" NEW FILMMAKERS SELECTS: MNA FILMMAKERS "
 

FEBRUARY 20TH 2013 @ ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES
8:15PM SHARP – TICKETS AVAILABLE AT DOOR
A selection of 16mm and Super-8mm films created in MONO NO AWARE workshops.
Presented by MONO NO AWARE and New Filmmakers New York

Chloe Zimmerman HERE NOW BE HERE NOW BE HERE (2012, 4 MIN, 16 MM)
In this first encounter with film, I was seduced by its presence — tangible, dancing with particles, fragmented and reconfigured on a reel. The spliced shots, if cut by an amateur hand, leave gaps and fissures. They form a topography visible in motion, spinning before light. To voice this experience with 16mm, I turned to fragments of a different sort. Echoing a documentary practice, I extracted bits from books I was reading at the time, rearranging them into a script. In their new form,disjointed from their original contexts and made linear by my narration, the words of Baudrillard, Calvino, Dillon and Flusser speak to the images and the filmmaking process.

Chloe is a graduate of the Combined Degree BA/BFA program between Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. She has a background in experimental documentary, but had only worked digitally prior to this project. Chloe freelances in documentary film and has worked for various Academy Award-winning directors in research, production and post-production. She currently teaches film history and practice in New York City.

Jenny Volodarsky WHAT’S LIGHT AND ROUND AND COVERED IN SH*T? (2012, 4 MIN, 16MM)
What’s light and Round and Covered in Shit? is inspired by artists Leslie Thornton, Guy Maddin, F.W. Murnau and Kenneth Anger. This homage to the excesses of silent exaggeration has a subtle achrony, breaking its narrative time into fragments, a quick-paced altercation of contiguous ‘before and after’ moments which construct its ‘story.’ Ostensibly a ‘love story’ it is also about surfaces, images and appearances, postures and pretense. The face (visage) made up as a malleable and seductive pattern presents a site to interrogate a certain post-feminist stance via stereotypical images of male and female (Leslie Thornton’s Jennifer, Where Are You? comes to mind) and their contemporary problematization. Without sacrificing pleasure or accessibility, Volodarsky’s short film cuts to the quick.

Jenny Volodarsky is from Baltimore. She is co-owner of boutique Black + graze in Soho and a film enthusiast.

Laura Blüer UN PEDAZO DE MAR Y UNA VENTANA (2012, 3 MIN, 16MM)
A short film about the memory of love between two Cuban comrades. It is based on the short story of the same name by the Cuban revolutionary writer Manuel Cofiño López.

Laura Blüer is an artist living in Brooklyn, NY. She has a BFA from the Department of Photography & Imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and a minor in Cuban Studies. Blüer interns at Recession Art and works at the Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics and the International Center of Photography. She is a regular contributor of writing and photography to the new publication Creative Sugar Magazine. Her photographs have been exhibited at the Ludwig Foundation in Havana, the Calumet gallery in New York City, and the Empire Hotel at Lincoln Center.

Laura Trager RISING TIDE (2012, 3 MIN, 16MM)
Rising Tide is an exploration of the movement of the human body in space and time, and its relation to the medium film. Investigating the tension between graphic elements and the organic shape of the body within the frame, as well as the corporeality of the film strip itself by applying color to its surface, this experiment aims at establishing a direct relationship between the spectator’s body, that of the actor, and that of the film.

With a background in media and cultural theory Laura’s artistic and academic interest is film philosophy. She is especially concerned with questions regarding the affective perception of film in relation to its aesthetic constitution. Since entering the Media Studies master’s program at The New School in Fall 2011, she explored this field of inquiry with several projects in 16mm film, but also in digital video, still photography, sound and writing.

Lucio Castro WE TRUSTED YOU (2012, 3 MIN, 16MM)
A woman gives the wrong directions to a couple on the street and has to face a few unexpected consequences.

