The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum in Istanbul and Marseille

With the reopening of venues, a backlog of unfulfilled UNIVERSAL EAR bookings is unleashed.

To be precise, two (2) screenings of the latest episode, The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum, will take place next weekend. One in Istanbul, Turkey, and the other in Marseille, France.

EVENT: UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum at Istanbul International Experimental Film Festival

PROGRAM: Competition: Fresh Air 2

WHERE: Pera Museum, Asmalı Mescit, Meşrutiyet Cd. No:65, 34430 Beyoğlu/İstanbul, Turkey

WHEN: Friday 19th November, 2021, 14:00

COST: 25 TL/10 TL

EVENT: UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum at 4th Marseille Underground Film & Music Festival

PROGRAM: Fréquences visuelles

WHERE: Videodrome 2, 49 Cr Julien, 13006 Marseille, France

WHEN: Sunday 21st November, 2021, 19:00

COST: Free with €5 membership to Videodrome 2 cinematheque.

NOTES: Facebook Event

Letters from the Ends of the World in Sarajevo

Mr Cole has contributed a cinematic letter from quarantine to a new omnibus feature film from the Bistrik7 collective - and it will premiere as it opens the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Sarajevo is a particularly beloved city to the filmmakers of Bistrik7, as they are united in having graduated as the first generation from Béla Tarr's film.factory in that very city. Mr Cole has also had the pleasure and the privilege of screening It's Nick's Birthday and Amateri at the festival in previous years.

Mr Cole will be in town to present the movie with his colleagues on the opening night.

The film is called Letters from the Ends of the World.

EVENT: Letters from the Ends of the World at 27th Sarajevo Film Festival.

PROGRAM: Special Screening (Opening Night Film)

WHERE: Summer Screen, Hamdije Kreševljakovića, Sarajevo 71000, Bosnia & Herzegovina

WHEN: Friday 13th August, 2021, 21:15

COST: 9.00 KM

NOTES: Opening night film. Four filmmakers in attendance, including Mr Cole.

Additional screenings:

WHERE: Meeting Point, Hamdije Kreševljakovića 13, Sarajevo 71000, Bosnia & Herzegovina

WHEN: Sunday 15th August, 2021, 15:00

COST: 6.50 KM, 7.50 KM, 10.00 KM

WHERE: Cineplexx Sarajevo 1, Zmaja od Bosne 4, Sarajevo 71000, Bosnia & Herzegovina

WHEN: Thursday 19th August, 2021, 12:30

COST: 7.00 KM, 8.00 KM

The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum in Niš

The most recent UNIVERSAL EAR episode to be resuscitated will breathe again in Niš, Serbia, this weekend. The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum won a hastily-invented audience award at the Kinoskop Festival of Analogue Experimental Film in 2019, and is playing in a special 'best of' reconstruction at a real in-person event some 250km to the north-east of the original screening venue.

EVENT: UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum at Niš Cultural Centre

PROGRAM: Kinoskop: Apsurd, pank & subverzije (Absurd, Punks & Subversives)

WHERE: Niški kulturni centar, Small Hall, Stanoja Bunuševca, 18000 Niš, Serbia

WHEN: Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th June, 2021

COST: Enquire at venue

NOTES: Please refer to Kinoskop's Facebook presence for further information & updates.

Epizoda ? in a virtual Mayfield

Our daft orphan episode of an unfound cop show Epizoda ? is playing as part of Slow Film Festival's online retrospective for 24 hours, until noon tomorrow. The film originally played as part of Mr Cole's exhibition/sideshow during the 2018 edition of this splendid event. Anyway, hurry! The clock is already ticking!

Here's the link --> https://slowfilmfestival.com/epizoda

If it doesn't work, you've missed the SFF boat - but a standard web search should find you an alternative viewing platform.

"Mr Graeme Cole has cornered the cardboard market of sublime lo-fi effulgence: his films are forever falling apart. And as they crumble so do the conventions and aspirations of all of the rest of cinema. Epizoda ? (please observe that untethered question mark) is as destructive as the rest of his oeuvre."

