PARIS.- To mark the release of RESISTANCE[S] III – the latest volume of a DVD collection of experimental film and video art from the Middle East and North Africa by French label Lowave – the BFI is thrilled to present a programme curated by Silke Schmickl and Christine Sehnaoui. It will be introduced by the curators and some of the artists and followed by a Q&A after the screening. DVD launch reception at the Filmstore after the programme.

RESISTANCE[S] III, is the third volume of this collection of experimental film and video art from the Middle East and North Africa. Featuring nine artists from a variety of cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, these intimate, poetic and documentary works are witness to the region's complexity, vitality and diversity of creative energies. Distanced from the usual stereotypes, the artists aim to explore existential, political and aesthetic issues of our times while opening up to new narrative perspectives that break with our media's monotonous and repetitive imagery. They present us with new perspectives on time and space, movement and memory, history and personal experience, without neglecting the place of women in society.

Lowave is an independent film label founded in 2002 by Marc Horchler and Silke Schmickl to promote experimental film and contemporary video art and make them accessible beyond the film festival and gallery circuit. Our catalogue features artists with varied backgrounds working with different techniques and multiple modes of expression, and ranges from abstract experimental films to militant documentaries. Alongside historic figures such as Marguerite Duras, Maurice Lemaítre, Takahiko Iimura, and Helga Fanderl, Lowave has put forward some of the most important young artists from around the world.

Lowave provides an insight into the vibrant world of contemporary artistic creation. The Lowave catalogue features artists with a background in video art, such as Francois Guiton, Zineb Sedira, HC Gilje, Mounir Fatmi and Triny Prada, experimental filmmakers such as Massimilian and Nina Breeder and Raqs Media Collective, literary filmmakers such as Franccoise Romand, avant-garde musicians such as Rodolphe Burger and Yoshishiro Hanno, and live performers such as Label Ombres, Yuki Kawamura and Project_Singe. Brought together under the Lowave label, these films resonate with each other. Trends are clearly visible in the skilled creativity which forms the foundation of Lowave's catalogue: the simultaneous creation of both sound and image; the dissipation of the human form; the work on urban landscapes; political and regional subjects.

In addition to individual, monographic titles, the Lowave catalogue also features an important number of compilations, including Different Cinema, a collection of experimental film co-edited with the Collectif Jeune Cinéma, Hors Pistes, co-produced with the Pompidou Center, Resistance[s], Re:Frame and Conditioned, three collections of avant-garde Arab and Indian and Turkish film and video art. A series of documentaries on art, artists at work, as well as portraits complete the label's editorial selection.

Lowave is constantly being asked to contribute to exhibitions and programs for museums, art galleries, and cultural institutions including the Pompidou Centre and Cinémathèque Francaise in Paris, the British Film Institute in London, the CCCB in Barcelona, the Guangzhou Triennial in China, The Oslo Cinemathek, Du Bois Institute in Harvard etc.

Lowave conceives thematic or monographic film programs for international film festivals such as International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Aurora Norwich, Vidéoformes Clermont-Ferrand, Instants Vidéo Marseille, and the Tokyo Film Festival and is always interested in developing new cooperations.

Almost all of the works in the Lowave collection are available on different formats for screening and exhibition internationally. Rental costs vary depending on the individual work and the type of exhibition (whether a single screening or an extended loan).