Tarpaulins

Lisa Truttmann

Lisa Truttmann

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Films

Tarpaulins

Feature essay film, 2017

Feature essay film, 2017

DCP, AT/US, 78 min.
Filmed in Los Angeles, California
Companions: Nora Sweeney, Behrouz Rae,
Sonja Bertucci, Andy Rector, Ben Neufeld



The point of departure for Tarpaulins was a colorful disturbance on the cityscape of Los Angeles: a home in the distance festooned with a giant striped tarp. These are termite fumigation tents and filmmaker Lisa Truttmann follows their story on a two-year long investigation as she hunts down the tents, the homes, the termites inside and their traces. As the film goes on, the termites soon become our allies, guiding us through Los Angeles’ neighborhoods on their own terms. Questions of life and death, profit and loss, home and un-home, macrocosm and microcosm are brought to the fore in pursuit of the city's tiniest inhabitants and their exterminators. The tents become temporary sculptures, beasts heaving in the wind, skeletons dressed and stripped by workers we see. Wooden structures, soon to be homes, become eroded landscapes after an attack. And there, underneath the colorful mantle and its function, Truttmann elicits revelations of the uncanny.

In a constant dialogue we hear the voices of workers, exterminators, entomologists, chemists, city planners, fellow travellers and literary authors. Contemplation is thrown into a zig-zag while an alter ego questions its own ideas and their making. Little by little the visual, political, social and economic relations of humans and nature unfold, anchored in a personal itinerary that is the framework for everything else to follow. As an essay film, Tarpaulins is a subjective view on a place and a circuitous conversation, embracing “unkempt activity”, restless labor, meandering thoughts and obsessive wanderings.


