Hedonistika 2022
This year the Ars Electronica Festival asks:
„So can we change not only the world we live in, but also ourselves?“
Before we set out to answer this question, we want to explore the fundamental human driving force: Pleasure. To this end, Hedonistika offers a playground to inspect and reflect upon our deep desire to enjoy our time on this planet. With the help of the great enabler and alleged savior Technology, we will question the technocratic promise.
A group of technophilic artists will present interactive machines and immersive experiences to elevate our pleasure, alleviate our suffering or scrutinize our peculiar desires.
Through the dark of the nights, we will celebrate our virtues and vices with robotic servants of pleasure and a human nightline to keep us dancing in the right direction.
Thursday, Sept 8 to Saturday, Sept 11, 2022 @ DH5, Herrengasse 5, Linz / Austria.
Details can be found here.
roboexotica twice: this is CULT @ Fantastic Fest
This year monochrom will present the one and only festival for cocktail robotics ROBOEXOTICA twice:
The cooperation with Alamo Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest 2022 has just been announced. Expect not only a wine spritzer from Spritzerbot, a nicely grilled sausage from Old Sparky (Texas Sausage Massacre) or win a drink from Prostate Hero (think Dance Dance Revolution, but with a butthole). We also will see some robots from our long-term American roboexotica veterants.
Fantastic fest runs September 22nd - 29th in Austin, TX. Badge sales already started, so hurry up! (And if you are not able to attend Fantastic Fest in the United States, you still can count on the regular roboexotica extravaganza in Vienna. Save the date: Dec 1st - 4th at Freiraum, Museumsquartier Wien, Vienna, Austria. Twice the fun!)
link
Mad as Hell: Is There an End to Subversion?
A New HOPE (2022) hosts a talk by Johannes Grenzfurthner. We (almost) made it through a pandemic abyss, the Trumpian "fake news" wars, right wing QAnon trollery, and pathos-laden political truthiness. As a provocateur, political artist, and activist, Johannes asks the simple question: What is there still to be done? How can there be subversion in a world that is hellbound on waging war with rationality? Is there still a potential in radical pranks and stunts in a mediaspace that is built on spectacle? What can really be done if you are (to quote a 1970s classic) mad as hell, and you are not going to take this anymore? Saturday, Jul 23, 2022, 17:00, at St. John's University in Queens, New York City.
Masking Threshold: Best Editing at ‘Unnamed Footage Festival’
Unnamed Footage Festival awarded Masking Threshold Best Editing of the Festival!
Cinema Austriaco reviews Masking Threshold
Marina Pavido reviewed Masking Threshold for Cinema Austriaco.
Masking Threshold è il film che non ci si aspetta. Un film dalla forma ibrida, che in seguito a un iniziale approccio documentaristico assume pian piano le connotazioni di un horror in un crescendo di tensione e comicità. Johannes Grenzfurthner ha attinto a piene mani dai moderni linguaggi dei social media e, nello specifico, da Youtube. Il suo Masking Threshold diviene, così, al contempo, una profonda, semiseria riflessione sul mondo in cui viviamo e sulla società.Link (Italian)
Link (German)
FM4 reviews Masking Threshold
Review of Masking Threshold in FM4.
Horrorfilm, Video-Tagebuch, Psychogramm des Wahnsinns – Johannes Grenzfurthners neuer Film ist vieles, aber sicher nichts für Zartbesaitete. Im Zentrum steht ein IT-Nerd, der an einem Tinnitus leidet und sich im selbstgebauten Labor davon heilen will. Ein krudes Experiment jagt das nächste - was folgt, sind der komplette moralische Verfall und eine geballte Ladung Wahnsinn: Der Nerd wird zum Mörder.Link
Kleine Zeitung reviews Masking Threshold
Review of Masking Threshold in Kleine Zeitung.
"Was immer das ist, es ist kein Tinnitus." Geplagt macht sich ein IT-Techniker daran, dem Ursprung der Geräusche in seinem Kopf auf den Grund zu gehen. Die harmlosen Tests seines Gehörs münden in eine blutrünstige Obsession. Regisseur Johannes Grenzfurthner inszeniert diesen Horror-Trip ins Selbst mit einer Makrolinse. Die Ekeleffekte haben so größtmögliche Präzision und Detail. Die rasante Schnittabfolge reiht sich ein in die Sprache der Aufmerksamkeitskultur und Online-Parallelwelten. "Masking Threshold" ist provokant, spielt mit Verschwörungselementen – und provoziert sein Publikum.Link
The Gap interview about Masking Threshold
Manuel Fronhofer of Austrian magazine The Gap interviewed Johannes Grenzfurthner about Masking Threshold!
