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Tracing Paths - Innovative documentary shorts that use unconventional methods to investigate their subject matter. These filmmakers challenge our notions of the production of history and memory. From Abigail Child’s appropriated family history in The Future is Behind You to Benita Raphan’s delightful animated musings on Buckminster Fuller in The Critical Path to Nurjahan Akhlaq’s hauntingly beautiful Death in the Garden of Paradise, we see how images can construct memory. Till Passow’s The Ecstatic meditates on the transformative powers of a pilgrimage while Gloriana Severdija’s Night takes us on a sweeping journey through nocturnal Berlin. Including Cynthia Madansky’s The PSA Project. |
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Exquisite Luminance - The films in this program are marked by a beautiful and ingenious sensitivity to their subjects. They articulate the subtleties of light, form, content and montage in ways that celebrate the moving image. From Tirtza Even’s urban space wizardry in Icarus, to Leighton Pierce’s sublime video manipulations in Viscera, to Lisl Ponger’s politicized constructions of race, ethnicity and class in Phantom Foreign Vienna, to Mara Mattushka’s delightful collaboration with choreographer Chris Haring in Legal Errorist, be prepared to have your retina tickled and your thoughts provoked. Including Cynthia Madansky’s PSA Project, Penny Lane’s We Are the Littletons: A True Story, Kerry Laitala’s Torchlight Tango, and James T. Hong’s The Form of the Good. |
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The Joy of Life - "The changing light of San Francisco is a sea light, an island light..."- Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Get ready to be seduced by the changing qualities of light and the sublime landscapes of San Francisco in Jenni Olson's 16mm feature-film debut. A hybrid of experimental, documentary and narrative filmmaking styles, this unique film charts the life, loves and losses of a sensitive butch dyke, lyrically narrated by Los Angeles artist, actor and director Harriet "Harry" Dodge (By Hook or by Crook). A compelling narrative and magnificent landscape cinematography are skillfully interwoven through a personal account of loves lost and gained and a rumination on the making of Frank Capra's Meet John Doe. Olson's background as a film historian shines through in this moving juxtaposition of a Hollywood-scripted story of suicide and the narrator's attempts to reconcile grief over a friend's suicide. in both the Hollywood and 'real-life' stories, the Golden Gate Bridge is a central character with its own complex history that is explored further in the documentary portion of the film. This heartfelt story comes full circle in its final revelation: The landscapes of our environment often play themselves out in our emotional geographies. |
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Motion Studies - This international selection of experimental shorts features manipulations of appropriated footage, creations of alternate parallel worlds and meditations on the meaning of family. Films include, It’s Not My Memory of It: Three Recollected Documents (Julia Meltzer & David Thorne) An investigation of secrecy, memory and classified documents; Papillon d’amour (Nicolas Provost), a mesmerizing manipulation of Rashomon; imAgo (Nikos Veliotis) which questions television’s role as a creator of idealized images; You Define Single File (Random Touch), a cryptic symbol-laden message from space; The Greater Vehicle (Robert Fox) An ode to group salvation through public transport; Martin (Bill Basquin), a formal study and a sociological vignette; Not Too Much Remember (Tony Gault), exploring the power of storytelling; Papa Blue (Charlene Shih), the story about a father and daughter’s journeys through depression; and The Happy Three Family (Karen Vanderborght) a surreal spin on the biblical tale of The Three Wise Men. |
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Reality Dreams - Come explore the landscapes of nature and the human mind. Be prepared for some surprise endings and life lessons not to be forgotten. In Victor Quinaz's Chinese Dream, a young man spends his life in endless toil. His sweat seeds a dream that even his overbearing boss cannot stifle. Jung Min-Young's The Way is a quiet, beautifully animated tale of an old railroad crossing-gate master and his reaction to a terrible accident. Hare-Hunting's contemplative story about a young boy and his grandfather coming to terms with the death of a loved one is beautifully rendered by Igor Voloshin. Dad’s Dead by Chris Shepherd is a multilayered animated film in which a young man tries to piece together fragmented moments from the past through a series of ghostly remembrances. Inspired by Poe’s The Raven, Tallulah H. Schwab's surreal comedy The Man in the Cupboard, turns into an intense battle over a secret garden. Also includes Séverine Cornamusaz's My Mother’s Motorbike and Igor Ivanov's Bugs. |
All texts © Maïa Cybelle Carpenter 1999-2009 All images © Artists |