Zachariah 9:9 Christian vs Jewish interpretation

Today is Palm Sunday. 

Today is Palm Sunday, a day that historically marks the humble entry of the King of Peace into Jerusalem. Yet today, Israel is shrouded in the darkness of war. The sacred sites, usually echoing with the footsteps of pilgrims, stand silent and closed.

Zechariah 9:9 is a pivotal Messianic prophecy in the Hebrew Bible that describes the humble arrival of a righteous king to Jerusalem. It is most famous for its New Testament fulfillment during Jesus' "Triumphal Entry" into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  

Interpretations

Christian Interpretation: Viewed as a direct prophecy of Jesus Christ. Matthew (21:4–5) and John (12:14–15) explicitly quote this verse to explain why Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem.

It highlights the "already but not yet" nature of his kingdom: he has come in humility (v. 9), but his universal reign of peace (v. 10) is still anticipated.

Jewish Interpretation: Traditionally understood as referring to the Messiah ben David. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 98a) notes that if Israel is worthy, the Messiah will come with the "clouds of heaven," but if unworthy, he comes "lowly and riding upon a donkey".

Some modern Jewish critiques argue the prophecy remains unfulfilled because universal world peace has not yet been established

Sefaria 

Zechariah 9:9 / זכריה ט׳:ט׳

גִּילִ֨י מְאֹ֜ד בַּת־צִיּ֗וֹן הָרִ֙יעִי֙ בַּת־יְרוּשָׁלִַ֔ם הִנֵּ֤ה מַלְכֵּךְ֙ יָ֣בוֹא לָ֔ךְ צַדִּ֥יק וְנוֹשָׁ֖ע ה֑וּא עָנִי֙ וְרֹכֵ֣ב עַל־חֲמ֔וֹר וְעַל־עֳַיִר בֶּן־אֲתֹנֽוֹ׃

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy king cometh unto thee; he is triumphant, and victorious, lowly, and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal of a she-ass.

In the Sefaria system (and the JPS translation it uses), the term "she-ass" is the formal equivalent for a "jenny" (a female donkey), while "ayir" is translated as "colt" or "jackass" (a young male donkey).

Rashi’s Commentary on Zachariah 9:9

גילי מאד. א"א לפתור המקרא הזה אלא על מלך 

המשיח שנאמר ומשלו מים עד ים ולא מצינו מושל כזה בישראל בימי בית שני:

Rejoice greatly. It is impossible to interpret this verse except as referring to the Messianic King, for it is said: "And his dominion shall be from sea to sea," and we do not find such a ruler in Israel during the days of the Second Temple.

עני ורוכב על חמור. ממדת ענוה:

Lowly and riding upon an ass. Out of a sense of humility.

New testament  

The Gospel of Matthew (21:1–7)

The Gospel of John (12:12–16)

The Coming King of Zion

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

       A Vision of Compassion on Palm Sunday

This stillness brings me back to last September, just before the High Holy Days, when I had the opportunity to be in Jerusalem. On the Mount of Olives, within the quiet garden of Dominus Flevit (the place where "The Lord Wept"), I filmed a brief, 10-minute experimental piece, directing my camera toward the Old City.

During post-production, something extraordinary emerged from the raw footage. On the low concrete wall, a downward-looking male face became visible. Above it, the jagged lines of barbed wire rested like a symbolic crown of thorns. As the setting sun hit the lens, a flare of light cut across the face, shimmering like a trail of falling rain or tears.

Psychology might label this phenomenon pareidolia, the mind’s tendency to find familiar patterns in random shapes. But from a spiritual perspective, I see it as an apparition, a manifestation that transcends any single religious label.

Whether it is Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Brahmism, the Krishna consciousness, or Islam, the core remains the same: the search for truth, the necessity of compassion, and the practice of good deeds (mitzvot). Every faith carries its own thread of mysticism, reminding us that even in times of conflict, there is a spiritual presence watching over our collective sorrow.

13th One Take Film Festival Zagreb

Good news from Zagreb, Croatia!

My short experimental unspoken film UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING will be screened in a special program outside competition highlighting the use of still frame in one single take films at 13th One Take Film Festival in Zagreb, Croatia. 

