PHANTOM REQUIEM by Zazie Kanwar-Torge (Zazie Productions) | USA (2024)
Phantom Requiem unfolds in the desolate expanse of an abandoned factory, where shadows and silence are the only remnants of a once-thrumming industrial heartbeat. In this spectral setting, a coterie of puppets emerges—ethereal figures, each step and gesture echoing the dissonant unraveling of a viewer ensnared in a psychotic fugue. Rendered in austere black-and-white, this stop-motion film marries the macabre grace of desolation with the intimate terror of mental dissolution, crafting a visual poem that is both stark and sublime.
Bio
Zazie Productions, Asheville’s clandestine autistic polymath, seamlessly shifts between roles as a multi-instrumentalist, avant-garde composer, sound artist, graphic designer, and off-kilter short filmmaker.Zazie’s singular vision is evident in every facet of his creative output, as he personally conceives and executes all elements of his projects. From direction to cinematography, production, animation, editing, sound design, and composition, each component is infused with his distinctive touch. His films venture into the uncanny valley, transforming the mundane into the grotesquely surreal and are designed to be experienced as much as viewed, extending beyond conventional sensory perception. He is a hymn to the discordant beauty that resides on the fringes of the contemporary artistic landscape.
Pebbles Underground is focused on showcasing and promoting experimental, avant-garde, underground, and no-to-low budget projects by artist-humans from all over the world. Absurd, uncanny, witty, humorous, slow-video – all are welcomed, and loved.
Pebbles Underground is an independent project not funded by any government or corporation, and we intend to keep it that way. Main source of funding is personal donations from humans organizing the project, who are artists themselves, and the main drive of the project is formed by the energy and involvement of the organizers, and the public.
