With a light touch and yet tremendously profound, AND-EK GHES… opens new filmic and political grounds, not unlike HAVARIE (also directed by Philip Scheffner, also in the 2016 Berlinale Forum). Co-directed, its collaborative process, however, grows into a meeting of different decisions on where to place the camera in order to show the ‘life that one is leading.’ That this meeting is on a level playing field allows that gradually Colorado Velcu and his extended family take charge of how they want to be framed. Being specific, stressing details, including distinct emotions, choosing the perfect mounting of the camera and the precisely correct context is crucial to understanding a story, they assert. This context, however, is also a context of seeing, of being seen, of anticipating how one might be seen, of wanting to be seen at one’s best, of playing with the roles and clichés one is cast in but also of staging oneself to expand how one is real. That’s how a ‘typical day’ may include having a sensible heart, receiving one’s first bank card, appreciating the aesthetics of a cathedral when strolling around Museum Island, having a picnic in a beautiful park, being excited and anxious about the first day of school, shooting a scene again to do it better, because one can, or sadly saying good bye to those who leave again. The small camera is used as a recorder of things to remember, as a diary to confide in and to reflect on how one handles the challenges of the present day, and as a screen to fictionalise oneself for the future or just to be able to arrive in the real through a diversification of gazes and how one is looked at.

With ease and elegance, AND-EK GHES… thereby expands genres such as first-person film, the video letter or home movie, through the depth and sensitivity of layers of reflection, self-reflection and always having in mind one’s diverse addressees. Simultaneously, as one of those viewers we could be thrown back to question how we often look, listen and relate through pre-described narratives, but also to how we ourselves might want to realise and expand ourselves through a song. A beautiful place to meet on equal footing.

‘I wish that more people would have these opportunities.’ (Colorado Velcu)