29 Palms

This free screening is presented on loop at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater on August 2 and 3 from 12pm-9:15pm and on August 4 from 12pm-2:30pm and 6:30pm-10pm. No ticket is required.

Primarily known as a photographer, An-My Lê first ventured into moving images at the encouragement of director Michael Almereyda. Her installation 29 Palms, part of a larger project about a California military base where service members train for combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, works as an elegant black-and-white diptych. On one screen, soldiers are framed in intimate close-up as they receive a briefing, while on the other they’re barely visible, tiny figures maneuvering silently amidst a sweeping desert backdrop, the landscape punctuated by curling plumes of smoke. The conflict here is staged yet strange and stirring, a haunting rehearsal for America’s imperial project abroad.