Representations of Leaving | Queer Death and heavens
Los Angeles Filmforum presents
Representations of Leaving | Queer Death and heavens
Sunday, June 2, 2019, 7:30 pm
At the Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028
Curator Finn Paul and filmmakers Matthew Lax and Jordan Wong in person!
1 US and 3 LA premieres!
These 8 films approach loss and lineages through experimental visual strategies that document rebirths and Queer utopic visions. Calling out a shared invitation to a then and there, leaving behind and moving towards a Queer sublime, the diverse strategies in these films weave together a step out of harm and endings in this time, to something fuller, vaster, and more beautiful. Curated by Finn Paul.
Tickets: $10 general; $6 students (with ID)/seniors; free for Filmforum Members. Available in advance from Brown Paper Tickets at https://bpt.me/4245334 or at the door.
For more information: www.lafilmforum.org or 323-377-7238.
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Los Angeles Filmforum screenings are supported by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles. We also depend on our members, ticket buyers, and individual donors.
Vever (For Barbara)
Vever (For Barbara)
By Deborah Stratman
(US, 2018, color, sound, 12 min.) LA Premiere!
A cross-generational binding of three filmmakers seeking alternative possibilities to power structures they’re inherently part of. The film grew out of abandoned film projects of Maya Deren and Barbara Hammer. Shot at the furthest point of a motorcycle trip Hammer took to Guatemala in 1975, and laced through with Deren’s reflections of failure, encounter and initiation in 1950s Haiti. A vever is a symbolic drawing used in Haitian Voodoo to invoke a Loa, or god. For more on the film, see: https://walkerart.org/magazine/deborah-stratman-vever
Unconfessions
Unconfessions
By Ana Galizia
(Brazil, 2018, color, sound, 22 min.) US Premiere!
“Luiz Roberto Galizia was an important figure for the theatrical scene in the 1970s and 1980s. He was also an uncle I did not know. This documentary seeks a rescue of the lived, based on the record made in photographs and super 8 films by uncle Luiz and found by me 30 years after his death.” Ana Galizia
Printed Sunset
By Andres Baron
(Columbia/France, 2017, color, sound, 6 min.) LA Premiere!
The aesthetic tension between the simulated visual representation of the phases of a sunset, reproduced onto large- scale boards, is juxtaposed with the easy intimacy of the two female subjects who hold our gaze.
Pirate Boys
Pirate Boys
By Pol Merchan
(Spain/Germany, 2017, color, sound, 13 min.) LA Premiere!
Kathy Acker’s writing, and a seminal portrait of her taken by intersex photographer Del LaGrace Volcano, provide a lens through which to explore trans subjectivity and the queering of cinema. Pol Merchan’s hybrid doc fluidly moves from the documentation of the punk era to a more performative exploration of gender.
Reality Fragment 160921!
Reality Fragment 160921!
By April Lin and Jasmine Lin
(Sweden/UK/US, 2018, color, sound, 14 min.)
Reality Fragment 160921 follows two people in their process of reality-curation, as they create their own spaces against and via understandings of distance, as they go through the motions of growing themselves by growing their universes.
Brunt Drama
Brunt Drama
By Matthew Lax
(US, 2018, color, sound, 7 min.)
Androgynous figures struggle to execute various labors within a bleak, vacuous monoculture. Addressing the inherent violence of the real and the simulated, as well as the dubious pleasure of witnessing, narratives of safety, risk and use-value are tested via 3D-rendered, plastic surrogates. Choreographed motion-studies and textual, Brechtian vignettes produce alternative translations and behaviors, both acceptable and indecent. Brunt Drama manipulates the slipperiness of affect-inducing data visualizations intended to ameliorate fear into consumption — presenting a simulation of the unrepresentable, visible from both sides of the screen.
Moms Clothes
Moms Clothes
By Jordan Wong
(US, 2018, color, sound, 5 min.)
A nonfiction reflection on navigating queerness privately and publicly. It's taken me a long time to be as comfortable as I am and it doesn't always get better, but you're beautiful however you decide to present, including the choice of garments you decide to wear.
Reluctantly Queer
Reluctantly Queer
By Akosua Adoma Owusu
(US/Ghana, 2016, b&w, sound, 8 min.)
This epistolary short film invites us into the unsettling life of a young Ghanaian man struggling to reconcile his love for his mother with his love for same-sex desire amid the increased tensions incited by same-sex politics in Ghana. Focused on a letter that is ultimately filled with hesitation and uncertainty, Reluctantly Queer both disrobes and questions what it means to be queer for this man in this time and space.