Manuel Abrąmović
Manuel Abrąmović (b. Buenos Aires, 1987) is a filmmaker, film director and director of photography. His work explores the performativity of the everyday. In his films, ordinary people become characters. Combining observation and staging, he calls into question the norms of what is considered ‘documentary cinema’.
He graduated as a Director of Photography at ENERC and is a Berlinale Talents and IDFA Summer School alumni. His films have been shown at central festivals (Berlinale, Venice, Tribeca, IDFA, San Sebastián, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Cinéma du Réel, BAFICI) and have received numerous awards. He has been selected for several fellowships and residencies: Beca Conti (Buenos Aires, 2013) EMARE (European Media Art Residence Exchange 2016 - Halle, Germany), Ikusmira Berriak (San Sebastián 2018).
His latest work 'Blue Boy'; won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale Shorts Competition 2019. In 2019 he has been awarded with a fellowship by the DAAD-Artists-in-Berlin Program, where he is working on the development of two new feature film projects.
Filmography
2019. Blue Boy, 19min
2017. Años Luz (Light Years), 72min
2017. Soldado (Soldier), 73min
2016. Solar, 75min
2014. Las Luces (The Lights), 6min
2013. La Reina (The Queen), 19min
In his Silver Bear winning short Blue Boy, Manuel Abramovich portrays Romanian sex workers in Berlin in a way that produces a rift, an intensive estrangement between the stories his protagonists tell and their reception. Thus, Blue Boy achieves several things: It highlights the performative character of the sex work; it makes the power relations between filmmaker, viewer, and subject painfully palpable; and it dignifies its protagonists as they persist in facing us.