Lucio Castro was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1975. He studied Medicine at the University of Buenos Aires, and during his third year he started a second concurrent degree in Film Writing and Direction (Centro de Experimentación Cinematográfica). In 1999, after graduating from the Film Program, he moved to New York to study Fashion design at Parsons, where he was nominated for “Designer of the Year” for his thesis collection four years later. He has worked for Marc Jacobs, DKNY Jeans and Armani Exchange, where he spent the last six years as a menswear Director. He has also written and directed the short films, “Honey We Shouldn’t be Here” (2007), selected to participate at the NewFilmmakers Festival, “It Goes Without Saying” (2010) featuring actress Mia Maestro and “Alenka and the Cat” (2012) which premiered at the Wavers show in Brooklyn, New York in March of 2012. His eponymous menswear label was launched in the Spring of 2011.

Pete Vale THE BONEYARD (2012, 4 MIN, 16MM)
An existential meditation on people and their inevitable demise.

Pete Vale is an artist and filmmaker living in Brooklyn.

Edward Dias III, WEST SUN SETTING (2012, 5 MIN, 16MM)
The hustle of New York slows down at the command of the west sun setting.

N. Mauricio Salgado MONTAGE #1 (2012, 5 MIN, 16 MM)
This short piece is an attempt at using filmmaking techniques to expand and add context to an existing documentary photo series by using footage of landscapes, plaster backgrounds and stillphotographs to create a dream-like sequence.

N. Mauricio Salgado (b 1978) was schooled in Economics and Political Science at the State University of New York at Albany and the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His photographic training comes as part of his academic minor while in college in Albany, NY. He is interested in documentary photography and uses transparencies to create longitudinal documentary series. In 2000, he won the SUNY – Albany Art Department Award for an untitled portrait series of pedestrians in Albany, NY and Stockholm, Sweden.

Aaron Vinton GUMS (2012, 3 MIN, 16MM)
Laser printed adhesive tape and ink with handmade optical sound track.

Aaron Vinton is a Brooklyn-based graphic designer and musician. He was born in Hebron, Nebraska in 1985. He received his undergraduate degree from CalArts in 2009.

Daniel McKernan INTRODUCING PROTECTION (2012, 1 MIN, 16MM)
An initial experiment with 16mm film for usage as projections in the upcoming live performances of my new music endeavor, PROTECTION. Uses found footage from an educational film called “A Spider Takes a Trip.”

DANIEL McKERNAN is a New York based artist, musician and curator. His recordings with music project PROTECTION are scheduled for release in early 2013 on the new label, Formlessness Press. He recently mixed live video projections for the UK premiere performance of Cyclobe at Antony Hegarty’s Meltdown Festival in London in August 2012. He has also worked on the live video projections for Thighpaulsandra‘s and Black Sun Productions’ live performances throughout Europe and performed with COIL in NYC for their only North American performance with Balance. His interactive video installations in NY galleries include Is Evolution Evil? featuring Amanda Lepore and The Magick H8-Ball featuring Sophia Lamar. He has curated two lineups of experimental queer shorts – Homoccult & Other Esoterotica and Luminous Darkness – which both premiered at MIX NYC and went on to screen around the world including the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, The Horse Hospital and Visions of Excess at the Spill Festival in London, and the Museum MADRE in Naples, Italy. He was commissioned to do visual projections for the Portuguese production of Hedwig & the Angry Inch in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has shot two music videos: Little Annie’s “Billy Martin Requiem” & the other one assisting Bruce LaBruce for Gio Black Peter’s “Revolving Door”. His latest short film, WHOEVER WHATEVER, was a collaboration with Sophia Lamar which premiered in 2011 with an original score by cellist John Contreras (Marc Almond, Current 93).

Juliana Cerqueira Leite EIGHT (2012, 4 MIN, 16MM)
Eight is a sketch. The film was shot in its entirety four times, being rewound back to its start between each take, overlaying new footage over what had been previously filmed. During shots, movements were carried out along four directional planes over a chair and then reversed: north/south, east/west, northeast/southwest, northwest/southeast. These motions were done to time kept by the artists’ voice counting to eight repeatedly.

