traces of movement before the ice

[spuren von bewegung vor dem eis]

rené frölke | germany, 2023 | 89'

in 2017, while hunting for particular editions of books by the american poet robert lax, filmmaker couple rené frölke and ann carolin renninger stumbled upon the material remains of the swiss small-press publishing house pendo, stored away in an apartment in zurich and tended to by the heir of the publisher. what they encountered there was described by frölke as "an avalanche of impressions": a massive amount of various documents, published editions, office ephemera, etc. he then set out to make a film about the publishing house and its archive, hoping to be able to somehow reconstruct its history from these materials, but the subject soon shifted towards the fundamental questions raised by this impossible attempt of documenting such a sprawling archive and all its ramifications. filmed excerpts of the printed script of the film itself (comprising hundreds of pages of transcribed interviews) contribute another layer to this vast and fascinating time capsule of a film.

director rené frölke | script rené frölke, ann carolin renninger | cinematography rené frölke | editing rené frölke | music tessa weigner | production ann carolin renninger / joon film | distribution / copy source joon film