30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

Italian premiere

A film about monsters without monsters, in the words of the directors themselves, A Demonstration starts from the fascination for the taxonomic exploits of Renaissance naturalists, who are at the heart of modern European science. Catalogs of monsters now definitively relegated to the realm of the imagination and the unreal, or rather absorbed and defused by the rational gaze that we cast on the natural world around us. Yet the word "monster" comes from the Latin "monstrare" - show, reveal, demonstrate - and reminds us of how short the distance is between a scientific view and a fantastic view. Taking up the challenge of interpreting that gaze today, Litvintseva and Wagner construct a narrative that unfolds through images, juxtaposing naturalistic exploration, iconographic research and digital metamorphosis, creating a fertile short circuit of the eye.

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  Sasha Litvintseva

  Artist, filmmaker and researcher, Sasha Litvintseva was born in Russia in 1989 and earned a degree in London in media and film directing. A Demonstration was presented at the Berlinale 2020, as was her earlier short film, Asbestos (2017)

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  Beny Wagner

  Born in Berlin in 1985, Beny Wagner is an artist, writer and director. His works have been shown at various festivals, including the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. With Sasha Litvintseva he also made Bilateralia (2019).