The film was previously screened in 2020 at Experimental Forum in Los Angeles.

Screening: October 13, 2023 to Sunday, October 15, 2023

Download the program from here (details about my film is on Page 81.)

Lily Boy is nominated to Special Jury Awards at 2023 Cefalù Film Festival

Good news from Cefalù, Sicily, Italy!

My short experimental unspoken film Lily Boy will be screened and also nominated to Special Jury Awards at 2023 Cefalù Film Festival. "This is the remastered version thanks to Lajos Polecsák and Chris Allan Tod hard work on post-production. 

Screening: September 1st, 2023.

Excerpts from my contemplative cinema

After 5 + years being represented on Vimeo I decided to remove most of my short films from the platform. I created a demo reel to cinephiles keen to my experimental unspoken cinema, slow cinema. My films will be available soon for both individuals and institutions, festival screenings, public programs, exhibitions, museums and galleries and also for educational purpose. A few of my short films are also available on YouTube . 

The Gardener (trailer)

Click here to wach the trailer of my first feature length micro budget contemplative avant-garde fiction film.

The film was entirely shot on shoestring budget and took place on and off for a period of 2 years. As well as in my experimental one take short films, I only used extreme long static shots and let the unpredictable occasions happen on outdoor locations. Working without actors, extras, lack of financials, professional equipment, etc... didn't stop me to continue or give up the project, instead encouraged to use the extended, almost limitless time to develop and frame the storyline.  The nearly silent film "home movie" is an experimentation, just like Chantal Akerman's earliest cinema, though here, diegetic outside the frame "off screen" sounds and dialogues are also key elements of the story telling. 

Story line: a middle age expatriate man working as a gardener for wealthy local families to support his own family somewhere in South East Asia, but one day, everything change.

Music: Kai Engel https:// www. kai-engel. com

My latest sacred paintings ; Surrealist automatism

Three of my latest acrylic paints "Messiah"; "Via Dolorosa" and God or YHWH "יהוה" or "השם‎‎" (Hashem -The Name) .First time I used gold color.

Messiah

Via Dolorosa 

God

Surrealist Automatism, Synchronicity, Faith, Universe, God and much more

Those who have been following my work for a longer time know that I have been creating contemplative, experimental avant-garde films for years. For more than a decade, I also worked as a documentary photographer, and I experimented extensively with low-light photography, even using my mobile phone. At the beginning of this year, an inner impulse led me toward new artistic forms. Without any formal training or prior experience, I began to paint.

I do not follow conventional, academic painting methods. I do not possess the technical talent required for classical portraiture, still life, or landscape painting, and this was never my intention. I paint in the same way I create my contemplative films: free from dogma, minimal in tools, guided by intuition, and attuned to the rhythms of the unconscious and the Universe.

When I make films, I first allow instinct to guide me toward locations. Observation follows. There is no prewritten script. The process is based on synchronization: when the moment arrives, filming begins naturally. 

My painting process follows a similar principle, with one important difference. Before painting, I practice a meditative yogic breathing technique (alternate nostril breathing) mixed zen meditation techniques accompanied by a short prayer in Hebrew, intended to establish a connection with the eternal Universe.

Only later did I realize that this approach corresponds to what art history describes as Surrealist automatism a method of accessing the subconscious directly. Artists such as André Masson, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Jean Arp, André Breton, and Freddy Flores Knistoff explored similar processes.

The results surprised me. Manifestations of the subconscious began to appear on paper in abstract form. The painting titled “Christ” is the only one I named and only after it was completed. It was created on acrylic painting paper rather than canvas. 

After breathing, prayer, and meditation, I asked a single question:

“Who are you? Reveal yourself.”

What followed was an intense, almost ecstatic act of painting, using only my hands. The colors were chosen randomly. 

The outcome was both astonishing and unsettling: the image of a suffering Christ emerged a head portrait on the cross, slightly turned to the right, with a crown of thorns. 

Although I am not Christian and do not believe that Yeshua bar Yosef “Jesus, son of Joseph” was bodily elevated to heaven as God’s only son, the figure was unmistakably recognizable to me.

