The Canyon (2021)
Zachary Epcar
The Canyon Zachary Epcar USA 16mm > digital15 min 2021
The boxy architecture and cordoned greenery of luxury housing developments populate a series of uniform urban spaces, which Zachary Epcar depicts as a sequence of precise frames, stock gestures, and preprogrammed phrases, drifting into entropy. What wayward flows, what eruptions of energy, can be found beneath the flat surfaces and grid-like structures of The Canyon? – NYFF
Cast: Ben Balcom, Carl Bogner, Isaac Brooks, Nazlı Dinçel, Grace Mitchell, Kristen Schmid, Janelle VanderKelen, Bennett Westling.
Streaming Details
This film is available to stream globally.
Program Partners
This film is co-presented with Movimcat.
Image credits: all artworks, stills, and portraits courtesy of the artist © Zachary Epcar.
about the artist
Zachary Epcar (USA) is an artist, filmmaker, and curator born in San Francisco, California in 1987. His film and digital artworks tackle subjects including the space and materiality of leisure and intersections between the body and the built environment, registering the affective experience of the contemporary moment with wit, humor, and surprising pathos. He received a BA in Film & Electronic Art from Bard College (2014), and an MFA in Cinematic Arts from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2021). He also studied at FAMU Film & TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He has completed 6 films since 2014 which have been widely exhibited at festivals, museums, and galleries internationally, including Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Kino Kinoteka, Black Canvas Festival de Cine Contemporáneo, New York Film Festival, Cámara Lúcida, Toronto International Film Festival, Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, Magic Lantern Cinema, L’Alternativa Festival de Cinema Independent de Barcelona, International Film Festival Rotterdam, IndieLisboa, Kölnischer Kunstverein, European Media Arts Festival, Anthology Film Archives, Copenhagen Short Film Festival, Flaherty NYC, Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Festival des cinémas différents et expérimentaux de Paris, SFMOMA, Janela Internacional de Cinema do Recife, Marseille Underground Film & Music Festival, Roxie Theater, Vancouver International Film Festival, Athens International Film & Video Festival, FRACTO, and Black Hole Cinematheque, among many others. He is the recipient of awards including Special Jury Prize, Moscow International Experimental Film Festival (2016); Best International Short Film, Black Canvas Festival Festival de Cine Contemporáneo (2019); and Grand Prix, 25FPS Festival (2021). Writing about his practice has appeared in Cinema Scope, Film Comment, Filmmaker Magazine, Hyperallergic, Mubi, Sight & Sound, and elsewhere. He has curated programs for Canyon Cinema, Artists’ Television Access, and The Lab. His films are distributed by Light Cone. He lives and works in Oakland, California.