Brenda Lien

Two young women making videos for their Youtube channel, stuck in beauty-industry and product-placement. A tyranny of clicks, likes and follower, a gamble with truths and autenticitates.

Boomerang is a short film set in a post-collapse Berlin 50 years into the future: Raven finds an old diary from a 2020s pro Palestine activist and gets inspired to try some of its "recipes for disaster". Shot in an ASMR-style this experimental film is filled with sneaky folk songs leading Raven to turn their sadness into rage, and their rage into action. It's an attempt at making a piece of agit prop directed at passive "allies" and liberals who are too busy protecting their cushy lives, to realise their inactivity is making them complicit. It’s a film about the process of changing your mind, about what you’re gonna do, when presented with new information.

While we watch the ‘cat fail’ of the day in cheerful safety, all that remains invisible in this neoliberal nightmare catches up with us. The cat’s body is consumed, exploited and controlled. The fear of pain is greater than the will for freedom. Objects are fetishized and subjects are made into things – quantifiable and ready for use. They are the natural commodity for a luxury they are not even aware of. We are here, because you were there – and waste is disposed of in the sea. In the end, the bodies reveal the causes and effects of power, lust and hate.

“Please agree to terms and conditions to be a part of the Community,” says the Big Data crystal ball as it bathes you in positive affirmations and hyper-personalized ads, “All for your own benefit, of course.” You are a never-ending energy source. Feel your body becoming heavy and relaxed, and just say, “Yes!" An experimental film about current technology seducing us to sacrifice our privacy, in hope of an optimized life.

After Maxi wins an important music award, the pressure for her to release an album only increases. But pressure equals crisis, crisis equals self-doubt, and self-doubt does not make for a creative atmosphere. Maxi’s inner child can lash out as much as it likes, but her inner cop won’t give it even a minute to play or relax. A playful, glitter-covered study of depression and burnout.

Abstract animated short.