“Há Terra! stages a hunt and subverts ethnographic tendencies in order to exhume a history of survival and political resistance in the Brazilian badlands.” – Andréa Picard

“Cannibalism. Absorption of the sacred enemy to transform him into a totem. The human adventure. The earthly goal.” – Charlotte Garson

Ana Vaz (Brasilia, Brazil 1986). Studies at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and Le Fresnoy (Tourcoing). Ten+ films since 2008; screenings at Curtas Vila do Conde, Visions du Réel (Nyon), “Views from the Avant-garde” and “Projections” at the NYFF, etc. Third appearance at Media City. Film Society of Lincoln Centre’s Kazuko Trust Award, Media City and Fronteira Festival (Goiânia) Grand Prizes (2015).  

Elli was a Greek protected cruiser named for a naval battle of the First Balkan War in which Greece was victorious. The Italian submarine Delfino sank her during peacetime, August 15, 1940, while she rode at anchor near the island of Tinos celebrating the Feast of Dormition of the Theotokos. Filmed from a fixed vantage point overlooking the sea, at the exact location that marked Greece’s entrance into World War II, Elli examines 16mm optical colour mixing, and various flicker effects.  

Esther Urlus (Rotterdam, Netherlands 1966). Co-founder and leader of Filmwerkplaats (Rotterdam). 10+ films since 2001; screenings at 25FPS Festival (Zagreb), VideoEx Festival (Zürich), Ann Arbor Film Festival, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Sonic Acts, and Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), TIFF, etc. First appearance at Media City. Lives in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Mutiny employs a panoply of expression, gesture, and repeated movement. Its central images are of women: at home, on the street, at the workplace, at school, talking, singing, jumping on trampolines, playing the violin. The syntax of the film reflects the possibilities and limitations of speech, while “politically, physically, and realistically” flirting with the language of opposition.

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. Fifth appearance at Media City including retrospective screening (2004). Lives in New York, NY.

Pulsating orbs, panopticons, roadside rest stops, and subterranean labyrinths confront the scope of human consequences and the entanglement of our seeking bodies. Regressions in missing time, caught in the act of captivity, confined to the carceral and perpetuated by movie sets, television sets, and alien encounters at bay. The corporeal cycle of control revolves as steadily as the sight of those who watch from above.

Fern Silva (Hartford CT, 1982). Studies at the Massachusetts College of Art and Bard College. 10+ films since 2007; screenings at Cinema du Réel (Paris), International Film Festival Rotterdam, Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus), New Museum (New York); etc. Fifth appearance at Media City; 2014 Mobile Frames Filmmaker in Residence. Lives in New York, NY.

A reaction to the seminal text by Swiss anthropologist Paul Wirz entitled Exorcism and the Art of Healing in Ceylon, this high contrast hand processed film considers a history of colonialism and ethnographic practices in South Asia. At my mother’s village, I restaged an exorcism once performed on her in the early 1960s when she was a little girl. Possessed by the lecherous entity known as the Kalu Kumara, the Sanni Yakuma healing ritual was performed over a 12-hour period.

Rajee Samarasinghe (Colombo, Sri Lanka 1988). Studies at University of California San Diego and California Institute of the Arts. 8+ films since 2012; screenings at FIDMarseille, San Francisco International Film Festival, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, etc. First appearance at Media City. Lives in Irvine, California.

Eason is a film about migration and the death of James Walker Hood Eason, leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) of Philadelphia. J.W.H. Eason, born in Salisbury, North Carolina in October 1886, migrated to Philadelphia in 1915. A brilliant orator and preacher, Eason joined the UNIA at its inception and was elected to the post of Leader of American Negroes at the first annual convention in 1920.  He was shot after giving a sermon on New Year’s Eve and it was believed that Eason was silenced because he might testify against Marcus Garvey. Using historical information and new footage, Everson tells this forgotten fable of the Great Migration.

Kevin J. Everson (Mansfield OH, 1965). Studies at University of Akron and Ohio University. 80+ films since 1997; screenings at Centre Pompidou (Paris), Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum (New York), etc. Guggenheim Fellowship (1996), Rome Prize (2001). Seventh appearance at Media City; 2014 Mobile Frames Filmmaker in Residence. Lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.