In this film, Laerte conjugates the body in the feminine, and scrutinizes concepts and prejudices. Not in search of an identity, but in search of un-identities. Laerte creates and sends creatures to face reality in the fictional world of comic strips as a vanguard of the self. And, on the streets, the one who becomes the fiction of a real character. Laerte, of all the bodies, and of none, complicates all binaries. In following Laerte, this documentary chooses to clothe the nudity beyond the skin we inhabit.
Six million tons, suspended by the slightest gesture. Mother of the World presents a series of brief vignettes of Cairo just prior to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. These fragmented scenes choreograph class structure and foreign influence into an intimate, poetic view of a nation about to change.
GIRI CHIT tells a tale of the subtle trace of irreconcilable worlds. A worker driving a mobile sweeper in hypnotic circles across an already immaculate surface. The high drama of cosplay aficionados clamoring to be seen. A cast of thousands toiling hundreds of feet above the street. Giri translates as ‘duty’ in Japanese, but the concept is in fact far more complicated. Giri is a sort of interpersonal political capital that informs careers, family relations, and much more. Its presence and flow is palpable in Japan, where this film was shot. A “giri chit” then may be a hypothetical voucher for this intangible flow (with a tip of the cap to Thomas Pynchon’s “Vineland”). Selected Screenings and Awards: DaVinci Film Festival (Best Experimental Film), Chicago Underground Film Festival, Athens International Film and Video Festival, Dallas Videofest, ICDOCS Film Festival, NewFilmmakers at Anthology Film Archives, Oxford Film Festival, Director’s Lounge Berlin
A documentary about the sea and memory. Its movement is its form. Its strength.
A documentary about three different physical media shop owners "nerding out" about the media that their store specializes in and their thoughts on how one day physical media may become obsolete.
Bambi Lake, a notorious San Francisco transgender performer and entertainer, takes us on a stroll down Polk Street, sharing anecdotes and the history behind her song Golden Age of Hustlers, which was written about her time as a street hustler in the mid-70’s.
A German Documentary about the “village of friendship” that was created by American Veteran George Mizo to help the Vietnamese kids suffering from the Vietnam War.
A film of and through the trees. Leaves catch, consume and resist the light through the seasons.
I am sitting in a room is a sound art piece by American composer and sound artist Alvin Lucier composed in 1969. The first performance of the work was in 1970 at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In collaboration with his partner Mary Lucier. The piece features Lucier recording himself narrating a text, and then playing the tape recording back into the room while re-recording it. The new recording is then played back and re-recorded, and this process is repeated. Due to the room's particular size and geometry, certain resonant frequencies are emphasized while others are attenuated. Eventually the words become unintelligible, replaced by the characteristic resonance of the room.
Describing herself as a 'street queen,' Johnson was a legendary fixture in New York City’s gay ghetto and a tireless voice for LGBT pride since the days of Stonewall, who along with fellow trans icon Sylvia Rivera, founded Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), a trans activist group based in the heart of NYC’s Greenwich Village. Her death in 1992 was declared a suicide by the NYPD, but friends never accepted that version of events. Structured as a whodunit, with activist Victoria Cruz cast as detective and audience surrogate, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson celebrates the lasting political legacy of Johnson, while seeking to finally solve the mystery of her unexplained death.
Edhi Alice: REVERSE begins from the perspective of Edhi, who is about to undergo gender confirmation surgery, and transitions into the journey of another protagonist, Alice, as she comes to terms with her body. The narrative of transition expands beyond a personal life story to encompass relationships, bodily experiences, and the sense of space, becoming a cinematic transformation.
Latest installment from the on-going collaboration between filmmaker Paul Clipson & musician Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. Paul's Super8 films, shot entirely in New York City, channel the blissed out states of color drenched psychadellia explored by Brakage as well as lovely black and white still life's that reminisce on Ozu's 'pillow shots' & Chantel Akermans monumental portrait of Pre-Giuliani New York 'Letters Home'. Jefre's music is culled from the same sessions that launched his 2007 release on Students Of Decay 'Shinning Skull Breath', (the two share a track in common). Billowy clouds of distorted guitar expand out into long passages of muffled static and fuzzed out melody.
As Janelas Me Diziam Que Os Carros Cor De Lembrança Ainda Percorriam as Movimentadas Ruas do Esquecimento
"TDS, derrière l'écran des travailleuses du sexe" is a deep dive into the lives of Betty, Anaïs, Noochka, Manon, and Barty. They have all ventured into the world of selling sexual content online. What pushes someone to take the step of signing up on these platforms? What are their motivations? What are the consequences on their personal lives? Why do some choose to stick with it for years, while others decide to stop for good?
A humanoid film robot spews its stream of consciousness throughout its allocated screen time.
Made primarily using 35mm black & white stills film, which was developed and scanned at home, the film explores themes of memories, nostalgia, and our relationship to still and moving image and how those two mediums differ in regards to how we process the passing of time.
In this fascinating documentary on transsexuality, Dr. John Money shares his ideas on gender identity. Dr. Money is well known for his research on what makes a person become heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or transsexual. In this film he presents his ideas on the anatomical and biological factors that steer one towards masculinity or femininity, sorting them out from the historical, cultural and sociological influences. Sex and Money shows people in various stages of transsexual transformation. We see the adaptations they have made with their families and partners, and note that they seem able to lead rather conventional lives.
A short documentary about wine, vulnerability, and queer experiences. It explores the effects of alcohol on intimate conversations and the tone of discourse between young adults, taking into account that this is a method of facilitation often used during social interactions.
Japão
Every winter, a small town in Castilla-La Mancha called Luzón transforms into a little hell. Its inhabitants, dressed as devils, venture into the darkness and roam its streets with horns, bells, and smeared with soot. Una dança non sancta could have been just an anthropological documentary. Instead, it delves into the inferno with the town’s residents to participate in and immortalize this unholy ritual.