Shorts 4: New Visions
Description
Total running time 73 min
In this presentation of new experimental film and video works, a hunt in the high grass of Brazil, a trip through a Maroon village in Jamaica, and front-row tickets to a water show are just some of the places visited. From different parts of the world, these films’ formal audacity are connected through observations of place and larger questions of identity, authenticity, and playfulness that arise from these locales.
Bloopers
If at first you can’t succeed, try again…and again…and again…and again…
(Karissa Hahn, USA 2017, 3 min)
If I Were Any Further Away I’d Be Closer to Home
Labor has its own rhythms, as does nature, in this silent, sharp, and observant film that blurs memories and movement into something familiar.
(Rajee Samarasinghe, USA/Sri Lanka 2016, 15 min)
It Is What It Is
One photo starts a series of questions in this personal documentary that searches for answers among family videos and fragmented conversations that further cloud the truth.
(Cyrus YoshiTabar, USA 2016, 8 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film
Kindah
From deep blue coasts to the bricks of buildings, shots from the Maroon village of Accompong, Jamaica, and Hudson, New York, combine to explore history in the present—one film in a series examining the filmmaker’s relationship to the African Diaspora.
(Ephraim Asili, Jamaica/USA 2016, 12 min)
There Is Land! (Há Terra!)
A man laughs and yells “There is land!” repeatedly as the hunter and hunted, a young woman, and the wild are discovered, encountered, claimed, and preyed upon.
(Ana Vaz, Brazil 2016, 13 min)
Turtles Are Always Home
Facades of buildings, numbers on walls, reflections of a woman in dimmed windows. All of these are precisely documented, examined, and observed in a place that is new, yet familiar.
(Rawane Nassif, Qatar 2016, 12 min)
The Watershow Extravaganza
As the curtain rises, the Mighty Mortier Water Show band strikes up for a choreographed show of water fountains, neon lights, and delightful music in a performance just for us, however outdated it may seem.
(Sophie Michael, UK 2016, 10 min)
—Amanda Salazar