SELECTION: Deborah S. Phillips

The Selection section is a curated showcase of artists or collectives from both the Czech Republic and abroad, presenting a mosaic of approaches to experimentation in filmmaking. As a non-competitive section, it features the artists or collectives through masterclasses, retrospective screenings, or site-specific film projections.

Film performance and 16 mm screening

Deborah S. Phillips is a German visual artist and experimental filmmaker who has been working primarily with analog film, particularly 16 mm, since the 1990s. Her practice includes collage, slide work, drawing, handmade books, and performative projections using both slides and film. She was a member of the artist collective Laboratorium (1988–2001) and co-founded the Berlin-based gallery Kunstverein Neukölln in 2007. Her films have been screened at international festivals such as TIFF (Toronto), the Fajr International Film Festival (Tehran), and at Anthology Film Archives in New York. She is currently a member of the analog film lab LaborBerlin.

Phillips is known for her use of both recorded and live-performed sound during screenings. She often collaborates with artists who are attuned to both the visual and sonic dimensions of film, and her approach to sound is based on improvisation, gestures, and visual associations. Her performative work frequently involves audience participation—either through live sound creation or assistance with projection.

As part of this program, Phillips will present two live 16 mm film performances—Chin-Chin and Berliner Gewässer—and screen four standalone 16 mm films: Im Grünen Bereich, 1014, PFFFHP TT!, and NOOR.