Variete

By Reece Auguiste, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, documentary practitioner, scholar, and founding member of the critically acclaimed British-based Black Audio Film Collective., March 2, 2022
Where Zydeco meets Weimar cinema

Variete

Variete (Ewald André Dupont, 1925)

I first attended FLEFF in 2018 not knowing what to expect. I was grateful for the invitation to participate. I was excited to embark on a journey to congregate with like souls, to be with those who curate opportunities for personal and collective reflection on cinema, politics, and the environment. FLEFF reminds us of our existential precarity without being didactic about it. 

In my experience, FLEFF births events in the shimmering sunlight of commitment to creating an inclusive, vibrant community of liked spirits. FLEFF engenders fellow travelers in search of those elusive moments that cinema often promises but very rarely delivers. 

For me this spirit was encapsulated at an evening screening of the German silent movie VARIETE (1925) at Cinemapolis in downtown Ithaca. VARIETE bursts with raw eroticism and unsurpassed visual power. The tale of jealousy and revenge among circus performers is anchored in performances wrapped up in textured layers of the carnivalesque.

Reece Auguiste

Reece Auguiste

Who but FLEFF would have thought to pair a 1925 German silent film with a live Zydeco band? That’s right, for this event the classic Weimar silent was paired with the rambuctious Li’l Anne and The Hot Cayenne. Music from the alligator-infested swamps of Louisiana paired seamlessly with a film born in the Weimar maelstrom. 

The unlikely pairing of Louisiana heat with an arctic German night gave this film an expressive beauty that was singularly universal. Pure genius! 

FLEFF explores the uncomfortable interstices of the human spirit. It promotes the authenticity that exists in the everyday, free of all the fake bling, suffocating glitz, frighteningly empty thoughts, and shady characters in search of fleeting fame that one encounters in other cinema experiences. FLEFF continues to resonate in the inner sanctum of my mind precisely because it pulls off the unexpected with charm. I see it as grace at the altar of our collective communion

FLEFF: A DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT