LIKE YOU REALLY MEAN IT (2020)
4K video, 12:45 min, color, sound

Three characters – the Workshop Leader, the Tracksuit and the Naked Ape – find themselves unexpectedly in a workshop in the middle of Death Valley. They are trying their best to give each other advice, but are mostly limited to repeating what they heard or read from others; often dubious sources. Some of what they talk about and some of what they leave out manifests around them as animals, the undead, exploding cars and holes in the ground. Since none of it is meant to last, they eventually wrap it up with a round of applause and some indispensable evaluation.
And since all three of them are embodied by the artist, their meeting is as much a group session as it is a soliloquy.

“Like You Really Mean It” (2020) is a 13-minute single channel video in German with English subtitles, also presented as an installation, inviting the audience to join the workshop circle.

credits
Ale Bachlechner: script, performance, editing, compositing
Jonathan Kastl: camera, sound, editing, compositing
Julian Prießen: music, sound design
Olivia Platzer: artistic assistance

shown at
FAK Förderverein Aktuelle Kunst Münster (Oct 30th – Nov 15th 2020)
Kasseler Dokfest (Nov 17th – 22nd 2020)
IMAI Videolounge NRW-Forum Düsseldorf (March 12th – April 18th 2021)
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (May 1st – 10th 2021)
Kurzfilmfestival Köln (Nov 18th 2021)
Video of the month at HMKV Hartware MedienKunstVerein Dortmund (January 1st-31st 2022)
Diagonale ’22 Festival of Austrian Film in Graz (April 5th – 10th 2022)
Diametrale Innsbruck (March 5th 2023)
frame[o]ut festival MQ Vienna (July 28th 2023)