Rita Macedo
Filmmaker, video artist and film programmer based in Berlin • Rita’s works often operate within the realm of documentary and speculative fiction, with a focus on meaning, memory and history • Artistic associate at the Braunschweig University of Art since 2018.
Rita’s work has been shown at numerous exhibitions and festivals, including, European Media Art Festival, Berwick Film and Media Art Festival, Hamburg Short Film Festival, IndieLisboa International Film Festival, Kasseler Dokfest, São Paulo International Short Film Festival, Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, New Horizons International Film Festival, Curtas Vila do Conde, Encounters South Africa Documentary Film Festival, amongst others.
rita.macedo.inbox[at]gmail[dot]com
@rita_void
Black Hole Descending
Film • 10′19″ • sound (stereo) • ENG • 2025
You are about to die.
Your death rite of choice is Celestial Bridging.
Black Hole Descending is a meditation on death, observation and fluidity of meaning within the vastness of space. In it, the boundaries between life and death blur as an obscure death ritual unfolds. The ritual, named Celestial Bridging, involves journeying to the edge of a black hole, from where a subject’s near-death vision is relayed outwardly, transmitted to distant observers beyond the black hole’s distortion. As time behaves differently near the event horizon, what seems brief to the dying subject stretches into prolonged moments for those watching.
Invoking tropes of cinematic science fiction and classical canon, the work contemplates end-of-life moments, convoluting the roles of witness, participant and spectator amongst one another. The solemn tone is unsettled by an arriving near-death vision that hints at desire and physicality, while underscoring the unpredictability of memory and experience. As the unforeseen vision displays long lasting moments of existential contemplation, the moment of death is reframed as a possible outcome of queer imaginings.
Written, directed and edited by Rita Macedo • Cinematography Andre Elbeshausen, Hannah Jung • Sound Yair Elazar Glotman, Rita Macedo