Working on It: Session 3

12:30–1:15 p.m.: Work-in-progress presentation and discussion: Artist Diana Haro presents a cut of her project Portrait of Absence, an experimental documentary about growing up in Tijuana and reckoning with the death of her homeless father. Haro writes: “I became obsessed with trying to understand this by spending time on the streets and capturing the gestures I observed. The video is an exercise in borrowed memory, tracing the steps of where my dad used to live and juxtaposing these places with the areas in the city where I grew up. Both are linked through archival footage and my perspective as a girl seeing both through my mother’s home window.” (Redstone Theater) 

12:30–2:45 p.m.: Work-in-progress presentation and discussion: Director Alessandra Sanguinetti and producer Julia Solomonoff present a cut of their feature The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer, an intimate portrayal of the lives of two cousins growing up in rural Argentina, spanning decades. Sanguinetti’s lifelong collaboration with the girls captures their evolving relationship, dreams, fears, and struggles from childhood through adolescence, pregnancy to motherhood—one a farmer, the other a single mother and teacher.  (Bartos Screening Room) 

1:00–2:30 p.m.: Reverse Shot Emerging Critics Workshop (PRIVATE) 

1:30–2:15 p.m.: Work-in-progress presentation and discussion: Filmmaker Julia Mendoza Friedman presents material from her short film Fracaso es un río mío / Failure Is a River of Mine, in which an American filmmaker and a rural Guatemalan ex-midwife contend with the results of a failed documentary project about the failure to continue practicing midwifery, as well as the failure to communicate the obstetric and sexual violence that bind them both together, hoping to create a new essay film that actively dialogues with queer and feminist legacies of failure. (Redstone Theater) 

2:30–3:45 p.m.: Work-in-progress presentation, multimedia performance, and discussion: Filmmaker Robert Kolodny explores the possibilities of a future film built from hand-scanned 8mm reels captured by his grandparents, his own relationship with capturing motion picture on celluloid, and the mentors who taught him the craft. (Redstone Theater) 

2:45–3:45 p.m.: Work-in-progress presentation and discussion: Filmmaker G. Anthony Svatek presents an excerpt of his feature Humboldt USA. Nineteenth-century gay naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, the world’s most used namesake, serves as an instrument to explore the pursuits of everyday Americans reckoning with their disappearing environments: from helicoptering bighorn sheep across the Nevadan desert to battling against urban highways in Buffalo, New York, to hacking redwood forest ecology in northern California. (Bartos Screening Room) 

4:00–5:30 p.m.: Live presentation and discussion: First Look filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson, in conversation with filmmaker David Osit (Predators, Mayor), discusses the making of Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989, and shares a parallel film constructed out of one specific thematic element. Olsson writes: “During the six years we made Israel Palestine on Swedish Television 1958-1989, in parallel we collected and assembled all the maps of the region that aired during that period. Being asked in hundreds of interviews and Q&As what I think about the future, my reference point is oddly enough always this experimental film of the maps, made from our own visual research. I think this film in all its quirkiness in a way tells the story in a very haunting way, and strangely enough also in very mesmerizing way.” (Redstone Theater)  

4:00–5:30 p.m.: Work-in-progress presentation and discussion: Filmmakers Toma Peiu and Luiza Parvu share material from How Come We Ended Up Here?, a 16mm poetic journey across New York City during times of pandemic, war, and urban transformation. The film is guided by the histories, recollections, and dreams of the post-Soviet Korean Central Asian diaspora. Following the rough-cut screening, filmmakers, protagonists, and audience members will discuss the film, focusing on the collaborative process and aesthetic choices. (Bartos Screening Room) 

Followed by a reception sponsored by Lismore Road. 

Presented by