In the wide range of Contrasto publications, recently it has released two documentary films dedicated to photographers Antoine D’Agata and Martin Parr.
THE CAMBODIAN ROOM SITUATIONS WITH ANTOINE D’AGATA
The Cambodian Room is a film on Antoine D’Agata directed by Giuseppe Schillaci and Tommaso Lusena de Sarmiento. In Cambodia D’Agata spends many weeks locked in Lee’s room. This narrow room set in the cty of Phom Penh is the center of the film, everything happens around this space. Antoine lives a kind of desperate and paradoxal «love story» with Lee, a prostitute, smoking dope and trying to take pictures of his intimate relationship with her. This film catches the hidden part of the photographer’s art-life; his choice of living sex and drugs as both cure and conviction. For Tommaso Lusena de Sarmiento and Giuseppe Schillaci the goal was to bring the film to life with the images of the photographer, to strike the right balance between subject and narration, the right scope to tackle someone like him. For Antoine D’Agata ‘The end of the end is here’ in Cambodia. He has travelled so far in his life but now it seems to travel towards himself in a search for the extreme. In this closed room there is no place for moralism and judgement, no time, just slow gestures and real situations between two people. “A man and a woman in a room in Phnom Penh. It could just be something infinitely banal and of no particular interest. This is partly the case, but this closed space bring an intensity, in the snatches of spoken exchanges, with few words exchanged, in the flow of immeasurable loving tenderness.” Christian Caujolle
The Cambodian Room is an Italian French co-production: Downtown Pictures and Kolam Production.
It received three awards at CINEMA DOC, the first Italian circuit for documetary film: CINECITTA’ LUCE PRIZE for BEST FILM AAMOD PRIZE for the BEST EDITING AUGUSTUS COLOR PRIZE for the BEST PHOTOGRAPHY
The film is accompanied with notes by Christian Caujolle, Tommaso Lusena de Sarmiento and Giuseppe Schillaci.
DVD 55 min. + extras slideshow of 40 photographs
Subtitles: English, French, Italian
http//www.contrastobooks.com
http://www.cambodianroom.net
HOT SPOTS: MARTIN PARR IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH
The documentary Hot Spots: Martin Parr in the American South examines the photography of Magnum’s most controversial and prolific member as he gathers images for his first commission by a major American art museum, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Documentary filmmaker Neal Broffman turns his lens on Parr while the photographer focuses on Atlanta. So it begins at the Cactus Car Wash on Ponce de Leon Avenue in a frantic rush of wash, dry, polish and chrome brightness.
Martin Parr is out of the car, the camera flashes away. He strikes up a conversation with one of the washers about tips from customers. So begins his first day in Atlanta. From the first click at the car wash to the Atlanta Steeple Chase, to the doggy daycare, to gallery soirées and tattooed partiers at the Drive Invasion Parr moves across the Atlanta landscape as he likes to do. His journey is guided by humor and instinct (with some help from the locals). The film features interviews with Susan Meiselas, Philip Gefter, Julian Cox and John Gossage. Hot Spots shows us Martin Parr at his best.
Hot Spots: Martin Parr in the American South is produced by One Production Place in collaboration with Contrasto and Fall Line Press.
The film is distributed by F-Stop Films.
