Experimentations 5: Ritualizing Knowledge Systems

DZATA: The Institute of Technological Consciousness (2022) Courtesy of Knoetze, Hlongwane and Wilson

Los Angeles Filmforum presents

Experimentations: Imag(in)ing Knowledge in Film, Program 5: 

Ritualizing Knowledge Systems

Sunday October 6, 2024, 7:30pm 

At 2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90057

Tickets: $10 general, $ students/seniors, free for Filmforum members

at https://link.dice.fm/ae51de6ad7c4

Discussion after the screening with, in person, Adebukola Bodunrin & Ezra Clayton Daniels and on Zoom, filmmaker/curator Daniel Muchina and filmmaker Philippa Ndisi Herrmann

This program of short experimental films and videos expands on the process of ritualizing bodies of knowledge, highlighting the role film plays as a cultural interface that engages sacred reflections and revelations informing the performance of rituals for cultural inheritance. Films from Russel Hlongwane, Francois Knoetze & Amy Wilson, Jim Chuchu, Philippa Ndisi Herrmann, Adebukola Bodunrin & Ezra Clayton Daniels, and anaïs extend the limits of its artistic form to include divergent worldviews. The aforementioned filmmakers use the technological capacity of cinema to manipulate the temporal and spatial in order to stage complex multi-dimensional stories, in turn reproducing memories and re-integrating repressed knowledge systems and cultural heritage.

Curated by Wangechi Ngugi and Daniel Muchina.

Daniel Muchina is a film & video artist working and living in Nairobi, Kenya. He's the co-founder and director at Monsoons Studio, an independently registered and licensed film production company. Muchina is currently the artistic director, researcher and writer for Art & Science Films Afrika (ASFA) a program designed to investigate ritual practices in prehistoric Africa, and the role art plays as a vestige of the knowledge informing these rituals. Using film and video art, the program seeks to build a bridge to link indigenous systems of knowledge embodied in African mythologies with modern Africa. 

Wangechi Ngugi is an award-winning film producer and curator based in Nairobi, Kenya. With a deep passion for cinematic storytelling, she collaborates with filmmakers and artists to create impactful and resonant narratives. Wangechi is also the co-founder of Monsoons Creative Studio, a leading film production company in Kenya.

Adebukola Bodunrin is a Nigerian-Canadian film and video artist who is interested in the realms of language, culture, and media. Her innovative animations employ unconventional manual and digital techniques to create unique textural and narrative experiences. Her work has been featured at IFFR, Images Festival, Anthology Film Archives, BFI, REDCAT, MCA Chicago, Festival Animator, the Black Cinema House, and is in the permanent collection at the Whitney Museum. Her work on KCET’s “Lost LA” series earned her an LA Area Emmy for segment direction. Her latest short film, We Are Not Alone, marks her debut in live-action direction and had its world premiere at SXSW 2024.

Ezra Claytan Daniels is a mixed-race American multidisciplinary artist and creator of the award-winning graphic novels Upgrade Soul (Oni Press) and BTTM FDRS (Fantagraphics Books). His short story "Pressure," was included in Jordan Peele's NYT Best-Selling horror anthology Out There Screaming, published by Random House. Ezra currently resides in Los Angeles, where he writes for film and television, including Doom Patrol for HBO Max and the upcoming remake of Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs for Monkeypaw Productions.

Of German and Kenyan heritage, Philippa Ndisi Herrmann is multi-disciplinary, straddling photography, poetry, documentary and fiction film. She is best known for Seeds (Ecumenical Jury Prize, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen 2017) and her feature documentary, New Moon (Best Documentary, DIFF 2018). Philippa is also an actress, astrologer and psychic medium. She is based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Experimentations: Imag(In)ing Knowledge in Film is Filmforum’s expansive film series and upcoming publication that investigates the ways that experimental and scientific films produce and question the visualization of the world.  Combining artist films utilizing scientific imagery, science and natural history films, and films of indigenous and traditional knowledge, the series examines how science, nature, and technology films shape our understanding of humans, nature, gender, knowledge, and progress.  The multi-venue public screening series presents analog and digital time-based media incorporating diverse scientific and experimental film traditions from across the globe.  The series will include eighteen screenings between September 2024 and February 2025, with films and digital works from 1874 to today from around the world, multiple guests, panels and wonderful collaborations that will reveal the possibilities and circumstances of cinema in this realm

Experimentations: Imag(in)ing Knowledge in Film is among more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. Returning in September 2024 with its latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit: pst.art.  

Major support for Experimentations: Imag(in)ing Knowledge in Film is provided by the Getty Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.  Additional Support from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture, and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.