Julia Schmitz

A film that charts the creation of a series of new artworks by Fine Artist Luisa-Maria MacCormack (founder of the Big Art Herstory Project bigartherstoryproject.com). The large-scale drawings are inspired by the works of Artemisia Gentileschi, and the process of creating them is closely collaborative, with Artist and model being equally engaged and vital in the works from beginning to end.

In Come Here Come Here, dat zijn titel ontleent aan de vingertechniek om een g-spot-orgasme te bereiken, neemt Julia Schmitz je mee op een ontdekkingsreis door de vele theorieën en beelden over vrouwelijk seksueel genot, een razend populair onderwerp; er bestaan velen workshops over clitoriskunst en vrouwelijke ejaculatie. Maar hoe navigeer je door deze stromen van informatie die allemaal verschillende waarheden presenteren? Als poëtisch manifest voor een meervoudig begrip van vrouwelijke seksualiteit, verweeft deze associatieve film de kennis van experts en seksuologen met de eigen fantasieën, herinneringen en verwarringen van de regisseur: door wie wordt seksuele kennis geproduceerd? Hoe kan men het onzichtbare representeren? Hoe de binnenkant naar buiten te brengen?

Come Here Come Here in the form of an installation resulted in a two channeled work; this graphic version of the film screened on a television placed in a corner of an empty, clinical room. Playing with the notion of linearity, space and time, in the second space the original film is screened in a cinema set up. The graphic version refers to socio-medical illustrations and models of sexuality and the orgasm; how can lines and graphs represent pleasure? Their playful movements literally visualise the forms and shapes in the film based on their luma levels. It aims to challenge visualizations in both the documentary genre as in the topic of sexuality.

An exploration of the video essay in its form that playfully unfolds questions around the performativity of reflexivity and the relationship between filmmakers and their truthfulness towards representing reality.

In the 1920’s, the surrealist Breton set up conversation sessions to investigate sex, with the aim to establish “objective” facts of love. Merely two women participated in just a few sessions, in which they mostly asked questions. The men had clear ideas about for example the female orgasm and even gave percentages and numbers for several cases. This reassemblage of found footage plays with the male gaze, by switching roles around.

Tropical Fish in the North Sea is an interactive documentary film installation that questions the intertwinement of fiction and reality in the medium of truth; the documentary film. The spatial setup and headphones with switchable audio channels give one a hint of the power of editing. One gets transported to the lives of people from Generation Y, who flounder with ‘finding a passion’, ‘success’ and the ‘paradox of choice’. Their lives often seem to have a certain unbearable lightness that contains no clear narrative; all is fragmented. Present-day reality already has a parallel media existence, creating friction between real and fake. TFitNS plays with the fictional within the real and vice versa, both in the medium itself as in its subject: the performativity of my generation.

Originally a 5 channel video installation, this edit is made for single screen viewings. Graduation Festival, Royal Academy of Arts 2017 Tropical Fish in the North Sea is an interactive documentary film installation that questions the intertwinement of fiction and reality in the medium of truth; the documentary film. The spatial setup and headphones with switchable audio channels give one a hint of the power of editing. One gets transported to the lives of people from Generation Y, who flounder with ‘finding a passion’, ‘success’ and the ‘paradox of choice’. Their lives often seem to have a certain unbearable lightness that contains no clear narrative; all is fragmented. Present-day reality already has a parallel media existence, creating friction between real and fake. TFitNS plays with the fictional within the real and vice versa, both in the medium itself as in its subject: the performativity of my generation.

A 'city symphony' shot in The Hague, with secretly recorded dialogues.

Visuele test gemaakt met archiefmateriaal. Dit project ontwikkel ik momenteel bij het traject REFRESH van Beeld en Geluid Instituut. Logline: In een wereld gevuld met fallische symboliek waarin de penis een voor de hand liggend fenomeen lijkt, vormt deze film zich als een zoektocht door persoonlijke ervaringen, medische- en historische theorieën, mythes en beelden, en vraagt zich af: wat weten we nou eigenlijk echt over dit eigenaardige lichaamsdeel? Wie produceert seksuele kennis en hoe beïnvloedt dat onze beeldvorming en daarmee ervaringen?