festival. —Mark Deming, Rovi
Angela Ricci Lucchi & Yervant Gianikian (Lugo di Romagna, Italy, 1942 / Merano, Italy, 1942) both live in Milan. Angela Ricci Lucchi, who trained as a painter, and Yervant Gianikian, who trained as an architect, have been working together as filmmakers since the 1970s. Their productions are the result of a special treatment of old nitrate film material. Following extensive archival research, the chosen film fragments are subjected to coloring, a re-editing of the sequences, and changes in velocity. After these changes, the films offer a clearer insight into the leading interests of the artists: technicalization, fascism, colonialism, war, and forced migration. —Witte de With
Angela Ricci Lucchi & Yervant Gianikian (Lugo di Romagna, Italy, 1942 / Merano, Italy, 1942) both live in Milan. Angela Ricci Lucchi, who trained as a painter, and Yervant Gianikian, who trained as an architect, have been working together as filmmakers since the 1970s. Their productions are the result of a special treatment of old nitrate film material. Following extensive archival research, the chosen film fragments are subjected to coloring, a re-editing of the sequences, and changes in velocity. After these changes, the films offer a clearer insight into the leading interests of the artists: technicalization, fascism, colonialism, war, and forced migration. —Witte de With