A few months later, I painted a female portrait that can be interpreted as Mary, positioned symbolically above the “Christ” painting.

The works are palm-sized and require slow, patient observation to reveal their details  inch by inch, millimeter by millimeter. For those lacking patience, a subtle guide may help: the woman’s face appears in the corner of the composition. She holds her child with her left hand. The child’s head appears disproportionately large, even slightly Asian in appearance, while the mother’s face carries European features and a pale complexion.

Reading Isaiah chapter 53  whether in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) or in the Christian Old Testament continues to raise unresolved questions. Does the “Suffering Servant” represent the Jewish nation, as Orthodox rabbinic tradition teaches, or does it refer to a messianic prophecy fulfilled in Jesus, as Christian theology claims?

Personally, I find myself closer to the interpretations of James D. Tabor, whose book The Jesus Dynasty offers valuable insight into first-century Judaism, the apocalyptic movements surrounding John the Baptist and Jesus, early Christianity, and the archaeological findings associated with the Talpiot tomb.

All four paintings “Mary with the Buddha-faced baby Jesus,” “Christ,” “John the Baptist,” and the most recent “Abraham” were created using the same method.

In my daily life, I frequently experience synchronicities: repeating numbers on clocks, mirrored or reversed digits, and moments when words I am reading are spoken aloud simultaneously on television. I also observe cloud formations that resemble angels, infant faces, human or animal figures, sometimes photographing them with my phone. 

Psychology and neuroscience would likely describe these phenomena as pareidolia or visual projection. I do not reject this explanation outright. However, I believe that human perception is not merely a biological mechanism but also a conscious and emotional participation. Not everyone sees the same things, nor perceives them in the same way.

It is important to clarify that, in my view, the Shroud of Turin is a human-made artifact. I do not consider it acheiropoieton not an image created without human hands, nor the result of a supernatural process. This position does not diminish its historical or cultural significance; rather, it shifts the focus toward the creative, symbolic, and meaning-making capacities of human consciousness.

I approach cloud formations in a similar way. I do not claim they are supernatural in origin, yet I believe they become “readable” only to those who devote time, attention, and inner stillness to observation. Some things remain invisible to the eye, yet perceptible to the heart.

I believe in God as the Creator of the Universe, or as the Universe itself as a creative, conscious principle: breathing, hearing, healing, creating, and protecting. One does not need to be religious to experience wonder. Empathy, patience, honesty, respect, and the recognition of human dignity are sufficient foundations. Charity, kindness, and constructive thinking are essential elements in shaping a better world. Meditation, stillness, breathing techniques, qigong, tai chi, yoga, or prayer can all serve as bridges if practiced with understanding.

It is not the mind that should rule the heart, but the heart that must guide the mind. The mind is merely an antenna a transmitter between ourselves and the Universe. We are capable of manifesting both constructive and destructive realities, but the world can only become a better place if the majority aligns toward creation rather than destruction.

We are all familiar with the Ten Commandments a set of moral imperatives given to Moses on Mount Sinai. But what if these principles resonate with quantum reality more deeply than we assume? Quantum theory relies on probability; religion relies on faith. Perhaps they are not opposites.

I am not the one to prove or disprove the existence of God. Yet I ask: could the voice that spoke to Moses  “I am that I am”  be the same living, breathing, hearing, healing Universe itself?

Is time truly real, or merely an illusion? Is it a dimension? Are human beings fundamentally composed of energy?

Perhaps science and spirituality meet precisely where questions matter more than answers.

  (Jerusalem AD 70)

(Mary and the Buddha faced baby Jesus)

(Christ)

(John the Baptist )

(Abraham)

(Moses)

"Enlarge and observe the photos below. 

None of them were manipulated, only a bit color corrected the tone and increased the contrast " 

The face of a child, etc...

The face

The face (picture enlarged below)

Enlarge the upper left side of this picture. 

You will recognize the image zoomed above.

The face

Enlarge the upper cloud on this picture. 

You will recognize the image zoomed above.

looks like 2 early human or prehistoric man face. 

Enlarge the darker part at the middle of this picture.

You will recognize the image zoomed above.

