Paolo Gioli

The other day I saw a short film programme of the Hong Kong International Film Festival. These years I am far less enthusiastic about the HKIFF for different reasons. It was really long ago that I could see 5 shows a day and very likely I fell asleep in a couple of them!
Anyway, I went to this show this year mainly because of Paolo Gioli, in my own words, crazy great artist who could make a camera out of anything. He was one of the photographers who did workshop with us back in the days of Spilimbergo in Italy almost 20 years ago. Years after, I did a few projects of pinhole camera probably because of him. But then I didn't learn about him as a film maker.
Back to the show, to my surprise it was a very small audience, about 30% full of Agnes B Cinema in the Hong Kong Arts Centre. I hope the film makers from Austria & Japan who specially came to this screening of their short films were not disappointed. The title of the programme was Avant Garde Programme II which was a bit misleading. Actually a few of films in this screening were more about photographic gaze, the very basic nature of photography. Gioli showed a new film I volti dell'anonimo which was made of a found footage with a lot of found still inserts. It was my first time to see his film work which is actually consistent with his photography, exploring the intriguing link between presence, history and photography. A lot of accidental poetics!
I am too outdated: actually Gioli was an artist-in-focus of the HKIFF in 2007!