Johannes Grenzfurthner, Mitbegründer des Kunst- und Theoriekollektivs Monochrom, wurde zuletzt für »Masking Threshold« international auf diversen Genrefilm-Festivals gefeiert. Sein Protagonist macht sich darin wortreich und in immer unbarmherzigeren Experimenten auf die Suche nach einer Erklärung für den Tinnitus, der ihn – im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes – in den Wahnsinn treibt. Der wirklich außergewöhnliche Horrorfilm feiert bei der Diagonale seine Österreichpremiere.Link
2600 reviews Masking Threshold
The Farsighted reviews Masking Threshold
thepaintedman published a wonderful review of Masking Threshold!
Johannes Grenzfurthner’s Masking Threshold is one of the least pleasant viewing experiences I’ve had in a long time. Don’t mistake this for me saying that it’s a bad film, though… it’s inventive, unique, and clever. It’s a truly singular vision. But that vision is not an easy one to endure. In fact, this found footage fanatic would argue that it’s probably one of the best example of the POV filmmaking methodology I’ve ever seen, a film that is truly inseparable from the filmmaking style and couldn’t be done any other way without losing serious effectiveness.Link
Grimoire of Horror reviews Masking Threshold
Adam Symchuk published a great review (4.5/5!) of Masking Threshold!
It is pretty uncommon to come across a unique feature in cinema, not to say there is a lack of original ideas, but a fully new concept and approach is a rarity in the age of mass media. Masking Threshold marks itself as one of the most unique and ambitious found footage films ever crafted, an impressive feat in a genre already pushing the bounds of ingenuity and finding new ways to terrorize its audience.Link
The Hollywood Reporter: Masking Threshold will be released by Drafthouse Films
Giant Pictures releases movies and series across major streaming platforms like Apple TV, Netflix, Tubi, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, IMDb TV and Peacock. Drafthouse Films’ first two acquisitions are NR. 10, directed by Alex van Warmerdam (‘Borgman’), and Masking Threshold, a psychological horror pic from director Johannes Grenzfurthner.Link
Both genre pics bowed at Fantastic Fest and will be released this spring in Alamo Drafthouse theaters. NR. 10 and Masking Threshold will then become available across Giant Pictures’ streaming platforms and via the Alamo On Demand platform.
Masking Threshold will be released by Drafthouse Films
It's official. And insane. Masking Threshold will be released by Drafthouse Films! More in this article on Variety!
Johannes Grenzfurthner directed “Masking Threshold,” a psychological horror film that Drafthouse Films is calling “an experience not for the faint of heart.” One part chamber play, one part scientific procedural and one part YouTube unboxing video, “Masking Threshold” follows a skeptic IT worker who conducts a series of experiments in his makeshift home-lab to cure his harrowing hearing impariment. But, the logline teases, “where will his research lead him?” The distribution deal for “Masking Threshold” was negotiated by Emma Manfredi for Drafthouse Films with Bill Straus of Bridge Independent on behalf of the filmmakers.Link
Unnamed Footage Festival 2022 Official Selection: Masking Threshold
San Francisco, here we go! Masking Threshold got accepted at the great Unnamed Footage Festival!
Masking Threshold: Best Feature Film at ‘Film Maudit 2.0’
FILM MAUDIT 2.0 Festival awarded Masking Threshold Best Feature Film!
Link
Brandon Judell reviews Masking Threshold
Very nice review of Masking Threshold by Brandon Judell as part of his overview of all the goodies that are on start at the wonderful Film Maudit 2.0 Festival in LA!
With one of the best screenplays of recent years (preferable to Licorice Pizza’s), with the superb cinematography of Florian Hofer, and the awe-inducing editing by both Grenzfurthner and Hofer, Masking Threshold is a wry, dissective look at modern society’s derangement. It might get a little too Grand Guignol for some in its closing moments, but if you can embrace a character that’s equal parts Woody Allen, Norman Bates, and the Cartoon Network’s Dexter, has Festival Maudit got a film for you!Link
Masking Threshold: Best Trailer at ‘Indie House’
The INDIE HOUSE Festival awarded Masking Threshold Best Trailer!
Link
KPFK North Hollywood reviews Masking Threshold
The Independent Critic reviews Masking Threshold
Richard Propes reviews Masking Threshold!
While Masking Threshold is not for the timid or squeamish, for those willing to invest heart, mind, body, and some semblance of soul this is a unique, inspired, intelligent, and impossible to forget cinematic experience.Link
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