Mermaids flip a tale of twin detriments, domiciles cradle morph invaders, crocodile trails swallow two-legged twigs in a fecund mash of nature’s outlaws.

Wayward Fronds references a series of historical events that helped shape the Florida Everglades as they are today, while fictionalizing their geological future and their effects on both native and exotic inhabitants. Events imply that nature begins to take over, that the Everglades switch roles and tame civilization after centuries of attack, and even guide it into its mysterious aqueous depths.

Fern Silva (Hartford CT, 1982). Studies at the Massachusetts College of Art and Bard College. Eleven films since 2007; screenings at Cinema du Réel (Paris), International Film Festival Rotterdam, Wexner Center for the Arts; etc. Fourth appearance at Media City; 2014 Mobile Frames Filmmaker in Residence. Lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Peripeteia II

Artist: Abigail Child
Country: USA
Format: 16mm
Duration: 12 min
Year: 1977

A navigation by light, contrasting the camera’s fixed sight with “in site” movement. A sculpture of glass, mirrors and film vies with the choreography of the cardinal points: dense shelter, rain, red emulsion. Filmed in the Oregon coastal forest.

This print was preserved by the Harvard Film Archive through a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation in 2012.

Abigail Child (Newark NJ 1948). Studies at Radcliffe College, Harvard University and Yale University School of Art. 40+  films since 1970; screenings at all major venues for artists’ film worldwide; in permanent collections of Museum of Modern Art (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), etc. Fulbright (1993) and Guggenheim (1996) Fellowships; Rome Prize (2010). Six volumes of poetry since 1983. Fourth appearance at Media City including retrospective screening (2004) Lives in New York, NY.

An approximate relation between audio recordings of the artist’s father and images of landscapes, separately traversed by father and son. The visual transcriptions of the audio into the International Phonetic Alphabet gradually taper as the film proceeds, narrowing the distance between the recorder and recordings, the new and traditional, memories and songs.

“Jáaji” is a near-translation for directly addressing a father in the Hočak language.

Sky Hopinka (Bellingham WA 1984). Studies at Portland State University and the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Nine digital films since 2010; screenings at Courtisane (Ghent), imagineNATIVE (Toronto), Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, etc. First appearance at Media City. Lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Here is the ruined castle on the far edge of an unfamiliar country. Birdsong mimics the sound of the river and the voice mimics the song of the bird. A failed historical gesture, a play of wild mimetic signs.

Ben Balcom (Boston, MA 1986). Studies at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Fifteen films since 2009. Exhibitions and screenings at European Media Art Festival (Osnabrück), Ann Arbor Film Festival, Festival of (In)Appropriation (Los Angeles), etc. Co-founder of Microlights Cinema in Milwaukee. First appearance at Media City. Lives in Milwaukee WI.

Fish Point is located on the southeastern tip of Pelee Island in Essex County, Ontario. A film shot in 2013 when the artist attended Media City.

Pablo Mazzolo (Buenos Aires, Argentina 1976). Studies film and music at the University of Buenos Aires. Twelve films since 1998; screenings at VideoEx (Zürich), International Film Festival Rotterdam, “Views from the Avant-Garde” at the New York Film Festival, etc. Second appearance at Media City. Lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Moving through fall’s end and beginning, falling.

Robert Todd (Boston MA 1963). Studies at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University. More than 90 films since 1993; screenings at many international festivals and venues including solo presentations at Harvard Film Archive, Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley), Cinematheque Ontario (Toronto), etc. Twelfth consecutive appearance at Media City. Lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

A conference call by investors in a planned iron mine provides the soundtrack for a ride over the land the company wants to exploit. The land in question is near the Inuit community of Aupaluk, located in Nunavik in far northern Québec. The village has already been relocated once, in 1980.

The term “forward looking statements” is used in the world of investors to describe future events which are subject to risks and uncertainties.

Thomas Kneubühler (Solothurn, Switzerland 1963). Studies at Concordia University, Montréal. Works in video, photography and installation since 2001; exhibitions and screenings at Gallery 44 (Toronto), Rencontres Internationales (Paris / Berlin), Québec Triennial at the Musée d’art contemporain (Montréal), etc. First appearance at Media City. Lives in Montréal.

Oona Mosna