THE INVISIBLE CLOTH
Film 30 minutes / 2K /
Produced by KHM Köln in colaboration with HGB Leipzig.
The film The Invisible Cloth by Paula Ábalos is about a worker who is cleaning a fitness studio at night, alone and lonesome. Large-format photographs on the walls show the results that are produced in optimising the body with the help of the equipment provided. The idealised images of well-trained bodies contrast with the only person actually present in the room, whose exhaustion grows with the cleaning of each and every machine. The relationship between these two levels— between the absent idealised image and the present real image—takes on ever more bizarre forms over the course of the night (Gabriele Knapstein)
Experimental film about a cleaning lady that works alone during the night shift in a fitness studio 24/7. This film looks behind the glossy surfaces of a gym and shows how the extreme working conditions -such as staying awake, the feeling of being watched through surveillance cameras and the loneliness- affect the perception and psyche of the worker, showing the space under her surreal perception.
This project originated from the author's own experience.
Script, direction, editing: Paula Ábalos
Production: Paula Ábalos, Pedro Carnicer and Kathrin Lemcke
Director of Photography: Pedro Carnicer
Assistant director: Amelie Befeld
Camera Assistants: Elisabeth Caic and Sofía Hernández
Light & Grip Assistants: Felix Leffrank and Verónica García
Sound design and sound postproduction: Paula Ábalos
Sound recordings and additional Sound Design: Camilo Sandoval
Sound recordings: Nadine Rangosht and Stefania Smolkina
Sound studio recordings: Ina Weisser and Paula Ábalos
Music spinning room: Sami Al Ghamin
Set assistants: Rosario Aninat, Katrin Esser, Bernadette Keating,
Kathrin Lemcke, Andrea Saltyte, Beatrice Peter Schuett and Clara Sjöllin
Choreographer mirror scene: Ayala Guy
Script translation: Bernadette Keating.
A Production of the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig and the Academy of Media Arts Cologne.
CAST:
JUANA: Catalina Yazigi
Two, machine 3, trainer TV: Andrea García Vazquez
One, machine 4: Bernadette Keating
Boss: Felix Leffrank
Security camera guard: Alex Blühm
Solarium: Clara Sjölin
Voice group Machines: Peter Lünenschloß and Jean Damien Charmoille
Thanks to:
Jessica Arseneau, Rüdiger Dill, Daniela Groemke, Janina Herhoffer, Mark Hermann, Sebastian Richter, Nicolás Rupcich, Max Schneider, Lucas Tinzmann and Clemens von Wedemeyer.
