Out of Competition
North American Premiere

SECRETS FOR SALE



Country of production: USA
Year: 2003
Language: French, English
Mins: 64

Director: Elodie Pong
Cinematography: Elodie Pong,
Frederico Brinca
Music: Velma
Editing: Orsola Valenti
Sound: Yersin Luc
Producer: T. Spicher
Production company: Venus Riot Productions
Source: Thierry Spicher
Venus Riot Productions
CP 574
1000 Lausanne 17
SWITZERLAND
Phone: +41 79 626 42 22
Fax: +41 21 617 51 74
elodie_pong@hotmail.com


A conceptual art installation asks: will you sell me your secret?

Wandering into a gallery, people suddenly find themselves the subject of the installation. They must sign release forms. They must decide whether to go into the next room. They must decide whether to mask and disguise themselves. Then, they are asked to tell a personal secret directly to a video camera. Something no one else knows. After all this, they meet back up with artist Elodie Pong, who offers them a bit of money for their secret.

SECRETS FOR SALE is odd, disorienting, sometimes touching, and often funny - as when someone who just admitted having a venereal disease tries to pick up Ms. Pong. Clearly an amateur work, it nonetheless is brilliantly conceived and startlingly original.

From a statement by the director:
"Starting off with what was an artistic experience, I found myself confronted with material which was baffling, often anguished, a troubling x-ray of an era where everything is for sale.”

Elodie Pong is an experienced sculptor who recently has moved into the world of photography, video, installation, andperformance. She has had installations and shows at the Centre d'Arts in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Videoart Center in Tokyo, the Kobe Art Village Center in Cologne, and beyond. SECRETS FOR SALE grew out of an installation at the Migros Museum in Zurich.

filmography as director
SECRETS FOR SALE (2003)

Sunday 11-Apr-2004 9:00 PM Gallery Theatre