Representations of Leaving | Queer Death and heavens

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Los Angeles Filmforum presents
Representations of Leaving | Queer Death and heavens
Curator Finn Paul and filmmakers Matthew Lax and Jordan Wong in person!

1 US and 3 LA premieres!

These 8 films approach loss and lineages through experimental visual strategies that document rebirths and Queer utopic visions. Calling out a shared invitation to a then and there, leaving behind and moving towards a Queer sublime, the diverse strategies in these films weave together a step out of harm and endings in this time, to something fuller, vaster, and more beautiful.  Curated by Finn Paul.

Tickets: $10 general; $6 students (with ID)/seniors; free for Filmforum Members. Available in advance from Brown Paper Tickets at https://bpt.me/4245334 or at the door.

For more information: www.lafilmforum.org or 323-377-7238.

Programme:

- Printed Sunset by Andres Baron (Columbia/France, 2017, color, sound, 6 min.) LA Premiere!

The aesthetic tension between the simulated visual representation of the phases of a sunset, reproduced onto large- scale boards, is juxtaposed with the easy intimacy of the two female subjects who hold our gaze.

- Reluctantly Queer by Akosua Adoma Owusu (US/Ghana, 2016, b&w, sound, 8 min.)

This epistolary short film invites us into the unsettling life of a young Ghanaian man struggling to reconcile his love for his mother with his love for same-sex desire amid the increased tensions incited by same-sex politics in Ghana. Focused on a letter that is ultimately filled with hesitation and uncertainty, Reluctantly Queer both disrobes and questions what it means to be queer for this man in this time and space.

- Moms Clothes by Jordan Wong (US, 2018, color, sound, 5 min.)

A nonfiction reflection on navigating queerness privately and publicly. It's taken me a long time to be as comfortable as I am and it doesn't always get better, but you're beautiful however you decide to present, including the choice of garments you decide to wear.

- Pirate Boys by Pol Merchan (Spain/Germany, 2017, color, sound, 13 min.) LA Premiere!

Kathy Acker’s writing, and a seminal portrait of her taken by intersex photographer Del LaGrace Volcano, provide a lens through which to explore trans subjectivity and the queering of cinema. Pol Merchan’s hybrid doc fluidly moves from the documentation of the punk era to a more performative exploration of gender.

- Brunt Drama by Matthew Lax (US, 2018, color, sound, 7 min.)

Androgynous figures struggle to execute various labors within a bleak, vacuous monoculture. Addressing the inherent violence of the real and the simulated, as well as the dubious pleasure of witnessing, narratives of safety, risk and use-value are tested via 3D-rendered, plastic surrogates. Choreographed motion-studies and textual, Brechtian vignettes produce alternative translations and behaviors, both acceptable and indecent. Brunt Drama manipulates the slipperiness of affect-inducing data visualizations intended to ameliorate fear into consumption — presenting a simulation of the unrepresentable, visible from both sides of the screen.

- Reality Fragment 160921! by April Lin and Jasmine Lin (Sweden/UK/US, 2018, color, sound, 14 min.)

Reality Fragment 160921 follows two people in their process of reality-curation, as they create their own spaces against and via understandings of distance, as they go through the motions of growing themselves by growing their universes.

- Unconfessions by Ana Galizia (Brazil, 2018, color, sound, 22 min.) US Premiere!

“Luiz Roberto Galizia was an important figure for the theatrical scene in the 1970s and 1980s. He was also an uncle I did not know. This documentary seeks a rescue of the lived, based on the record made in photographs and super 8 films by uncle Luiz and found by me 30 years after his death.” Ana Galizia

- Vever (For Barbara) by Deborah Stratman (US, 2018, color, sound, 12 min.) LA Premiere!

A cross-generational binding of three filmmakers seeking alternative possibilities to power structures they’re inherently part of. The film grew out of abandoned film projects of Maya Deren and Barbara Hammer. Shot at the furthest point of a motorcycle trip Hammer took to Guatemala in 1975, and laced through with Deren’s reflections of failure, encounter and initiation in 1950s Haiti. A vever is a symbolic drawing used in Haitian Voodoo to invoke a Loa, or god.  For more on the film, see: https://walkerart.org/magazine/deborah-stratman-vever


Finn Paul (b. Bellflower, CA, 1981) is an artist/filmmaker and curator whose practice draws from the quotidian to make queer bonds and sociality into art. His work addresses themes of historiography, selfhood, and truth-telling in and out of the context of queer and trans communities. Working with moving and still image, performance and writing, his work has screened at IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam), the Edinburgh International FIlm Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Outfest, MIX NYC, Frameline, Redcat, the Echo Park Film Center, and ATA. His curated programs have shown at UC San Diego, Anthology Film Archives, Outfest, MIX Copenhagen, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Cineworks Vancouver, and the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Matthew Lax (b. Baltimore, Maryland) is an artist, filmmaker and writer based in Los Angeles. Screenings and exhibitions include the Viennale (Austria), IHME Contemporary (Helsinki), MIX Brasil (São Paulo) and MIX New York, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA) and the Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse, NY). He has organized curatorial projects with venues including Human Resources (LA), the Echo Park Film Center and Anthology Film Archives (New York). His writing has appeared in for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles (CARLA), ArtPractical (San Francisco), and Art Observed (New York, NY). His first catalog essay will be published in June 2019 alongside artist Jonathan Molina-Garcia's Bethesda Brotherhood exhibition with Lawndale Art Center (Dallas, TX).

A collector of souvenir state spoons and overpriced Uni Alpha Gel lead pencils, Jordan Wong is Chinese-American experimental animator and and nonfiction filmmaker whose work pursues emotional honesty. Drawing on autobiographical experiences, his works engage rules, repetition, trauma, and efforts to create a queer lens through which to view the world.


 

Los Angeles Filmforum screenings are supported by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles. We also depend on our members, ticket buyers, and individual donors.

Los Angeles Filmforum is the city’s longest-running organization dedicated to weekly screenings of experimental film, documentaries, video art, and experimental animation. 2019 is our 44th year.

Coming Soon to Los Angeles Filmforum:
June 8 – Films by Meredith Monk, at REDCAT

Memberships available, $70 single, $115 dual, or $50 single student
Contact us at [email protected].
Find us online at http://lafilmforum.org.
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Venue: 

Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian - Los Angeles, United States

Dates: 

Sunday, June 2, 2019 - 19:30

Category: 

Dates: 

Sunday, June 2, 2019 - 19:30
  • 6712 Hollywood Blvd.
    90028   Los Angeles, California
    United States
    34° 6' 5.1048" N, 118° 20' 11.742" W