Fireflies #5
Now on its fifth issue, film magazine Fireflies turns its attention towards two movie greats: German actress, director and screenwriter Angela Schanelec, and iconic Belgian-born director Agnes Varda. With pieces from around twenty-four different contributors, the issue includes collages, essays, photographs, postcards and fables that respond to either Schanelec or Varda’s films, and the outcome is a beautiful scrapbook of varied content.
Founded by Annabel Brady-Brown and Giovanni Marchini Camia, Fireflies describes itself as ‘created somewhere between Berlin and Melbourne’, bringing together an international group of writers and visual artists. Every issue responds to the work of two different filmmakers, and interviews the two of them. This is the first time that both have been female, which makes a refreshing change in an industry that is, as recent times have shown, all too dominated by toxic masculinity.
Both filmmakers get their own front cover, and each have half the magazine, meeting in the middle with a multiple page collage of images from both their films (above), sandwiched between interviews with both directors. Elsewhere, Brigitta B. Wagner considers Schanelec’s depictions of Berlin (below), Leo Goldsmith looks closely at several extracts from her scripts in his essay ‘Uncertain Spaces’, and through poetry, Agnes Godard recalls working on Varda’s film Jacquot de Nantes (also below).
Fireflies is a great read for seasoned cinephiles. It speaks to its readers with assumed knowledge, but it’s difficult to find a footing in the issue if you are not already very familiar with the works of Schalenec and Varda.
Editors: Annabel Brady-Brown and Giovanni Marchini Camia
Art dirtector: James Geoffrey Nunn