If it is possible to distinguish the realms of one’s life into two camps (despite how feeble the proposition), it would seem the conflict between the “real” and “ideal” – or analogously, the mind and the body – has the most room for validity. The “ideal” can be thought of as that sector in our lives dominated by concepts, formless emotions, intuition, moods, and ideology; it is shapeless, insofar as we have yet to give it form in expression, performance, or utterance. Hence, the possibilities and challenges for creative output seem immense for the artist. In the cinematic medium, he or she confronts the image – the “real” – whose capacity may (or may not) translate dreams and aspirations coherently. With the mass of one’s thoughts, emotions, and histories available for us when creating art, how can a person express these through selecting particular material, objects, images, and sounds? Can images sufficiently communicate for us? In this program, the issues arising from such representations and projections, between the “real” and “ideal,” may prompt some key concerns: what poetic devices are most succinct, what is the moral and political relationship between the artist-subject and that which he or she photographs or tells about, and does the conflict between “real” and “ideal” even matter in the cinema, or is it some walking dream? While watching, consider the use of voice (or its absence), text (or its absence), and music (or its absence) - can these filmmakers be up to more than they appear to be showing us, or vice versa?
The Midnight Hour - Edgardo Cerano-Soto (8 min)
An account of a young man's creative deadlock at the eponymous midnight hour, as he recounts and tries to make sense of his daily visions, thoughts, and anxieties.
The Apollos - Nick Parker and Jazmin Jones (5 min 58 sec)
Filmmakers Nick Parker and Jazmin Jones chronicle the progress of Oakland students to get recognition for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, through the support of few and to the detriment of many.
I Promise Africa - Jerry Henry (2 min 45 sec)
Images from one place, words from another. The thread between the two are slim, and Jerry Henry's work hinges on the delicacy of his promise to return the video of orphaned children to them.
Slip of the Tongue - Karen Lurn (4 min 5 sec)
What commences as an opportunity for picture-card romance between a young man and woman, emerges as a clash between gender, culture, history, and society.
Embrace It - Kirthi Nath (6 min and 40 sec)
Photographs, colors, sounds, recitations, speeches, and the handwritten word are all weaved together and portray a myriad of political and cultural ideas; through a constant flow of disparate elements, one is compelled to generously "embrace" them and their associations throughout.
A Boy's Mouth - PJ Raval (5 min 28 sec)
The mystery and ambiguity of the people and events around us is channeled through an equally obfuscated vision as PJ Raval presents the story of a boy who chooses silence to his family's dismay.
The Chestnut Tree - Hyun-Min Lee (4 min 8 sec)
Like Alice falling into Wonderland, The Chestnut Tree humorously observes the often tender, sometimes frantic relation between a daughter and her mother.
CURATOR'S STATEMENT: The variety of videos available for this program presented an immediate challenge, since they had more apart from one another, than a single unifying quality. Nevertheless, their unanimous refusal to channel convention in favor of experimentation elicited other ideas: perhaps they are useful to consider as simply expressions and to observe the coordinates between what they appear to say and how they actually craft these things (unfortunately bringing in the messy issue of form v. content). Firstly, the bookends were treated as the primary poles. The Midnight Hour sincerely articulates the contradictions between perceptions and reality, via a narrator whose doubts and anxieties are palpable, whereas The Chestnut Tree moves along like a piece of music, not encumbered by its submission to fantasy and with equally poignant and personal sentiment. The former illustrates the problems of creativity, while the latter relishes in the complexity of disparate forms. Between The Apollos and A Boy's Mouth, the progress I intended was to move from the clearly defined and politically-minded videos towards the abstracted and ambiguous forms. In these films, the text and voice have the final word, if you will, and challenge or accentuate the images they accompany - posing more dimensions to the issue of intent and expression, form and content.
No comments:
Post a Comment