Mysteries Inside Facts: A Selection of International Contemporary Short Films
Montañas ardientes que vomitan fuego (Burning mountains that spew flame) by Samuel M. Delgado and Helena Girón
At Automata, 504 Chung King Ct, Los Angeles, CA 90012
NOTE THE CHANGE IN LOCATION!
For information call Filmforum at 323-377-7238
With filmmakers Elizabeth Lo and Christina Nguyen in attendance and introduction by programmer David Dinnell. Multiple Los Angeles premieres!
The remnants of a prehistoric ocean, volcanic tunnels, and depiction of rituals that can be seen and those that cannot are in this program of recent non-fiction films from Sweden, Spain, Brazil, Canada and the US. With filmmakers Elizabeth Lo and Christina Nguyen in attendance and introduction by programmer David Dinnell.
The program includes Shadowland, which revisits locations around Los Angeles that stood in for other parts of the world in early Hollywood films; Bisonhead which follows a family of Ponderai Native American hunters on their controversial journey to Yellowstone to assert their treaty hunting rights; Burning Mountains That Spew Flame which takes a mysterious voyage down into the depths of one of the longest volcanic tunnels in Europe in order to excavate an idiosyncratic history of resistance; and Parallel Inquiries, a blistering and meditative evocation of film as a mechanical system.
Tickets: $10 general, free for students/seniors; free for Filmforum members. Available in advance from Brown Paper Tickets at http://bpt.me/2704881 or at the door.
Shadowland, by John Skoog
Shadowland
By John Skoog (Sweden/USA, 2014, S16mm on digital, 15 min) -US Premiere
Shot in the vicinity of Los Angeles, Shadowland is a rolling sequence of vast landscapes, seascapes and geological formations. All the locations, that Skoog has captured, were once used by the Hollywood film industry as stand-ins for other parts of the world. The diverse topography of the Californian region is able to replicate areas and countries from Afghanistan, Tibet, Sahara Desert, Sherwood Forest, French Alps, Alaskan Rivers, and fictional places such as Aladdin’s Cave or the Garden of Eden. In the film, California is a ‘non-place’; throughout it the landscape appears as a series of locations that morph from one place to another. – Pilar Corrias Gallery
350 MYA by Terra Long
350 MYA by Terra Long
By Terra Long (Canada/Morroco, 2016, 16mm, 5 min) - US Premiere!
“The Tafilalt region in the Sahara Desert was once the Rheic Ocean. 350 MYA conjures the ocean’s presence in the landscape, deep time in the folds of space.”-TL
Bisonhead by Elizabeth Lo
Bisonhead
By Elizabeth Lo (USA, 2016, digital, 9 min) - FIlmmaker in person!
Bisonhead follows a family of Ponderai Native American hunters on their controversial journey to Yellowstone to assert their treaty hunting rights.
come wishes be horses by Rebecca Meyers
come wishes be horses
By Rebecca Meyers (USA, 2016, 16mm, 8 min)- World premiere screening!
As I listened from a beach-chair in the shade/ To all the noises that my garden made,/ It seemed to me only proper that words/ Should be withheld from vegetables and birds./ A robin with no Christian name ran through/ The Robin-Anthem which was all it knew,/ And rustling flowers for some third party waited/ To say which pairs, if any, should get mated./ Not one of them was capable of lying,/ There was not one which knew that it was dying/ Or could have with a rhythm or a rhyme/ Assumed responsibility for time./ Let them leave language to their lonely betters/ Who count some days and long for certain letters;/ We, too, make noises when we laugh or weep:/ Words are for those with promises to keep. – W.H. Auden "Their Lonely Betters" circa 1950
Montañas ardientes que vomitan fuego (Burning mountains that spew flame), by Samuel M. Delgado and Helena Girón
Montañas ardientes que vomitan fuego (Burning mountains that spew flame)
By Samuel M. Delgado and Helena Girón (Spain, 2016, digital, 14 min)
“The interior of the earth became a refuge from the threat that moved closer and closer to the island. The volcanic tubes served as communication vessels between time and space. This was where they experimented their resistance.” – SD & HG
Parallel Inquiries by Christina C. Nguyen
Parallel Inquiries
By Christina C. Nguyen (USA, 2016, 16mm, 10 min) - Filmmaker in person!
“sound from image / image from color // inquiries into the analog film system” -CN
a mystery inside a fact by Jonathan Schwartz
a mystery inside a fact
By Jonathan Schwartz (USA, 2016, 16mm, 17 min)
“It arrives, in a fog, with songs, through dance or majestic animals or faces (gliding on the street), in shapes of light, maybe on a large bird of prey’s flight—gesture skyward. Some origins can be difficult to pinpoint, others blink back—infinitely.” –JS
Toré by João Vieria Torres and Tanawt Xukuru Kariri
Toré
By João Vieria Torres and Tanawt Xukuru Kariri (Brazil/France, 2015, digital, 15 min)
“There is that
which I see
which is shown to me
which I can't see
which I don't see
I was invited to film a ritual. That which can be shown to foreigners. A child of the tribe watches Disney's Fantasia on TV. He is interrupted. What does the child live when he dances? What am I able to see from what is shown to me?
-Shot in the Xucuru-Kariri, in Alagoas, Brazil “ - JVT