My first screening at the Rencontres Internationales festival was tonight, in the fourteenth arrondissement. I had never been to this neighborhood before, so as I looked for the venue, I tried to get used to my surroundings. I live near the Eiffel Tower; this area was very different from my home: it reminded me somewhat of the Village in New York, with so many small shops and all the people milling about comfortably, even after dark.

Once I found l’Entrepôt, I was even more sure that the fourteenth was similar to my favorite neighborhood in New York: l’Entrepôt is a combination arthouse/indie cinema and bar/restaurant. You can come in and have a drink while you wait for your film to start, or literally catch dinner and a movie. I waited in line for the theater to open, noticing that those around me were speaking a mix of French, German, Spanish and English… and many people were speaking more than one in the same conversation. This seemed fitting, considering the screening I was waiting for.

The screening I was set to attend was called Lien/Delien (Link/Unlink). It was a selection of twelve short films which explored the idea of a link as it was related to international borders. Seeing how this Paris festival is connected to both Berlin and Madrid, the first several films concerned these two countries: the two first films by Godron Matta-Clark and Daniel Kötter both explored the Berlin wall, and a film by
Bouchra Khalili featured interviews with people traveling between the borders of Spain and Morocco.

I found Lia Lapithi Shukurodglou’s films to be some of the most poignant and interesting. She featured two films, one after the other which explored the conflict in Cyprus between the Greeks and the Turks. The first film featured a recipe for marinated olives, the instructions running along the bottom of the screen as a pair of hands demonstrated the recipe, cooking-show style, over several sheets of local newsprint. At the end of the film, a quote was featured in French, explaining how the recipe was an ironic representation of how the Turkish invasion affected Cyprus. The second of the two films explored the use of electric lights to create a nightly show portraying the Northern Cypriot flag. This film was a commentary on the use of free electricity in the country.

The concept of Link/Unlink for one of the first screenings of the festival seemed fitting: the name of this festival translates to International Meetings: Paris/Berlin/Madrid. Just like the amalgamation of journalists and professionals who had waited in line with me to attend the screening, the art featured here would include pieces from all over the world, sometimes crossing international borders, creating “links.”

We, the people, were an illustration of the whole point of the festival: exploring international links through art.