A Series of Mysteries: The 52nd Ann Arbor Film Festival Traveling Tour
Fe26 by Kevin Jerome Everson
Happy New Year! Filmforum dives into its 40th anniversary year with our second show of the week, highlights of contemporary works from around the world. The Ann Arbor Film Festival Traveling Tour gives Los Angeles audiences a chance to see the best new experimental films and digital works. Digital Program A features nine films including Mystery, the short narrative by Spanish filmmaker (and AAFF favorite) Chema García Ibarra; Cut, the most recent film by German artists Matthias Muller and Christoph Girardet; Michael Robinson’s The Dark, Krystle, which brilliantly repurposes the 80s television program Dynasty; Broken Tongue, Mónica Savirón’s animated collaboration with poet Tracie Morris; Kevin Jerome Everson’s Fe26, a portrait of two men scrapping copper in Cleveland (52 AAFF Jury Award); Gowanus Canal, Sarah Christman’s beautifully abstracted depiction of one of the most contaminated urban waterways in the United States (52 AAFF Gil Omenn Art & Science Award); Mountain in Shadow, Lois Patiño’s sublime film of skiers set in immense mountainous landscapes; the ecstatic, recursive animation Division by Dutch artist Johan Rijpma (52 AAFF Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for Emerging Experimental Video Artist); and 52 AAFF audience favorite Suchy Pion (Dry Standpipe) by Polish artist Wojciech Bąkowski, a collage of home videos condensed into blocks of abstraction with a wry, melancholy confessional narration.
Tickets: $10 general, $6 students/seniors; free for Filmforum members. Available by credit card in advance from Brown Paper Tickets at http://bpt.me/1092995 or at the door.
The AAFF is the longest-running film festival tour, having pioneered the concept in 1964. The 52nd AAFF Tour runs from August 2014 through February 2015, screening in galleries, art house theaters, universities, media art centers and cinematheques throughout North America.
Misterio (Mystery)
Misterio (Mystery)
by Chema García Ibarra
Elche, Spain | 2013 | 12min
They say that if you put your ear to the back of his neck, you can hear the Virgin talk. —CGI
Los Angeles premiere!
The Dark, Krystle
The Dark, Krystle
by Michael Robinson
Brooklyn, NY | 2013 | 9.5 min
The cabin is on fire! Krystle can’t stop crying, Alexis won’t stop drinking, and the fabric of existence hangs in the balance, again and again and again. —MR
“The Dark, Krystle brilliantly repurposes the artificiality of stock gesture, allowing viewers to see its hollowness and to feel it recharging with new emotional power. Equal parts archival fashion show and feminist morality play, Robinson’s montage rekindles the unfinished business of identity, consumption, and excess in 1980s pop culture.” —Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago
Cut
Cut
by Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet
Hannover & Bielefeld, Germany | 2013 | 13 min
A body as a wound that never heals.
N. American Premiere at 52nd AAFF.
Broken Tongue
Broken Tongue
by Mónica Savirón
New York, NY | 2013 | 3min
Los Angeles Premiere!
Broken Tongue is an ode to the freedom of movement, association, and expression. It pays homage to the diaspora of the different waves of migration, and challenges the way we represent our narratives. It is a search for a renewed consciousness, for reinvention, a “what if,” the formal equivalent of asking a question expressed with a broken tongue – or not so broken after all.
Mainly made with images from the January 1st issues of The New York Times since its beginning in 1851 to 2013, Broken Tongue is a heartfelt tribute to avant-garde sound performer Tracie Morris and to her poem “Afrika.” —MS
World Premiere at 52nd AAFF
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/107107825
Fe26
Fe26
by Kevin Jerome Everson
Charlottesville, VA | 2014 | 7.5 min
Fe26 follows two gentlemen around the East Side of Cleveland, Ohio and examines the tensions between illegal work—in this case, the stealing of manhole covers and copper piping—and the basic survival tactics that exist in areas of high unemployment.
52nd AAFF Jury Award
Gowanus Canal
Gowanus Canal
by Sarah J. Christman
Brooklyn, NY | 2013 | 7 min
Just below the surface of one of the most contaminated urban waterways in the United States, microorganisms thrive amidst the toxic waste.
52nd AAFF Gil Omenn Art & Science Award
Mountain in Shadow
Mountain in Shadow
by Lois Patiño
Madrid, Spain | 2012 | 14 min
A contemplative look toward the snowy mountain and skiers’ activity on it.
The vastness of the mountainside contrasts with the insignificance of the people on it, almost invisible by distance. Starting from the white snow, the image of the film becomes increasingly darker, transforming the space into something unreal, dreamlike and spectral. The skiers become artificially illuminated, now more visible as they appear to slide down the slopes in a hypnotic movement. – LP
Los Angeles premiere!
Division
Division
by Johan Rijpma
Netherlands | 2012 | 1 min | Video
A piece of paper is divided by hand into an even number of pieces and then reassembled. A photograph of this finished composition is then printed and divided again. This makes the impossible possible, tearing the now included empty spaces that make up the tears in the paper. The feedback division process is repeated while the number of imprecise manual divisions gradually increased. - JR
52nd AAFF Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for Emerging Experimental Video Artist
Los Angeles Premiere!
Suchy Pion (Dry Standpipe)
Suchy Pion (Dry Standpipe)
by Wojciech Bakowski
Poznan ́, Poland | 2013 | 13 min
A raw, personal, confessional narration undercuts the abstract images in Polish artist, musician and poet Wojciech Bakowski's interlaced video collage Suchy Pion. Condensing home videos into blocks of abstraction, Bakowski creates a startling account of depression, numbness and paradoxical lucidity. - Andréa Picard
US Premiere at 52nd AAFF. Los Angeles Premiere!