Left profile picture of God

 and the Son of Man on his left side

Surrealist automatism is a method of art-making in which the artist suppresses conscious control over the making process, allowing the unconscious mind to have great sway. Early 20th-century Dadaists, such as Hans Arp, made some use of this method through chance operations. Surrealist artists, most notably André Masson, adapted to art the automatic writing method of André Breton and Philippe Soupault who composed with it Les Champs Magnétiques (The Magnetic Fields) in 1919.[1] The Automatic Message (1933) was one of Breton's significant theoretical works about automatism.

Automatic drawing and painting

Automatic drawing was pioneered by the English artist Austin Osman Spare who wrote a chapter, Automatic Drawing as a Means to Art, in his book, The Book of Pleasure (1913). Other artists who also practised automatic drawing were Hilma af Klint, André Masson, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Jean Arp, André Breton and Freddy Flores Knistoff.

The technique of automatic drawing was transferred to painting (as seen in Miró's paintings which often started out as automatic drawings), and has been adapted to other media; there have even been automatic "drawings" in computer graphics. Pablo Picasso was also thought to have expressed a type of automatic drawing in his later work, and particularly in his etchings and lithographic suites of the 1960s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealist_automatism

Tracce dell’Irrapresentabile: due corti di Janos Kis

I just found a great analysis about two of my contemplative Experimental Holocaust short film in Italian. Unfortunately there's no author  has mentioned on the page. One of the film is "Fear" the other one is "Requiem for the forgotten".

If you don't speak Italian I suggest to use Google translator. Taofilms Vod sadly is not available anymore, but you can watch both films on Vimeo free of charge. The Italian critic mentioning the Oscar Winning Son of Shaul, Laszlo Nemes masterpiece and highlighted, in spite of we're using different filmmaking language both films are paying respect and tribute to the Shoah.

I copy here the Google rough English translation, though if you speak Italian I suggest you to CLICK Here 


The English title translation would've been something like "Tracing the unpresentable by Janos Kis 
__________________________________________________________________________________

                  

In the third part of his short Three essays on the image , entitled The interdict image , Jean-Luc Nancyhe deals with a theme that characterized the aesthetic discussion of the second half of the last century: "with regard to the representation of the camps or the Shoah, the thesis circulates, not well defined, but insistent, that one cannot or should not represent extermination". It is (va) a theme with unclear reasons. What is the nature of this interdiction? There is talk of "an impossibility or an illegitimacy?" In the first case, what would make this representation impossible? “It certainly cannot be thought of as a technical question”; "Does it perhaps depend on the unsustainable nature of what must be represented?" But Nancy objects to this same assumption, bringing as examples numerous artistic cases in which something terribly horrendous (such as, for example, the "horrors of war painted by Goya" or the "scenes of wounds and atrocious deaths in many films"). “If, on the other hand, it is a question of illegitimacy, it refers to a religious ban, which is evoked out of its context, without justifying this shift in any way. There is then a shift in this prohibition, which concerns God first, to the person of the exterminated Jews (and then to that of the other victims) ”. But, the French philosopher explains later, " to the person of the exterminated Jews (and then to that of the other victims) ”. But, the French philosopher explains later, " to the person of the exterminated Jews (and then to that of the other victims) ”. But, the French philosopher explains later, "the representation is not a simulacrum: it is not the substitution of the original thing - in truth, it does not refer to a thing: it is the presentation of what is not reduced to a given and completed presence (or given as completed), or it is the placing in the presence of an intelligible reality (or form) through the formal mediation of a sensitive reality ". In the representation of horror, therefore, whatever the nature of the imposed ban, there is no form of disrespect, which seems to me to be the true root of this unrepresentability. According to this thesis, the Holocaust must not be shown because it would be, in short, a reduction of its dramatic, tragic and horrific significance.


