Program 4: Form and Function

Q&A with Courtney Stephens, Mary Helena Clark, and Walled Unwalled producer Jarred Alterman on October 6

Mixed Signals by Courtney Stephens
North American Premiere, USA, 2018, 16mm, 8m
Stricken with an undisclosed illness, the narrator of this reflexive work draws evocative parallels between the darkened hulls of an industrial ocean liner and an increasingly disorienting mental state. Courtney Stephens was inspired by the nautical imagery and turbulent inner monologue of Hannah Weiner’s maritime code poems.

Luminous Shadow / Sombra Luminosa by Mariana Caló and Francisco Queimadela
North American Premiere, Portugal, 2018, 22m
A meditation on the human form and its many representations over the centuries, this archaeological essay compiles images of statues, photos, sketches, and news clippings from Portugal’s Jose de Guimarães International Arts Centre. The filmmakers conjure a slipstream of interrelated origin stories via brief bits of narration and tableaux of various animal and mineral elements.

The Glass Note by Mary Helena Clark
U.S. Premiere, USA, 2018, 9m
In this elliptical audiovisual diary, cinema’s extrasensory capacity is given surprising form. Here, what we see (the human throat, Gothic statuary, digitally generated furniture) often contradicts what we hear (birdsong, tightly wound rope, lithophonic stones), but the combined effect speaks to a utopian and universal ideal of filmic language.

Walled Unwalled by Lawrence Abu Hamdan
U.S. Premiere, Germany, 2018, 21m
Lawrence Abu Hamdan finds in a former GDR state radio station a perfect conduit for his ongoing cinematic interrogation of the political dimensions of sound. Centered on a series of court cases that used auditory or sensory evidence based on information gathered through walls, the film is staged within three soundproof booths, in which a live narrator recites witness testimonies while projected text and images create organic superimpositions. It’s an exploration of the fundamental abstractions of seeing and listening.