Directing
From a small Georgian mining town Chiatura, we zoom out to scrutinize the geopolitical and economic interrelations that link this peripheral site of extraction to a vast network of places, subjects and processes across the globe.
The video work “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE” by Hito Steyerl, Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze and Miloš Trakilović, created in 2019, is now more topical than ever: referencing the fashion labels Balenciaga and Vetements, the artists investigate how data analysis practices within the fashion industry are used in targeted advertising on social media. How much this manipulation of the media endangers our democracy has been demonstrated, among other things, by the re-election of Donald Trump on 5 November 2024. What future do democratic systems have when the public sphere can be bought and sold and is flooded with false statements based on identity politics?
The source of this film is the personal life of my father, Nugzari, and his right hand. The hand that has been playing a crucial role in his economic and social life and has always been a guarantee of the financial stability of his family. The film traces a physical and a symbolic transition of his right hand: how the transition has been affecting his socio-economic life in his journey throughout different political ideologies that are represented and governed by symbolic hands.
Short by Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze.
In this speculative video essay, the filmmaker connects his medical history with the shifts in post-Cold War geopolitics and their impact on contemporary politics.
