Synopsis
Frameworks is a quest for the meaning of images. Bombarded by thousands of images every day, are we still able to truly see them, especially those of conflict and its aftermath? In a constantly changing field, creators of images are developing new visions of the photographic art form and looking for new strategies to capture our attention with significant images. Helen Doyle has chosen the work of several photographers and visual artists who force us to look deeper at the world and at ourselves: she takes us on her quest to discover a vast palette of contrasting images which shock and compel.
With Letitzia Battaglia, Nadia Benchallal, Philip Blenkinsop, Bertrand Carrière, Stanley Greene, Alfredo Jaar, Geert van Kesteren, Sera Phousera Ing, Lana Šlezić, Paolo Ventura.
A word from Tënk
“I’ve seen the turmoil of the world.”
Burdened with what cannot be unseen, witnesses are bound to their destiny: they must carry that glimpse of turmoil with them, knowing now that this, too, is in the world. They are burdened with the presence of the missing, the unblinking stares of the dead and the silent pleas of the living.
But the witnesses must watch, confused, as their images are drowned in an ocean of similar tumult. While they struggle under the weight of the visions that haunt them, everyone around them seems to have forgotten how to see.
It’s like a childhood nightmare: they can scream and cry and stamp their feet all they want. No one is looking.
Speaking with photojournalists who have covered the worst horrors of the modern world (genocides, civil wars, authoritarian regimes, torture…), Helen Doyle digs into the meaning of photography itself through those photographs that must be preserved at all costs.
The most striking aspect of this important film isn’t the photographic works we see in glimpses―fleeting, masterful―but rather the immense compassion in the nature of those who have witnessed so many atrocities. Their commitment to humanity and conviction that their work is not in vain—despite the indifference, despite the way history seems to endlessly repeat—remind us that it is our responsibility not to look away. And that maybe, one day, the turmoil will quiet.
Naomie Décarie-Daigneault
Tënk's Artistic Director
