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Caroline Schwarz is a media artist, interested in the border between art and fiction-film. She works mostly as a director and editor, but additionally writes, illustrates and animates.

 

Carolines short films have travelled over 70 Film Festivals and won several awards.

 

From 2017 to 2021 she studied at the KHM in Cologne. Her graduation film 'Banana Island' premiered at the 'Hofer Filmtage' film festival.

In 2022, Caroline was the Artistic Director for the project 'Wer ist uns?' - an interactive film experience for the 'digital stage' of the theatre 'Theater an der Ruhr', funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation in Germany.

 

In addition to her own artistic practice, Caroline makes films for television, clients and teaches theatre and media-workshops across several age-groups.

FESTIVALS

Selection 2017-2022

Filmfest Dresden (Ger)

Internationale Hofer Filmtage (Ger)
Interfilm Berlin (Ger)

Videoformes 2022 - Digital Arts | Festival , Clermont Ferrand, (FRA)
Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival (USA)
Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, (UK)
STIFF Seattle Transmedia & Independent Film Festival, Seatlle (USA)
Filmfestival Osnabrück (Ger)
Bamberger Kurzfilmtage (Ger)
Independent Days – Internationale Filmfestspiele Karlsruhe (Ger)
Internationale Kurzfilmtage Regensburg (Ger)
19. CELLU L‘ART KURZFILMFESTIVAL Jena (Ger)
Working Title Film Festival, Vicenza (Italy)
Motionartfilmfestival Schwerte (Ger)
New Renaissance Film Festival, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
15. Neiße Filmfestival (Ger)
Color-Tape Australia Filmfestival Brisbane (Australia)
Yale Student Film Festival (USA)
Nordic Youth Film Festival Tromso (Norway)
12. Fünf Seen Filmfestival, Starnberg, (Ger)
Camp/2 Festival für Künstlerischen Film und Performance (Ger)
AMARCORD Chicago Arthouse Television and Video Festival (USA)
Huesca International Film Festival (Spain)
Transilvania Shorts International Short Film Festival, Sibiu, (Romania)
Visionär Film Festival, Berlin (Ger)
Kurzfilmfestival Göttingen (Ger)
49th Humboldt international Film Festival (USA)
BLOW-UP · Chicago International Arthouse FILM FEST (USA)
Second Asia International (Wenzhou) Youth Short-Film Exhibition (China)

BUCHAREST SHORT FILM FESTIVAL (Romania)
Filmkreis Shorts (Ger)
Festival Internationale Cinema d‘Arte (Italy)
Arc filmfestival, Mainz, (Ger)
Werkstatt der jungen Filmszene Wiesbaden (Ger)
Berlin Experimental Film Festival (Ger)
15th FILM SHARING - FESTIVAL TOUR 2018 - Stuttgart & Heilbronn, (Ger)

Victoria TX Independent Film Festival (Texas, USA)
Moosburger Kurzfilmnacht (Ger)
18th LA.MEKO - INT’L SHORT FILM FESTIVAL (Ger)
Short-to-the-point Film Festival (Romania)
Brazilian International Labour Film Festival / Mostra CineTrabalho - Marília, (Brazil)

STATEMENT

I define my work as „narrative experimental film“. My films have a narrative, but the narrative always unfolds through a visual-associative stream, not through the story. The origin of my work is always the image. If I have an idea, it's always an image. And in the first stages of a project I rarely translate anything in to words.

If you ask filmmakers, why they want to make films, they often aswer: 'Because I want to tell stories'. That has always confused me. To me, that is not the essence of the medium. I would answer: Because I want to create experiences. I believe in the strength of stylized images and that they are needed to create visceral experiences. We have so many images sourrounding us in our time, but because of that, we grow blind to them. The constant stream of naturalistic images, makes them inflationary and hard to differentiate.

I think we need the reinforcement of reality instead of naturalism, to feel reality. For that, I believe we need artificial imagery in films, to experience the genuine within them.

The question of how to realize stylized pictures with film is what drives me. It is my main topic of research when I am working. Realizing over 30 Testshoots, to shoot a film completely under water. Building an Island of 1200 Bananas. Learning how Latex works as a material on film. Or working with Uv-Lighting, to re-invent a narrative space. The perception of space is currently of great interest to me. Wherever film wants to be, you need light and wherever light is, the space withn it becomes apparent. With UV light I have the analogue possibility to start with a „Nothing“ space. Through UV-Light only set objects (which are uv-active) are visible. Everything else becomes undefined black endlessness. Instead of a 3-dimensinal space, I can start with a 2-dimensionale surface and build my intention of a space from scratch.

I am interested in researching the medium film itself and to create artificial worlds, that have never been seen before. For my films, I work with lighting, laborious sets, research of material and mixtures between live-action shooting and digital reinforcement.
My artificial spaces are meant to unsettle the audience in their orientation. Within these settings, I am interested in the tension between individuals and bigger relations. In paticular, the western Individual in relationship to the world community. My work is critically looking at the capitalistic system and narrative and through that touches personal, cultural and political themes.

AWARDS

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