However, there are artists who have been able to represent this Unrapresentable without diminishing it but, on the contrary, paying due respect and tribute to what it was. The best example, in my opinion, is The Son of Saul by László Nemes (in this regard, I refer to the reading of this wonderful article in Il Tempo Impresso ) but there are also other authors who, with different tools and methods, have been able to recall the 'Irrepresentable without falling into vulgar spectacularization or trivialization (both usually endowed with a sometimes irritating pathetism, as in the case of La vita è bella by Roberto Benigni , or in the novel by John Boynefirst and in the respective adaptation by Mark Herman then The boy in the striped pajamas ). This is the case of another Hungarian author, a photojournalist and director of short films called Janos Kis who in 2017 shot two shorts that do not show the Irrapresentabile, do not reproduce it, do not represent it but instead show the traces left. From it. In Fear and Requiem for the forgotten (both available on the streaming platform dedicated to slow cinema Tao Films ), in fact, we do not see events, we do not see actions: we only see the footprints of history, remains of the past.


In Fear, specifically, we see three shots that portray, as will be explained by the credits, the crematoria of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz-Birkenau, of which another area is also shown. Requiem for the forgotten (in the opening credits presented with an error like “Requiem for the forgottens”), on the other hand, shows shoes without owners, scattered in disorder on the bank of the Danube, which crosses Budapest. In about 24 minutes overall (just under 10 Fear, 14 Requiem), Kis evokes, through images that reject any form of cinematographic tinsel, a past that is now seen as distant, disconnected from our present.. Our present is here, nearby, where we are; the Shoah belongs to another universe, to another time, another reality. However, the four sequence shots that make up the two films show how that other reality, that other universe, that other time are just behind us, tremendously present, tremendously real.


Fear, in particular, the strongest and most interesting of the two works, directly portraying those places, now in ruins, abandoned to the care of tourism and nature, places the viewer in front of the undeniable truth. Not representing the Irrepresentable, Kis delegates this atrocious task to the public, forced by that silent stillness that has now replaced the hopeless moans of the Häftlinge (prisoners) the furious cries of the Kapos and the SS to rebuild or, at least, to try to reconstruct the hell that those places represented for millions of people, those places from which "one only leaves the Camino", according to a sad catchphrase, a very adequate term, that Primo Levi (locked up in Auschwitz, by Monowitz) recalls in If This Is a Man. And the viewer sees those fireplaces, sees them as they are now, at rest, out of service, oblivious to their infamous, chilling, disgusting function. Forget, because inanimate matter has no memory. Man, on the other hand, this mass of living matter, has memory, unfortunately and, at the same time, fortunately. Not only of what he experienced in the first person but also of what in front of his eyes and mind was shown in the third. Those chimneys, today, no longer free the Häftlinge from their imprisonment of the flesh but, in our eyes, they continue to do so. Those structures, which have no longer become places of torture and endless suffering but tourist attractions(in the first shot of Fear, in the background, behind a small elevation of the ground, we can glimpse the heads of a group that is visiting the camp), they continue to torture and cause endless suffering, because this is the reason why they were born . They do it through memory, through that Irrepresentable that re-emerges from the past in presentations , more often with trivializing works such as Life is Beautiful, very rarely with the chilling force of The Son of Saul (whose stories narrated , although slightly different, can also be found in Levi's The Drowned and Saved ).

Silence, both in Fear and in Requiem for the forgotten, does not reveal itself only as human stillness, as the absence of words. Silence speaks the language of the wind, which is a constant spectator of human tragedy. In both shorts, in fact, the spectator's ear is constantly accompanied by the gentle but insistent breath of the wind, which whispers its eternal memory to the spectator: it is up to the latter, finally, to listen to its voice, to decipher the madness of that History that he has never been able to know firsthand, the unimaginable tragedy of those stories that he has never been able to live and which are now forgotten by man, guarded only by the noisy, heavy and intrusive silence of the wind. Those shoes in front of which the water of the Danube flows placid and indifferent may not belong to the same universe,

