Time Theme

In his famous essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin illuminates the ways in which filmmakers use cameras to penetrate reality like a surgeon with a scalpel. In the process, we invent new modes for apprehending reality and constructing subjects. Our medium is time, light, and sound: manipulated by and generated through technological interventions.

In agrarian societies, the structure of daily life was governed by the fluctuation of daylight while we, in industrial societies, are accustomed to operating according to the dictates of a rigidly defined clock time. As we clock in and out of jobs, struggle to meet deadlines, and either anxiously await our future or fear our inevitable end, time can easily become a threatening presence in our lives. On the other hand, there are moments when we relish the time spent with loved ones or strive to achieve moments of calm when we can be fully present in the moment when time slows. And all too often our only real access to time – this ever-present moment - is forfeited to memories or imaginary futures. Twice a year, we are reminded that our common experience of time is a construct, rather than the fundamental physical property science reveals. We turn our clocks forward and backward at different times of the year changing the way the natural flux of daylight syncs up with our mechanically ticking clocks.

This year, the West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival coincides with the weekend when we turn clocks forward in observance of Daylight Saving Time. We would like to take this opportunity to issue a call for film and video works that ruminate on light and darkness, the malleability of time, the geological, social, and philosophical meanings of time, as well as the fleeting or expansive experience of time. How does the experience of time change in a world marked by instantaneous communication across long distances? How can time slow when we step outside the constraints of the industrial workday? How can the technological manipulation of light in film augment our experience of time? As AI and machine learning move us ever closer to realtime simulations reality, how does our sense of time speed up or collapse in on itself? What changes when realtime video technologies intersect with the meticulous sculpting of the editing timeline of film? How do our technologies warp or reify natural and artificial notions of time? How can the mind distort or dissolve the experience of time?

The WVMSFF seeks short film, video, media installation, and performance works that deal with these varied meanings and experiences of time.