Program 2: Alone Together
Friday, February 25, 2022
5:00 p.m. Varsity Center
In a time characterized by technological interfaces and social division, there are many forms of exile; from place, land, home, work, the familiar, being wanted and touched; everything that makes up a human. This program explores a spectrum of alienation and it’s occasional resolution. What forms of resistance allow for the recovery of love and connection with one’s self and others.
AI And I (d. Cecelia Condit)
Experimental – 7 minutes
www.ceceliacondit.com/
A woman interrogates the nature of consciousness whether human, animal or man-made, as she walks through the woods, dragging electrical cords behind her like bread crumbs.
Full Of Holes (d. Clara McHale-Ribot)
Experimental – 4 minutes
A chance encounter with their idol unearths a confusing series of desires for a dedicated fan of a DIY fashion youtuber
Reclamation (d. Jennifer M Hardacker)
Experimental – 4 minutes
An ode to a flower that once enjoyed prominence in Iranian culture, Gladiolus tells the A stark, experimental film. A mood. Exploring our fears of Armageddon, our lived isolation, and the haunting beauty of nature’s persistence.
Other Tidal Effects (d. Sofia Theodore-Pierce)
Experimental – 7 minutes
https://sofiatheodorepierce.com/
“And there are other tidal effects, mysterious and intangible.”-Rachel Carson, The Edge of the Sea (1955)
Catamenial seizures, tidal correspondences, a sonic EEG, and a lullaby in partial translation. Highlighting the seams with the darts. An exploration of my epileptic rhythms and sensations through moving image practice.
The Way Life Is (d. Silvia Maple Razsa)
Documentary – 11 minutes
Before White Mainers assert that their state embodies “the way life should be”—as the famous welcome sign declares—they might first listen to The Way Life Is for Mainers of color. In a year marked by a long-overdue racial reckoning, a different documentary might note that Maine has one of the most disproportionate rates of incarceration for people of color. The Way Life Is instead uses stark winter images of Maine to open a space for listening attentively to the words of one such person: Robert Payzant. Robert narrates his biracial Maine childhood, his prison experiences, and his recent efforts to navigate release into a world disrupted by COVID-19. Particularly stark are his reflections on how, from childhood, his life possibilities were foreclosed, not least because of his adult sentencing at age 16. The question, perhaps, is not whether Robert deserves a second chance, but whether he ever got a first one. Listening to Robert’s reflections—as we emerge from an extended period of isolation and mourning—invites a collective reimagining of the way life could be.
Unnecesary Things (d. Dmytwo Lisenbart)
Animation – 14 minutes
Could a robot adopt a pet in the near future? – Sure, why not. – Could this pet be a human? – Well, it could be possible in the future. – Could they become friends? – Probably yes. – …And what would become of the robot afterwards? – Listen, to hell with your questions!
A Year In Exile (d. Malaz Usta)
Experimental – 19 minutes
The superfast longitudinal documentary is composed of short takes / impressions filmed over the course of one year, forming a kind of a cycle of audio-visual poems: image is accompanied by the director’s poetic comments and fragments of conversations. The film as a whole reflects the effort to capture the ephemeral experience of an uprooted, forcibly displaced person in their new environment.
My Name Is Unpronounceable (d. Louis Reifenauer) * Special Jury Award
Narrative – 20 minutes
Somewhere in the vasteness of the universe, an alien is expelled from his spaceship for not complying to the strict operational protocols…
Free Flow (d. Sam Mirhosseini)
Narrative – 25 minutes
Zak works as a deep sea diver in Dunkirk’s dock’s waters. Immigrant from Iran, he arrived in France ten years before.
Keivan also is Iraniann, and part of the stream of migrants whose ambition is to reach England.
Keivan tries to take advantage of Zak’s privileged access to the docks, yet is Zak going to accept to help his compatriot?