Juliana Cerqueira Leite is a Brazilian sculptor born in Chicago, USA, in 1981. Her work engages the history of figurative art, re-formulating figurative representation to reflect volition in form. Her practice explores notions of control over matter and the body’s translation of will, time and desire into material structures, investigating how form is produced through repeated intention. Primarily a sculptor Juliana also makes use of traditional photographic processes, drawing, video and, now, film. Her works are process-oriented, led by material investigation a means to discuss embodiment while breaking away from the historical syntax of figurative representation. Juliana completed an MFA Sculpture at London’s Slade School of Fine Art in 2006. She has since exhibited her work internationally with recent solo shows in Rome, London and New York. Juliana is recipient of the 2006 Kenneth Armitage Sculpture Prize and the 2010-11 A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship.

Jesse Clagett LINE WORK (2012, 1 MIN, 16 MM)
I copied on paper frame to frame over a back light. While shooting I improvised additional flickering patterns. In my memory the images that impressed me were of many little, unstable movements, very compact and compressed into a short period of time.

Jesse currently lives in Queens.

Uzi Sabah CASA ES LA INFANCIA (HOME IS INFANCY) (4 MIN, 16 MM)
Shot in the kibutz where i was raised 20 years after my family left the place. All the places where i once belong are now empty. A description of what is no more there. Camera edit.

Nacido en Uruguay, reside actualmente en Nueva York. Además de cineasta, es DJ y VJ para muchas bandas musicales de su país e internacionales. Integra el Laboratorio de Investigación Cinematográfica de Montevideo y el proyecto de collage sonoro Perdedores.

Born in Uruguay and living in NY. He is a filmaker, DJ and VJ for different musical projects from his country and internationals. He is part of LIC, Laboratorio de Investigación Cinematográfica de Montevideo. He is also a member of the visual/sound collage crew Perdedores.

Kristina Donello DUET WITH MERE (2012, 4 MIN, Super 8MM)
A dance duet of somersaults and sleeping ladies.

Kristina Donello is a freelance dancer and choreographer based in NYC. Her choreography has been chosen as a Critic’s Pick in Time Out New York, a Vimeo’s staff pick, and featured on VH1. Her work is influenced by visual and sound mediums. She has performed works for Vampire Weekend, Pele Bauch, The Antelope Project, AUNTS on a boat, Ventriculus, Noa Sagie; A dance project, Emily Faulkner Dance & Purchase Dance Corps. “Duet with Mere” is an exploration of the relationship between dance and film. A first time filmmaker, Kristina plans to continue to explore the world of choreography in film.

Mohammad Shawky Hassan ON A DAY LIKE TODAY (2012, 6 MIN, Super 8MM)
Perhaps, for this reason, the stories blend together and transform themselves into this story. Thus the story, as you never knew, begins when it is no longer a story, and mixes with other stories.

Mohammad Shawky Hassan is an Egyptian filmmaker, writer and producer. He holds a B.A. from the American University in Cairo (2004), and a graduate diploma in film directing from the Academy of Cinematic Arts in Cairo (2009). He was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Columbia University School of the Arts (2010-2011), where he made the short film it was related to me. He was the First Assistant Director of the feature-length film In the Last Days of the City, and has made a number of short films, including Alter World (2008) and On a Day like Today (2012). He received a number of grants for his feature-length film project Compos Mentis (in production) from Fonds Sud Cinema, the Cultural Resource, YATF, and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture. He is currently curating ArteEast’s film program.

Jon Carter DROPSEY CURSE (2012, 3.5 MIN, Super 8MM)
A lifetime of fairy story (and related) imaginings pile up conjuring a composited heroine, the character is made of child’s play and adult’s day dreams. Without the context of a narrative she can only act out a narrow set of attributed actions.