Thus, Kis proposes with these two short films an alternative solution to the representation of the Irrapresentabile, different but, basically, not as distant as it might appear from the one presented by Laszlo Nemes in The Son of Saul. As illustrated by Mattia Fiorinoin the article on the blog Il Tempo Impresso, Nemes chooses to “focus on the eyes of her only protagonist and put the rest out of focus”, an option that seems to be the only possible solution to the problem of the unrepresentability of the Holocaust. Kis, on the other hand, bypasses this obstacle by not showing a representation of the Shoah but by portraying it, in the case of Fear, or by reconstructing its traces in Requiem for the Forgotten. The two Hungarian directors resort to an almost antithetical approach: if in the case of the Oscar-winning director, in fact, we witness a re-elaboration, albeit always kept in the background, of those traumatic and atrocious events, Janos Kis does not re-elaborate anything, he simply documents, he draws from present to recall the past, where the former drew from the past itself. Both, however, entrust the spectator with the arduous and thankless task of reconstructing the horrors that are suggested, unrepresented or relegated to where they cannot really harm: “the off-screen is filled and created by the beholder”.

Finally, it is precisely in this that the unrepresentability of the Irrapresentable, of the Holocaust (and of God, if we agree with the shift highlighted by Nancy) lies hidden. Not so much in a moral question, in a form of respect for the victims, famous or forgotten they are, but rather in our need not to look, not to remember, to protect ourselves from that unsustainable horror; the Irrepresentable is such not out of nobility but out of cowardice , not out of ethical and respectful altruism but out of selfishness.

Film festival screenings postponed

As a result of the covid-19 Pandemic, 9 month after the Los Angeles based film festival, Experimental Forum announced to postpone the screenings, today the 9th International Video Poetry Festival in Athens Greece did the same. I totally agree with their decision and hope both of my films The Unbearable Lightness of being and Sunday of Zen will be screened this year and get some publicity.

Namaste

Sunday of Zen Official Selection for the 9th International Video Poetry Festival 2021 in Athens

I'm so honored to announce that my experimental short film "Sunday of Zen" is part of the Official Selection for the 9th International Video Poetry Festival. Screening be held on March 2021 in Athens, Greece.

MUBI

There is a page on MUBI with some of my films mentioned like The Bay, Under the burning sun, Fear, Unbearable lightness of being and Colors of the wind. At this moment these films are only populates already famous acclaimed directors masterpieces but I truly hope that one day my avantgarde slow cinema will be available on this platform as well. 

Click her to take a look on my MUBI page

Lily Boy has remastered

 

The good news: my film "Lily Boy" remastered version has done, thanks to Lajos Polecsak and Chris Allan Tod. 

Under The Burning Sun an homage to Bela Tarr

My feature long experimental contemplative film "Under The Burning Sun" was shot on July 21st 2020, on Bela Tarr's 65th birthday. Nothing was prepared advance as usual, neither what's going to happen in my film after I press the "rec" button, nor had any idea the Maestro had his jubilee on this day. It's not a question this is Synchronicity and not a coincidence. I'm experiencing synchronicity almost on daily basis for years. I don't want to get into details, maybe another time. As usually in my films, neither the shooting day nor the filming location was chosen advance. Everything was spontaneous. 

Most of my films contains only static shot and one long take. The lengths of takes are vary. This film is slightly different. I shot two takes instead of the usual one, because I felt the magic is happening. It was sometime after 11am. The sunrays were almost vertical. There was not even one tree at all, to give shade and of course I left my umbrella and the sunblock in the car. I guess you all can imagine the consequences. 

Post-production was a real challenge to figure it out, where should I cut the story without causing aesthetic damage. The story was built by the life itself. My main "directorial responsibility" at the location (besides the chosen visual background of the scene) is usually to make decision, when to start and stop rolling. There is usually an opening scene and a closing scene where's nothing particular  happening but basically there are things require the viewer's eye and ear to do more work. 

The observation is an important part of the process. There's neither mise-en-scène nor directorial instructions. Only a very pure form of the sense and sensibility, harmony between the elements, a kind of Zen. 

In my films I don't use subtitle because the visual has the priority over the dialogue. It doesn't mean for example in this case the fishers dialogues are not important but not from my point of view. 

Ok, that's all in a nutshell. So the next day of the shoot, on July 22nd, I read about Bela Tarr 's birthday on social media and decided to dedicate this film to him as an homage. I'm not sure he'll ever watch this film, that was not the reason I made it. 

Boldog születésnapot!

"If you look for a meaning, you'll miss everything that happens." 

