Bull.Miletic

Par Hasard DV, 5'15'', 2009 Norway

Tell me something about you and artistic background.
BULL.MILETIC is Synne Bull (Norwegian, born 1973) and Dragan Miletic (American, born Yugoslavia, 1970). We met during our Master's studies at San Francisco Art Institute in 1998. Central to our artistic practice is the question of how reality is perceived through moving images. In our work, we examine our surroundings (architecture, objects, landscape, and urbanity) as containers of emotions, memories, and political decisions.

Tell me about this film, initial idea and work process.
Par Hasard was filmed during a residency at Cité internationale des arts Paris in 2007. It has taken us long time to complete the work conceived during the residency due to a new family member and the relocation to Norway. Par Hasard can be seen as a segment from a longer project investigating historic and contemporary notions of travelling and tourism and its relationship to visual representation through cinematic language.

Are you working on new projects at the moment?
Yes, always! We are simultaneously working on other segments of the "Paris project."  Also, since 2001 we are continuously engaged in the production of our life-long project "Heaven Can Wait." In February, this project will bring us to Australia where we'll be filming panoramic views from Sydney's two revolving restaurants. Until today, we have filmed revolving views in 33 revolving restaurants worldwide. We also have other projects in the making.

Do you have specific influences in your film/video making?
Absolutely. We are very influenced by pioneering cinema such as travel films and city symphonies (Vertov, Rutman, Strand), experimental film/video artists such as Maya Deren, Michael Snow, Earnie Gehr, Stan Douglas, as well as avant-garde filmmakers such as Resnais, Godard, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Antonioni, Wenders, etc, etc.

Why is it important for you to show your film/video in a festival?
This work benefits from the theatrical setting of the movie house where moving images in synergy with the architecture defines the work's cinematic experience.

What role do you think Oslo Screen Festival should have to promote your work?
Norway lacks a good resource for artistic/experimental film and video distribution and preservation. We think video and film festivals like Oslo Screen Festival will be able to demonstrate the verisimilitude of the genre and generate growing interest for video and film art in the movie theatres locally and worldwide. All of this is particularly relevant today, in the age of digital distribution via global networks.