A journey from Earth to Heaven and back

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Experiental short film | DV PAL |16:9 | 00:19:29:21

concept | camera work | visual editing | sound design / mix alexandra reill
production kanonmedia | vienna / austria // andalusia / spain 2006

… the pervasion of feelings of mundane phenomenae, of mundane life, a good bye from beloved ones and an hommage for love – the film Above the Skies is a journey from Earth to Heaven and back.

What does suffering mean? What does pain to life? Views on daily life-situations in the cities and the country of Andalusia. Small moments of playful impressions, doubled, continuously doubled to maintain a glance through things. The pervasion of feelings of mundane phenomenae, of mundane life, a good bye from beloved ones and an hommage for love. A journey from earth to heaven and back.

Above the Skies uses the framework of Alexandra Reill’s journey through Andalusia and her impressions of the region and culture to research the character of suffering and pain experienced by any human being in life and to interpret a real visual world according to the inner perception and interpretation of the phenomenon.

The aesthetic worlds of Andalusia with its dark, dramatic, tragic feel of catholicism, at the same time bear the traces of the heyday of the caliphs with all their palaces and mosques. Wisdom as search – traces of a multicultural life composed of maurean, jewish and catholic impact. The Europe Square as a monument marking actual and former claims to imperial greatness – claims coming from history and traditions, from dispositions, from attitudes. Ponderous baroque followed Gothic and Arabic transparency and lightness. It was built into elder monuments as if colonialism ever managed to erase traits of roots of origin. Abandoned Jewish quarters carrying museal character to be looked at by tourists.

Electronically treated sound samples of the Middle Ages – ballades from the times of Alfonso X El Sabio (1221-1284), Elisabeth the Catholic (1410-1563), Nasrid Dynasty (1410-1563) and the Jewish Culture – contribute to itensify this collage of visual impressions and transform it into an oeuvre of immersion of feelings and thoughts.

As if life could be forgotten.

Above the Skies screenings at

— alexandra reill solo exhibition | art & science / vie / a / 10
— underdog filmfest / vie / a / 07
— performance days istanbul / istanbul / tr / 07
— blue box / vienna / austria / 07
— sodaArt / vienna / austria / 06

Above the Skies listed in | featured by

— esel.kulturkalender / vie / a / 10
— medienwerkstatt wien | video edition austria release 02. 4. sonic patterns. catalogue / vie / a / 09
— ego art prize festival 4th year / sk / 08
— file electronic language international festival / brazil / 07
— osdir / int / 07
— rhizome artbase / nyc / us / 07
— egoart / sk / 07
— turbulence networked performance / nyc / us / 07
— eyebeam / int / 07