Black Sun

Opera singers and addicts in recovery are certainly prone to melodramatic depictions in film, but Laura Huertas Millán’s austere portrait of her aunt Antonia—who happens to be both opera singer and addict—never crosses into the realms of exploitation. First glimpsed giving a young singer lessons on breathing and performance, the middle-aged Antonia is shown living at a rehab center, talking about her suicide attempt and relationship with her estranged son. Through the prism of her Facebook statuses, aria performances, and recollections of the director’s mother, we slowly gain an understanding of a woman still learning to understand herself.

Screening with

Vacio(a) / Empty
Carmen Amelia Rojas Gamarra, Peru, 2016, 6m
Spanish with English subtitles
A tongue-and-cheek story of heartbreak told entirely through images from an IKEA catalogue.

and

The Grey House and the Green Mountains / A casa cinza e as montanhas verdes
Deborah Viegas, Brazil, 15m
Portuguese with English subtitles
The life of a stretch of highway is captured through a dreamlike single shot and hazy pastels.