HDK-Valand's master's program in film develops the ability to create an independent and exploratory film practice. Here, the student is encouraged to engage critically in society through their work and create a socially and politically aware attitude to the film's possibilities.
The program promotes an interdisciplinary dialogue and collegial learning with students from different backgrounds, where they receive support from experienced teachers and technical expertise. The students are in the process of making the films, after which the audience is invited to shape the conversation and give feedback. The conversation is also based on what the students themselves would like to explore through experimental methods and artistic questions in relation to their cinematic choices.
PROGRAM
Monday 23 February
13.30 – 14.10
Mellan Rullar, (Between Scrolls), Hugo Melin (film 12 min)
Through a surreal dialogue with an algorithmic entity and intimate interviews with children, a filmmaker examines screen addiction, AI, and critical thinking. Moving between digital and physical realities, the film presents fragments of a generation raised within algorithmic environments, leaving questions of agency, presence, and dependence unresolved.
14.15 – 14.55
Bröd men också rosor, (Bread, but also roses), Petter Olofsson (film 17 min)
In a world of drastic technological change, our nostalgic projection of the countryside becomes a comforting refuge. Yet beneath the dream well’s surface, labor persists, answering contemporary demands. The countryside bears two weights—horizontal and vertical, spiritual and material. Bread, but also roses.
Tuesday 24 februari
13.30 – 14.10
Ausencias (Absences), Laia Ricart (film 17 min)
As birds migrate North to South, a filmmaker follows them back to her home to uncover the life and memories of her mother’s brother whose death had been kept silenced for long.
14.15 – 14.55
Erosion, Remembered, Diego Abbati (film 17 min)
As the shoreline erodes, so do the memories it carries. Through Hanlan’s Point Beach, one of the world’s oldest queer spaces, the filmmaker traces an intergenerational legacy of joy, longing, and collective memory.
15.00 – 15.40
Palm Architecture, Pau Vall Capdet (17 min)
Palm trees are everywhere. They have become icons of a globalist holiday paradise. But, what if they collapsed? A tourist guide explains how humans have developed synthetic plants, while a botanist is on a mission to save the last known reservoir of living palms.
Wednesday 25 February
12.30- 13.30
Otherworldly, Laura Kristine Graham Anderson (film 17 min)
Otherworldly is a poetic essay film, which conveys the strange and synchronistic experience of receiving signs from the afterlife. Told through personal stories, symbolic imagery, and performance.
18.00-19.00
Mini Lizard, Leo Palmestål (film 13 min)
Effective. To the point. Completes the mission.
