Rosa Barba in Filmbank programme

11 December 2007

The film Outwardly from Earth's Center by Rosa Barba is part of the Filmbank Tour No. 17, entitled 'Sugar is Sweet'. The film programme is to be screened in various locations from mid-December to mid-March, including at the 't Hoogt theatre in Utrecht on 11 December and in de Balie in Amsterdam on 15 December.

These screenings come in place of the 'Docu-fictions' evening on 12 December in SMBA which had been planned to accompany the exhibition 'Rosa Barba – They Shine'.

Outwardly from Earth's Center, made by Barba during a residency at the Baltic Art Center in Visby, Sweden, is about a fictional community on an island that threatens to disappear into the ocean. The situation demands a collective initiative to save the island from the waves and preserve the identity of its society. Barba based the film on the fact that the island, Sandon, is washed along by a meter a year. Through her report of fictional experts and actions undertaken by the island's residents, the atmosphere of the film gradually shifts from documentary to an almost surrealistic image of human struggle and vulnerability.

Outwardly from Earth's Center was nominated for a Tiger Award for short film at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and recently won the Prix Saint Gervaise du Centre pour l'Image Contemporaine during the 12e Biennale de l 'Image en Mouvement in Geneva.

In addition to Barba's film, 'Sugar is Sweet' also includes A Lapse of Time (2007) by Fiona Tan and 1937 (2007) by Nora Martirosyan. In their poetic films all three of the artists allow fiction and reality to run through each other.

In the exhibition 'Rosa Barba – They Shine' in Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam Barba is showing three new film installations. These can still be seen through 6 January.