Samira Elagoz
Craigslist Allstars
[:en]Through Craigslist, an internationally active internet network, performance artist Samira Elagoz arranges one-on-one meetings with a wide variety of men in three cities and explores how the camera influences intimacy between two strangers: The documentarian and the subject. The set up is simple – she brings a camera, and films how they get to know each other. Every encounter is real and unscripted.
Weaving her own presence in and out of the various scenes, she becomes part of the narrative. Instead of making a film she enters one. It makes little difference in which part of the world her subjects are living – they are all lonely in some way, shape or form.
Director, camera, edit, producer: Samira Elagoz
With the support of: The Finnish Cultural Foundation, SNDO (AHK)
About Director
Samira Elagoz (1989, Helsinki) is a Finnish/Egyptian artist currently based in Amsterdam. She graduated as a choreography BA from the Amsterdam University of the Arts in 2016. For the last years she has meticulously explored the possibilities of encounters with strangers through screens, lenses and cyberspace. She has used various internet platforms like Craigslist and Tinder to find everyday normal co-stars for her works.
In 2014 Elagoz won the visual art competition Blooom Award in Cologne out of 1200 applicants, with her first short film Four Kings. In 2016 her performance/documentary Cock, Cock.. Who’s There? won the André Veltkamp Award. Her first feature film Craigslist Allstars premiered at IDFA, and has been chosen to the main competition for best international films to CPH:DOX, March 2017[:nl]Samira Elagoz spreekt via Craigslist af met mannen die ze niet kent, ook al heeft haar moeder haar goed opgevoed en verteld dat ze nooit met vreemden moet meegaan. Ze zijn eenzaam de mannen. Ze hebben gezichten, lichamen, levens: allemaal verschillend. In drie verschillende steden registreert ze met een camera hoe haar nobele onbekenden en zij als documenteerder op elkaar reageren. Er is geen script, alles wat je ziet is echt. Het resultaat is een vrouwelijke blik op hoe mannen naar hen kijken, een intiem en soms schokkend verhaal dat enkel bestaat uit eerste ontmoetingen en al het handengewring dat daarbij komt kijken.