INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM THREE
Thursday, November 9 at 7:45pm Films by: Adam Piron / Sam Drake / Deborah Stratman / Rouzbeh Akhbari & Felix Kalmenson / Simon Liu / Fox Maxy
The Capitol Theatre, 121 University Ave. W, Windsor
Pay What You Like
Yaangna Plays Itself (2022)
Adam Piron
Yaangna Plays Itself, Adam Piron, Kiowa/Mohawk, 16mm > digital, 7 min, 2022
An ode to the memories of El Aliso, the sycamore tree that once stood at the center of Yaangna, the Indigenous Gabrieleño village that Los Angeles grew out from. All elements sourced in the film are from the original site and the nearby Los Angeles River.
Image credits: unless otherwise noted all artworks, portraits and stills courtesy of the artist © Adam Piron.
About Adam Piron
Adam Piron (1986). Four films since 2019; screenings at venues including DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, BlackStar Film Festival, and Camden International Film Festival. Director of the Indigenous Program at the Sundance Institute; former Assistant Curator of Film at Los Angeles County Museum of Art; co-founder of COUSIN, a collective supporting Indigenous artists expanding the form of film. Lives in Riverside, California.
Body Legato (2022)
Sam Drake
Body Legato, Sam Drake, USA, 16mm > digital, 6 min, 2022
Imagining possibilities of disembodied being. A cow becomes meat becomes man becomes angel. Consciousness is conflated with a surveillance balloon. Being is tuned to the frequency of occult conspiracy.
Image credits: unless otherwise noted all artworks, portraits and stills courtesy of the artist © Sam Drake.
About Sam Drake
Sam Drake (1989). Four films since 2018; screenings at venues including CROSSROADS, Wexner Center for the Arts, Alternative Film/Video, Collectif Jeune Cinéma, Non-Syntax Experimental Image Festival, Milwaukee Film Festival, Transient Visions Festival of the Moving Image, and Antimatter. Lead Programmer of Union Cinema in Milwaukee. Member of Kino Femme Film Collective in Dayton, Ohio (2013–15). Lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Laika (2021)
Deborah Stratman
Laika, Deborah Stratman, USA, digital, 4.5 min, 2021
Some forms we can only know by their shadow. In homage to the spirits of space test dogs, or any being we use in the name of progress.
This music video was made by invitation of composer Olivia Block for the release of her album Innocent Passage in the Territorial Sea (Room40).
Image credits: unless otherwise noted all artworks, portraits and stills courtesy of the artist © Deborah Stratman.
About Deborah Stratman
Deborah Stratman (1967). 40+ films since 1990; screenings at venues including National Gallery of Art, Viennale, Media City Film Festival, Whitney Biennial (2004), Centre Pompidou, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Danish Film Institute, International Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, and New York Film Festival. Herb Alpert (2014) and Creative Capital (2012) Awards; Guggenheim (2003) and Fulbright (1995) Fellowships. Lives in Chicago, Illinois.
Shokouk (2023)
Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson
Shokouk, Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson, Iran/Russia/Canada, digital, 17 min, 2023
In Shokouk we overhear the gossip between a crowd gathered to observe a televised rocket launch, become acquainted with the fictional archival character Nikitin Nikifor, then join a karaoke event celebrating the inauguration of a Chinese infrastructure company in Uzbekistan, before arriving in geostationary orbit aboard the Mir space station. The artists present a constellation of anachronistic narratives drawing upon a variety of references, including the teachings of Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli on the essence of time, their own research on the harmful environmental impacts of the space industry on local livelihoods, and the works of the 12th and 13th century astronomers and polymaths Omar Khayyam and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi.
Image credits: unless otherwise noted all artworks, portraits and stills courtesy of the artists © Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson.
About Rouzbeh Akhbari and Felix Kalmenson
Rouzbeh Akhbari (1992) and Felix Kalmenson (1987). Collaborating under the name Pejvak on films and multimedia installations since 2015; screenings at venues including Doclisboa, Sharjah Film Platform, Kasseler Dokfest, and International Kurzfilmtage Winterthur; exhibitions at museums and galleries including Villa Arson, M HKA Antwerp, and Si Shang Art Museum. Originally from Tehran, Iran and St. Petersburg, Russia, both currently live in Toronto, Ontario.
Let’s Talk (2023)
Simon Liu
Let's Talk, Simon Liu, Hong Kong SAR / USA, 16mm > digital, 11 min, 2023
On the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China, directives for “a new era” promising stability and prosperity are found on murals and public slogans. Meanwhile, uneasy thoughts cast unusual shades over daily life. Old feelings arise, a pressure builds, conjuring distant voices from the concrete, never quite getting their point across. Something calls for repair but we can’t just talk it out, can we?
Image credits: unless otherwise noted all artworks, portraits and stills courtesy of the artist © Simon Liu.
About Simon Liu
Simon Liu (1987). Works in film, media installation and performance; 15+ films since 2008; exhibitions at institutions including The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and Moderna Museet Stockholm; screenings at venues including Festival du Nouvéau Cinéma, Berlinale, and Jeonju International Film Festival. Work in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art and M+ Museum Hong Kong. Originally from Hong Kong SAR, currently lives in New York, New York.
F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now (2022)
Fox Maxy
F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now, Fox Maxy, Luiseño / Payómkawichum and Diegueño / Iipay Kumeyaay, digital, 11 min, 2022
💔 We’re our own worst enemies.
Delivered in her signature kaleidoscopic montage style, F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now documents the filmmaker’s homecoming to the ancestral lands of the Mesa Grande Band of Diegueño Mission Indians. Exuberant, exhilarating, and exploding with disruptive energy, F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now is a portrait of people and country that reflects the artist’s ongoing explorations of time, identity, and the environment.—Melbourne International Film Festival
Image credits: unless otherwise noted all artworks, portraits and stills courtesy of the artist © Fox Maxy.
About Fox Maxy
Fox Maxy portrait by Owen Kolasinski
Fox Maxy (1992). 10+ films since 2018; screenings at venues including BlackStar Film Festival, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, Media City Film Festival, Camden International Film Festival, and International Film Festival Rotterdam, where she won a Tiger Short Award (2021). COUSIN Collective grantee (2020), Sundance Institute Merata Mita Fellowship (2022), Vera List Center Borderlands Fellowship (2022–24). Lives in San Diego, California.
Program Partners
This program is co-presented with Artcite Inc., Cinema Lamont, and San Francisco Cinematheque.
