Cinematography.

Giovanna has worked as cinematographer for several artists, documentarians and producers. In addition to the featured works below, they have shot films and videos for Sara Benincasa, Kim Schoen, Jennifer Prediger, Lisa Schilling and Discovery Education Networks and Chariot Videos in a series on fostering peaceful dialogue in the face of tragedy and violence called Ending the Cycle of Violence.

Triumph of the Shill
by Nina Berman

A remake of Riefensthal's Nazi Propaganda Film shot by artist Nina Berman, Giovanna Chesler, and Nasreen Alkhateeb over the inauguration weekend of 45. Now playing at film festivals nationwide. Schedule and trailer.

Echo Coats
by Tesia Kosmalski

From Open Hardware Summit: The “Echo Coats” are sound-driven, nostalgically designed garments that provide a means for women to playfully and sonically intervene in public spaces. The Andante Coat teases the world around its wearer by uttering sensual cosmetic titles, originally meant to tempt her own purchasing power. And at the attack of a boot heel on the pavement, the Staccato Coat releases machine sounds from its shoulders to urge people to get out of her way.

The technology of the coats integrates mini-speakers, headset microphones and iPods. The iPods run RjDj, a reactive music application that combines live environmental sound through the headset microphone and sound programming within the iPod. The coats then employ these mikes as touch sensors and sound detectors to inspire playback. Also here, mini-speakers embedded in the exterior of the coats have replaced the headphones to make this previously personal now public.

Six Years
by Monique Moumblow

From Monique: A woman is woken by a doorbell. When she gets up to answer it, there’s no one there. The next morning the entire house smells of sour milk. The hours pass.

The woman’s thoughts appear as subtitles on the screen. A voice attempts to simultaneously translate these subtitles into Swedish. The voice hesitates, stumbles and sometimes fails. The gaps between thoughts and words fill the empty rooms of a small house.

Six Years is the second in a series of Swedish language works by the artist. (Sleeping Car, 2000). For her, Swedish, a language she neither speaks nor understands has become an adopted language. It is a way to narrate a story and to distance oneself from that story. Speech becomes sound. Errors are made in the translation. Words which are always imprecise become more so. What remains is no coherent thought, no absolute or perfect text.

Giovanna and Monique screened the film at Oberhausen in 2008.

The Three R's
by Susan Behrens

A five-part documentary series on Academic English and Writing.