Shorts 4: New Visions

Description

Curated by Chi-hui Yang

In this collection of new experimental film and video works, the Black diaspora, Bangladesh’s 1970s revolutionary left, life on the Turkish-Syrian border, the faux artifact industry in Morocco and more are framed through exquisite formal innovations. Global circulations—of bodies, images and objects—connect these six works, and speak to larger questions of authenticity, solidarities, utopias and hard realities.

Total running time 71min

Abu Ammar Is Coming
A black-and-white photo of five men in 1980s Lebanon opens a speculative inquiry into the history of Bangladeshi freedom fighters in the PLO. (Naeem Mohaiemen, Bangladesh/Lebanon/UK 2016, 6 min)

False Start (Faux Depart)
The production of fake fossils in Morocco’s arid Atlas Mountains offers an opportunity for sharp and wry commentary on the art world, the hunger for authenticity, the truth of objects and the artistry of forgery. (Yto Barrada, Morocco 2015, 22 min)

Many Thousands Gone
Gorgeous 16mm images shot in Harlem, New York, and Salvador, Brazil (the last city in the Western hemisphere to abolish slavery), link the past, present and future of the Black diaspora. (Ephraim Asili, Brazil/USA 2015, 8 min)

My Allepo
In a young family’s cramped Pretoria apartment far from Syria, the suspended time of exile is punctuated by the heartbreak and guilt of news from home. (Melissa Langer, USA 2015, 19 min)
This is a Cinema by the Bay film.

Sept-Oct 2015, Cizre
When conflict erupts in the Turkish border town of Cizre, cell phones provide visual evidence of the aftermath. But what happens to the real world when these screens augment reality? (belit sag, Turkey/Netherlands 2015, 15 min)

Untitled
A map and stock photos condense migration, race and geopolitics into a pithy punch. (Behrouz Rae, USA 2015, 1 min)