Germany 2023, HDV 23 min.
DIRECTOR'S BIOGRAPHY
Thomas Josef Roth was born in Frankfurt, Germany.
1985-90 student and assistant of the avant-garde filmmaker Peter Kubelka at the Städelschule State Academy of Fine Arts, 1990 completed studies of Fine Arts/Film. 1991 Fulbright Scholarship for Media Studies at The New School University in New York City. 2002 One-year Artist Residency in London, UK. He lives currently in Berlin.
DIRECTOR'S FILMOGRAPHY (SELECTION)
THE ARMOR (USA 1993, 95 min) Cinequest Film Festival San Jose, USA; Rome-Florence Film Festival, Italy; Arsenals Film Festival / Main Forum, Riga, Latvia; Philafilm-Philadelphia Film Festival, USA (Best Feature Award ).
A WISHING WOMAN (USA 2003, 82 min.)
MethodFest Los Angeles (Festival Director's Award).
THE VOICE OF NOTHINGNESS (Japan/Germany 2016, 43 min.) London Raindance International Film Festival;
Princeton-Prindie Independent Film Festival.
POLTAVA MEMORIAL for the murdered Jews in Poltava (Ukraine/Germany 2019, 18 min.) For educational institutions in Ukraine.
STILL THE SPY OF GOD - SOREN KIERKEGAARD IN THE 21st CENTURY (Germany/France/North Macedonia 2020, 62 min.) Selected by the following festivals, but no live screenings because of Covid restrictions:
The Artists Forum of the Moving Image, New York, Montreal Independent FF, East Europe International FF, Warsaw Edition, Retro Avantgarde FF New York.
“The face is the epiphany, the moment where
the whole of humanity becomes present..."
“The face is what you cannot kill..."
EMMANUEL LEVINAS
SYNOPSIS
This film is dedicated to the victims of Stalinism
as a cinematic contemplation based on photographs of arrested women and men before their execution. These victims came from all parts of the Soviet Union, some were immigrants from foreign countries.
Thousands of such photographs were discovered during the early1990s by the NGO Memorial in the Lubyanka, the headquarters of Russia’s secret service in Moscow and re-photographed by the British design historian David King (1943-2016).
The selected 26 faces shown in "Stone, Flesh, Spirit" stand for millions of innocent people murdered by a totalitarian system. The film’s formal simplicity and its slow pace allow the audience to let an emotional connection with the victims evolve. Inserted text conveys necessary background information about the oppression. Intermittently are shown pictures of Soviet sculptures which promote a hard and rigid heroism, while true humanness and vulnerability can be seen in the faces of the persecuted with their almost iconic quality.
This filmic commemoration aims to emphasize the value and dignity of these people’s lives, and at the same time adds some historical context to the ongoing aggression against Ukraine.
