Once Faithful

Englouties

September 2020 •French

In the heart of Saint-Malo, there's a gigantic area, covering 1/3 of the city, off-limits to the public. It's a part of the commercial port that's mainly accessible via an architecturally unusual footbridge that limits access. An inaccessible place that will be the first to disappear beneath the waves in a few years' time. Only strange sounds reach us from afar: whirring, construction noise, sirens wailing... This parallel world is bustling day and night. But it's in the depths of the night that unfamiliar sounds and lights arouse the most fantasies.

Máquinas de palabras

March 2023 •Spanish

Portrait of a Mexico City neighborhood where pages and pages are printed, and little by little, words appear. Máquinas de Palabras is a performance created in March 2023 in Mexico City, and is the result of a collaboration between Labo K (Rennes-based film laboratory) and LEC (Laboratorio de Cine Experimental) in Mexico City. A portrait of a Mexico City neighborhood where pages and pages are printed. And little by little, words appear... "From the deliberate use of found images to films that make uncompromising use of raw material, the camera and the plants will take our eyes... Pupils will certainly be illuminated by the projector... How can moving images stay in our heads?"

Layering

July 2023 •English

This short experimental diary film reveals my struggles with mental illness in my adolescence and queer adulthood while simultaneously reflecting upon my joyous childhood experiences. I investigate when and how my depression began and explain that my relationships with the people I love have supported me through my harder times. The film incorporates footage shot over May and June 2023 and archival home videos. Overall, I aim to resolve my "growing pains" through the medium of diary film and by reconnecting with my younger self.

Steps

February 2002 •English

Time lapse of a flight of stairs. One of five segments from Intervalometer Experiments (2001-2003).

Metropia

March 2025 •Spanish

OASIS

April 2023 •

The stress, pressure, and fast pace that we experience daily make us overlook our well-being. We live immersed in a constant fleetingness that wreaks havoc on our way of life. Oasis is a critique of the overwhelming mass society that consumes us and emphasizes the need to stop, to find calm: an oasis in the midst of the desert.

Cormac McCarthy's Veer

February 2023 •English

Cormac McCarthy has spent the last 25 years writing his novels at the mountain top retreat of the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) in New Mexico. An institute dedicated to the formal analysis of complex systems. In this documentary filmed at the library at SFI (and in the desert), Cormac in conversation with his colleague David Krakauer, reflects on isolation, mathematics, character, and the nature of the unconscious

June

December 2024 •English

A letter of love to my past self who discovered himself.

Jo

February 2025 •English

Jo; or The Act of Riding a Bike is Zefier's third film.

Harmonies

April 2008 •Japanese

Japanese two female singer-songwriters, Kazumi Nikaido (also known as Nika Soup) and Saya Source (of Tenniscoats, Maher Shalal Hash Baz). Nika is known for her chameleon-like ability to transform her voice, while Saya has a melancholic and straightforward singing style. Both have distinct voices that can be identified immediately, but when they sing in unison, they create melodies that are truly sublime. They have released charming album IPIYA (2005) features playful pop songs reminiscent of nursery rhymes, repetitive mantra-like tracks. The two went back and forth from their homes in Hiroshima and Tokyo to create beautifully diverse songs for this record. This is the documentary of "how" and "why" and also "where" they had made the very original music. Many interviews, rehearsals, free sessions, live performances are included. There is a childlike innocence to this documentary, and offers a peak into the unique world of how they make music.

Outtakes from Jo

February 2025 •English

Outtakes, commentary from Zefier's third film: Jo; or The Act of Riding a Bike.

Chicago in Time Lapse

January 1996 •English

"At the beginning of the 19th century there is no Chicago. There was a fort that was set on fire by Indians shortly thereafter. Later, the turbulent expansion of a settlement began, which became a center for the immigrant workforce, traditional industry, slaughterhouses, and, in 1941, armaments for war. The Windy City on Lake Michigan is the fastest changing city in the world. This 35mm Arriflex film time-lapse footage is annotated with classic techno cuts and information about the tunnels under Chicago, the slaughterhouses, organized crime, Sears & Roebuck catalogs and other peculiarities of this strange city."

The Noise of Time

June 2024 •Spanish

In the town of Xoco, the spirit of an old villager awakens in search of its lost home. Along its journey, the ghost discovers that the town still celebrates its most important festivities, but also learns that the construction of a new commercial complex called Mítikah will threaten the existence of both the traditions and the town itself.

Decease

May 2000 •Russian

Spring comes every year and brings us hope for recovery and development. But time is inexorable and fleeting. Not for everyone will come next spring ...

THÁI BẢO HUỲNH KHANG

June 2023 •Vietnamese

A trans Vietnamese woman's deadname being repeated over and over again.

Tides

March 2020 •English

Filmed at Masonboro Island, an undeveloped barrier island in southeastern North Carolina, “Tides” contemplates the liminal space between the modern technological world and that more ecological dimension we label as “nature” or “the environment.”

Canale grande

January 1983 •German

A young woman is fed up with the usual consumer's television and begins to make her own television, or more correctly, closevision. She is now a reporter who wanders around Berlin with her camera and 'telecasting apparatus' on her back. Her livingroom has been transformed into a studio and here the different programs are assembled and aired: statements, interviews, realistic and phantastic programs.

The Tuba Thieves

March 2024 •English

A spate of robberies in Southern California schools had an oddly specific target: tubas. In this work of creative nonfiction, d/Deaf first-time feature director Alison O’Daniel presents the impact of these crimes from an unexpected angle. The film unfolds mimicking a game of telephone, where sound’s feeble transmissibility is proven as the story bends and weaves to human interpretation and miscommunication. The result is a stunning contribution to cinematic language. O’Daniel has developed a syntax of deafness that offers a complex, overlaid, surprising new texture, which offers a dimensional experience of deafness and reorients the audience auditorily in an unfamiliar and exhilarating way.

Dissolution

Invalid date •

This video takes a particular viewpoint, with the camera placed behind a zone of blur. Slowly, we experience the perception of an expanded time. An expectation is created and resolved in the observation of the passage of boats that dissolve into the nebulousness, disappearing from our sight like a mirage.

Panoramas

November 2019 •German

In 1829 the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt attempted a russian-siberian expedition. Humboldt travelled to obtain a clear view of nature, people and life in this immense country. 2019 naturalists and humanists attempted a transdisciplinary expedition on the trails of Humboldt. To capture the events various cameras were taken along. A non-chronological narration.