Delia Fratila has won a car in a lottery organized by a juice manufacturer. Now she and her parents travel to the big city, where she has to appear in a commercial in return. It isn't much fun for her: The shooting is strenuous and in the breaks between the endless repetitions of the same silly scene she has exhausting arguments with her parents, who have very self-serving ideas about how the prize should be used.

“Ruhr” is the first film by James Benning to be shot outside of America and represents an American artist’s view of the Ruhr district. Starting in Duisburg, Benning goes on a series of journey to explore this erstwhile working class region. His conceptions of labor and culture remain his central focus throughout – culture that emerges from labor, labor that give rise to culture, and art, whose works completes the conception of culture in society.

An city adventure film shot in Cinemascope and set in present day Rome. Victor Cavallo, a ranging Roman who forms the film’s roving protagonist, comes across four guys who live in a shack under the Testaccio Bridge. This idyllic set-up is interrupted by the arrival of two girls, who get into an immediate argument with the men until an attempted suicide on the banks of the Tiber ends up distracting them all… Radio Punto Zero, the radio station created for the film, broadcasts a whole range of different sounds to accompany the film: moments of silence four minutes and 33 seconds in length inspired by John Cage, ridiculous reports about fashion and design, authentic sounding messages, a rallying-call in defense of free time and some of the amazing adventures of Egidio, a lonely traveler. Adventures full of every-day absurdities, far away from work, rent, mobile phones, cars and families.

The school holidays have begun, the children in their blue uniforms happily running outdoors. Only one young boy seems troubled. One of his classmates has stolen his schoolbook, and now he won't be able to do his holiday homework. His older brother comes to visit. He doesn't want to go back to military service, he would rather move to Istanbul instead. The mother chats with her friends over a glass of tea, while the father is just holding down his difficult job.

In this trilogy of films, Douglas pays tribute to his own childhood and adolescence in a Scottish mining village. Using few words, which only serves to heighten the haunting quality of the scenes, Douglas sketches out his memories of growing up in poverty and the cruelty suffered by an unloved and neglected child: a life from hand to mouth, the loss of loved ones and pets, the feeling of being palmed off on ever more distant relations and outbursts of despair and violence. Filmed on a small budget in his hometown with non-professional actors, the film’s form nonetheless transcends more classic works of social realism, the black and white images and long takes evoking a highly individual, almost expressionist quality.

The films and videos commissioned by the Arsenal Institute for the festival LIVE FILM! JACK SMITH! are now available for distribution. Works by: Tim Blue, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Christophe Chemin, Oliver Husain, Marie Losier, Guy Maddin, Ulrike Ottinger, Evelyn Rüsseler, Isabell Spengler.

Laura Poitras' The Oath has received the Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs, North America's biggest documentary film festival.

we present a selection of the films and videos commissioned by us for LIVE FILM! JACK SMITH!

This year's Caligari Prize winner La bocca del lupe by Pietro Marcello has received the Special Jury award as well as the SIGNIS award at the 12th Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente (BAFICI). El vuelco del cangrejo by Oscar Ruíz Navia received a special mention.