Blending animation, performance art, cinematic tricks, and surreal narratives, this program of 15 films and videos by British artist Matt Hulse confront contemporary absurdities with playful good humor. The guest in Hotel Central (2000), who seems to go on imaginative trips far from his hotel, encounters a phone receiver that lifts itself into the air. In the computer animated The Plot (2002) the camera assumes the point of view of “a security guard on night shift,” who shines his spotlight around empty houses to create paranoid, horror-movie echoes. There’s an appealing, nostalgic humanism to Loslassen! (2002), in which Dresden residents are shown displaying in reverse motion 45-rpm singles made by East German labels as we hear musical selections from each—testimony to diverse tastes. 68 min.