Video
Synopsis
Stills
Trailer
Screenings
Texts
Credits
Trailer
Screenings
Festivals
2021
Frauen* Film Fest Dortmund+Köln, Online Fest, DE/Online
2018
CPH:DOX, International Documentary Film Festival Copenhagen, DK
2018
Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen Films, Graz, AT
2018
Urban Bloom Festival, Vienna, AT
2017
Viennale, Vienna International Film Festival, Vienna, AT
Screenings
2024
FOCUS ON: Lisa Truttmann, Breitenseer Lichtspiele, Vienna, AT
2022
Screening & Artist Talk, Open Space, Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf, DE
2021
Le Studio Film und Bühne, Vienna, AT
2019
aCinema, Milwaukee, US
2018
Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles, US
2018
The Nightingale, Chicago, US
2018
UnionDocs, Center for Documentary Art, New York City, US
Theatrical release
2018
Bertha DocHouse London, UK
2018
Breitenseer Lichtspiele Vienna, AT
2018
Admiral Kino Vienna, AT
2018
Moviemento Linz, AT
2018
Leo Kino Innsbruck, AT
2018
KIZ Royal Kino Graz, AT
2018
Cinema Paradiso St. Pölten, AT
2018
Programmkino Wels, AT
2018
Filmgalerie Krems, AT
2018
Metro Kinokulturhaus Vienna, AT
Exhibitions
2019
Tracks of Documentability, Fünfzigzwanzig, Salzburg, AT
2018
Lullaby – Das Untermarkersdorfexperiment, Krinzinger Lesehaus, Untermarkersdorf, AT
Texts
Gefräßige Allianzen zwischen Fremdheit und unheimlich Vertrautem
Press text, Claudia Slanar
May 2018
Lisa Truttmann’s TARPAULINS
Crucial viewing
Cine-file, Mike Metzger
August 10, 2018
Lisa Truttmann:
"In the essay film, not everything can be verified"
Desistfilm.com, Interview by Vladimir Seput
April 5, 2018
Filmdoku "Tarpaulins":
Eine L.A.-Story des Ungeziefers
Lisa Truttmanns Doku-Essay folgt den Kammerjägern und entdeckt ein anderes Bild der Metropole
Der Standard, Dominik Kamalzadeh
June 19, 2018
Im Bann der Planen und Termiten
"Tarpaulins", ein Essayfilm der Wienerin Lisa Truttmann, lässt sich von bunten
Häuser-Abdeckplanen in Los Angeles zu einem irrlichternden Gedankenparcours verleiten.
Die Presse, Andrey Arnold
June 26, 2018
Von Städten, Termiten und bunten Planen: Tarpaulins
Falter 25/18, Sabina Zeithammer
Zum Kreislauf von Leben und Tod
Lisa Truttmann Filmessay "Tarpaulins" klärt Geheimnisse
um kalifornische Hänse, die von Zeltplanen verhüllt sind.
Die Furche, Otto Friedrich
June 21, 2018
Tarpaulins
Home Invasion
Ray Filmmagazin, Oliver Stangl
Edition 6/18
"Tarpaulins": Die Kunst der Termiten
Die Wiener Filmemacherin Lisa Truttmann
zeigt die Auswirkungen der Termiten-Abwehrmaßnahmen in Los Angeles
Viennale Standard, Michael Pekler
October 25, 2017
Credits
Austrian Distribution
Filmgarten
Experts
Mads P. Sulbaek Andersen, Alejo Oßeso, John Ruddock, Michael Rust, Robert Schwartz
Additional Voices
Sonja Bertucci, Verena Dürr, Ben Neufeld, Andy Rector, Tamara Rosenblum, Lisa Truttmann
Hands
Nora Sweeney, Behrouz Rae
Tent Hunters
Ruben Acevedo, Bertha Alicia Aguilar García, ­Rebecca ­Baron, Manuela de la Borde, Betzy Bromberg, Alexi ­Gehring, Joshua Gen Solondz, Silvia Kochinski, Laura Kraning, Valentina ­Pelayo, Luciano Piazza, Behrouz Rae, Nora Sweeney, Heather Trawick, Solomon Turner, Elizabeth Webb.
Supporting Filmmaker
Nora Sweeney
Sound Recordists
Sonja Bertucci, Pin-Hua Chen, Ben Neufeld, Behrouz Rae, Andy Rector, Jacob Rimler, Jessica Smith, Nora Sweeney
Production Advisor
Nora Friedel
Technical Advisors
Gordon Kurowski, Paul Kyle, Ben Neufeld
Sound Mix
Aidan Reynolds
Voice Coach
Ben Neufeld
Interview Transcription
Andy Rector
Subtitle Translation
Bertha Alicia Aguilar García
Mentors
Thom Andersen, Rebecca Baron, James Benning, Chris Hill, Gary Mairs, Bérénice Reynaud
Thanks to
John Ruddock and Jennifer Dee, Ruddock’s Termite Control; Alejo Oßeso, Felix Oßeso and the workers of his crew; Katya Arata Quiroga, Angela Quevedo and the crew of Circus Vargas; Ruben Acevedo, Yair Agmon, Natalia Almada, Thom Andersen, Bertha Alicia Aguilar García, Vivian Bao, Rebecca Baron, Amy Basen, Heather Beckmann, Duane Bennish - Elastec, James Benning, Kevin Berritz, Sonja Bertucci, Simone Bliss - Austrian Consulate General Los Angeles, Betzy Bromberg, Antonina Clarke, Sílvia das Fadas, Manuela De Laborde, Nora Friedel, Harry Gamboa, Joshua Gen Solondz, Jill Godmilow, Tian Guan, Manuel Hartmann, Charlie Hayes, Chris Hill, Michael Ned Holte, Adele Horne, Edgar Jorge-Baralt, Becka Klauber Richter, Silvia Kochinski, Laura Kraning, Nicole Krenn, Gordon Kurowski, Paul Kyle, Matthew Lax, Taeho Lee, Sharon Lockhart, Gary Mairs, Ben Neufeld, Christina C Nguyen, Patti Palmer, Luciano Piazza, Stefanie Pichler, Leighton Pierce, Charlotte Pryce, Behrouz Rae, Andy Rector, Bérénice Reynaud, Mike Rice, Jacob Rimler, Diego Robles, Tamara Rosenblum, Michael Rust, Ines Schaber, Robert Schwartz, Matthew Seidman, Terry Spraker, Lana Sharp, Zanete Skarule, Deborah Stratman, Mads P. Sulbaek Andersen, Nora Sweeney, Frieda, Ingrid, Erwin, Nina, Vera Truttmann, Alfredo Valle, Elizabeth Webb, Jonathan Weisburst, Louie Weiss, Billy Woodberry, Gerald Zahn, Anna Zwingl
Supported by
CalArts, Bundeskanzleramt Österreich, Land Niederösterreich, Stadt Wien