Film Screening „Ash and Money“ (2013) by Tilt Ojasoo & Ene-Liis Kemper
Tiit Ojasoo & Ene-Liis Semper, „Ash and Money“, 2013, Film Still, Credit: Allfilm and NO99.
“Election Day” Film Screening, Part 1:
“Ash and Money“ (2013) by Tiit Ojasoo and Ene-Liis Semper
98 min, original version (Estonian) with English subtitles
The screening program accompanying the group exhibition "Election Day" highlights projects initiated by artists as political options for (or against) the electoral system and explores the issues addressed in the show –starting with the staged nature of election campaigns to performance in politics or the manipulative rhetoric of populists.
Politics as performance. This is what literally happens in “Ash and Money”, a fascinating Estonian documentary about the founding of Unified Estonia (Ühtne Eesti) in 2010, a fictitious political movement created by Theatre NO99 that a large portion of the public treated as a real political force. For the 44 days from the first press conference to the culmination of the founding assembly of the fictitious party with 7000 people attending, Unified Estonia was followed by a film team that thoroughly documented the project. “Ash and Money” not only shows what happened in Estonia during these 44 turbulent days but above all reveals how populist parties—such as Unified Estonia—operate and manipulate the people.