The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum briefly available to watch online

Our fine colleagues and overlords at the Bandits-Mages organisation have seen fit to make an online copy of UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum available as a salve for the general public during the coronavirus lockdown. It will be public for just two weeks. One of those weeks has already passed. The video is posted below this text; if you can't see it there, you've missed the boat.

At the same time, the good people at the Moving Image Artists organisation have included UNIVERSAL EAR: A Flea Orchestra In Your Ear in their online MIA Screens series. It features a new written introduction by Mr Cole.

These events coincide with the ten year anniversary of the first production of UNIVERSAL EAR in May 2010.

Two Bosnian films, Murmurs and Epizoda ?, now online

The online availability of two of the Institute's Bosnian-made pictures has shifted dramatically in the past few weeks.

Epizoda ? can now be watched for free on Vimeo. This absurdist detective show pilot was written and directed by Graeme Cole at Béla Tarr's film.factory, and was previously available for VoD on Tao Films, an art film and 'slow cinema' platform, which is currently enjoying a creative pause.

Murmurs is available online for the first time, to rent or buy on Vimeo On Demand. The ASMR-tinged experimental feature film was also written and directed by Mr Cole at film.factory, and just like Epizoda ?, features Elma Selman in a leading role. The male lead is the Institute's regular player, Stewart Lockwood.

Epizoda ?

Video | 39'09" | BiH/UK | 2016
Cast
Vladimir Kajević
Elma Selman

A TV detective who's lost the plot drives aimlessly around the city. Negotiating time and space seem achievable next to solving a murder in a factory, the only witness a robot with the ability to get under the skin with its only two programmed lines: “That interests me” and “What are you afraid of?”

Murmurs

Video | 72'42" | BiH/UK | 2015-2020
Cast
Elma Selman
Stewart Lockwood

Hana is an ASMR artist, creating intimate videos for millions of online followers – and she hasn’t left her house for 18 months. Ed is a remote security image analyst, and Hana’s first online hook-up. When Ed arrives at Hana’s home, they begin to nurture an awkward togetherness. But for these lonely weirdos, building trust might take more than endless days of cooking and fucking.

The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum & From The Ground To The Stars in Dhaka

UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum will finally get out of Europe for a screening at the International Short & Independent Film Festival in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Institute's friend and colleague Ghazi Alqudcy will present his experiences at Béla Tarr's film.factory along with a program of films from Bistrik7, the artist collective formed by the school's first generation of graduates. Along with Curse, Mr Cole has contributed From The Ground To The Stars - his episode of film.factory's Lost In Bosnia omnibus feature.

EVENT: UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum and From The Ground To The Stars at International Short & Independent Film Festival in Dhaka
PROGRAM: Introduction of film.factory  + Film Screening

WHERE: Central Public Library, Dhaka, Bangladesh

WHEN: Sunday 8th December, 2019, 15.00

COST: FREE

The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum

From The Ground To The Stars

The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum in Belgrade

UNIVERSAL EAR:The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum will make its next festival appearance at the inaugural and - if we might - in-AWE-gural Kinoskop Festival of Analogue Experimental Film in Belgrade, Serbia, this weekend. The ethos and programming looks astonishing, and promises:

shades of mysticism and psychodrama of Maya Deren, dealing with esoteric "thingamijigs" and alchemy of Kenneth Anger, magically mundane secret diaries of Jonas Mekas, but rest assured this will be no sheer nostalgia trip... Selection will show documentaries on subjects which haven't been touched upon in the history of cinema and witness peculiar deconstructions of sci-fi and horror genre through the creative lens and poetics of experimental film, take a trip inside nocturnal visions of the non-human world, oneirically sabotage H/B/ollywood on our found footage safari and take on you on a rollercoaster ride in the realms of non-commercial, non-compromising, personal cinema.

Sadly, the Institute will not have any agents in town for the festival, but we truly hope it thrives so that we can attend and imbibe the visual broth in future years.

EVENT: UNIVERSAL EAR: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum at Kinoskop 1st International Festival of Analogue Experimental Cinema and Audio-visual Performance
PROGRAM: Selection IV : Film Deconstruction

WHERE: Kvaka 22, Ruzveltova 39, Belgrade, Serbia

WHEN: Saturday 30th November, 2019, 20.00

COST: FREE