Andrei Tarkovsky

The story:

West Baray (The Great Reservoir) (dating back to the XI. Century) in Siem Reap, Cambodia is beneficial for people make a living from fishing, though this year the Almighty God is not so gracious to them. Fishermen and their households are among the poorest, marginalized and vulnerable people in the Khmer society.

...for a limited time the film is available on my vimeo channel here.

...information for distribution or screening please send me a PM! 

Fear

The remastered version of my experimental contemplative short Holocaust film is currently available on my vimeo channel here.

The film is available for both distribution and screening.

30th Girona Film Festival Finalist

Experimental Forum 2020 International Video and Film Festival screening has postponed for next year

Those are expected the screening of my film "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" this year in Los Angeles must wait for another year.

This is the festival official announcement I received:

"At Experimental Forum, we strive to make sure our public screenings are a safe and positive experience for everyone at the festival. Due to the current widespread of COVID-19, we are taking extra steps to consider the safety of everyone who comes to the event. Some attendees from out of state and overseas require advance notice to plan and travel to the festival. Certain travel restrictions or health concerns due to the pandemic will make it impossible for most to freely attend. For everyone’s safety, peace of mind and a chance to fully celebrate the filmmakers' achievements, the festival committee have decided to screen this year’s selection together with the 2021 festival edition next year, when the situation is safe and everyone can make plans to attend the festival with greater confidence and certainty."

If you are a slow cinema addict and can't wait till next year, please take a look Benoit Rouilly Unspoken Cinema Blog and find his review on my film with a short interview . The film also available as a bonus for the the blog's readers.

Click here to watch the film

The Gardener

My first feature long contemplative Avant-garde film, production the title "The Gardener" is getting close to the end of production period. It took more than a year to shoot on locations in Cambodia and Thailand. There was no script and neither the story-line was written advance. I developed the story in my head step by step, sometimes at the location right before the shoot. The entire shooting period was a real experience with the unpredictable time on certain locations. Regarding to the circumstances I decided to shoot without assistance, it means I was the only crew member. There was no meaning to look after freelance crew. Neither the shooting days nor the production period was scheduled in advance. I used my own basic camera, sound and lightening equipment, car, rented properties, etc... I used natural lights on locations, except when I shot the interior scenes and the lights were not adequate. 

Shooting and acting in a same time was more than challenging. I have no previous acting experience, though most of time was not needed any acting skill just had to be in the right mood. A little meditation always helped to tune the soul to the right frequency. There were no rehearsals only concepts, but I had to record the scenes multiple times if something went wrong. That wasn't easy. Usually pre-production process took longer than the entire shoot.

The (fiction) story in a nutshell: an expatriate man (who is happened to be a gardener) somewhere in South East Asia is struggling to survive emotionally the tragic loss of his family, meanwhile loosing his job as well. The film is very contemplative, so I hope the audience will have enough patient to watch till the end. Each shots somewhere between 10 to 30 minutes. The entire film can be a few hours long at the end. I can't say anything about post production yet, but probably will take a few months to finish. 

Experimental Forum International Film and Video Festival Official Selection 2020

My film The Unbearable Lightness of Being is selected to the Experimental Forum International Film and Video Festival 2020 Los Angeles. Screening: July 19th 2020.

If you would like to know more and even watch the film, please read Benoit Rouilly Unspoken Cinema blog 

The Unbearable lightness of being

Benoit Rouilly critic and expert on Contemporary Contemplative Cinema (CCC) review on one of my film,"The unbearable lightness of being" shot entirely in Cambodia. The scene is reminiscent of him to the opening of Bela Tarr's and Agnes Hranitzky's world famous Satantango and some point he also compares the film to Lumière brothers, Andy Warhol, James Benning and Nikolaus Geyrhalter works.

click here to read the article

The Bay /Honorable Mention Award

Great news "The Bay" my contemplative short filmed in Cambodia received Honorable Mention Award at Los Angeles Underground Film Forum (LAUFF) 2019.

The visitor

Contemporary contemplative short film. I filmed the "Visitor" from my hotel room in Phnom Penh.

Click here to watch The Visitor