2022 Program

by Emma Baiada and Nicolas Snyder (2022, US, 96’)
Hierophant Films

Tuesday 2 August 7 PM
Boedecker Cinema

Set in an isolated mining town on the outskirts of Death Valley, Song of Salt is an immersive glimpse into the struggles and celebrations within a tight-knit community as its residents, suspended between the past and the future, face the present realities of an eroding economy.

Trona, California demonstrates the complexities, hardships, and small beauties of contemporary American rurality. Oscillating between dramatic stillness and wild freedom, patient observation and intimate immersion, the documentary goes on an engaging and dignified exploration of what it means to be both forgotten and free.

This screening will be followed by a conversation with the artists in-person.

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by Iva Radivojević (2021, US/HR/QA, 91’)
Picture Palace Pictures and Ivaasks Films

Friday 5 August 8 PM
Boedecker Cinema

Aleph is a travelogue of experience, a journey to find that place of connection, of clarity, of understanding across language, geography and experience. The thoughts, ideas and dreams of protagonists in ten countries spanning five continents are revealed through conversation, activity and contemplation. These collective stories serve as pieces of a puzzle that lead to what the Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges called 'the unimaginable universe'.

This screening will be followed by a conversation with the artist in-person.

*not available virtually*

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with Artist-in-Focus Iva Radivojević

Saturday 6 August 10 AM
Boedecker Cinema

“Life is always spectral, my life is always spectral, and in the trace is always life.”
- Akira Mizuta Lippit on Jacques Derrida

This masterclass will explore the idea of the Specter who is at the same time both visible and invisible.

Perhaps haunting.

Both biographical and autobiographical.

The Specter is arrived at from elsewhere, an outside, and all the while remains secret.

The eye / I, the narrating Specter, reflection, and self-reflection are all components of the workshop. The theme is inspired by an essay titled Derrida, Specters, Self-Reflection by Akira Mizuta Lippit in which Life, Spectrality, and Autobiography are outlined as the elements of a secret cinema (and Derrida himself).

The workshop will dissect these elements to lean into the secret, and explore questions of dream logic and the mythical in my moving image work. It will include some of my short films as well as a screening of Gaàda, a "process" film assembled from footage I gathered in pre-production for my film Aleph.

With love,
--Iva Radivojević, Lesbos, July 2022

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by Iva Radivojević (2014, 73’)

Evaporating Borders develops a sweeping visual essay on global restrictive a_tudes toward migrant populations. Guided by the filmmaker’s curious eye and personal reflections, the film dissects the experience of asylum seekers in Cyprus. Through a series of vignettes, it poetically weaves themes of migration, tolerance, identity and belonging.

*only available virtually*

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Iva Radivojević was born in Belgrade and spent her early years in Yugoslavia and Cyprus. She is an artist and filmmaker who currently divides her time between subarctic Alaska, Brooklyn and Lesbos.

Iva's films have screened at the New York Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, Rotterdam IFF, CPH:DOX, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, DocLisboa, Museum of Modern Art (NYC), and were commissioned by ARTE La Lucarne and Field of Vision. She is the recipient of the Sundance Art of Non-Fiction Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, NYFA Fellowship, Princess Grace Special Project Award and Film Fellowship. Signatures, or the Bass Line of a Freighter Ship, her chapbook of poems, was recently published by Bottlecap Press. She’s currently working on a film set in Serbia.

Documentary Block

Wednesday 3 August 1 PM
Boedecker Cinema

Intersections of image and power, reflexivity and co-creation, (in)visibility and social exclusion, preservation and destruction. Connecting visual culture, subjects’ agency and the power of institutions and states, these projects show artists engaging with problems of representation and documentary in real time.

Program:

Paper Bag Test (2021, US, 9’)
Trevon Jakaar Coleman

All Eyez on Me! (2021, NL, 33’)
Robert Weijs

The Lowland (2021, IR, 52’)
Aidin Halalzadeh and Sepideh Salarvand

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Documentary Block

Wednesday 3 August 4 PM
Boedecker Cinema

The body has become the core of all human innovation and progress. In the process, some bodies are protected, and some are dissected. Senses, organs, and limbs are augmented, transformed, or suppressed. In this program, we are both scalpel and specimen, deconstructing the history of personhood through layers of sensory scar tissue.

Program:

The Sticklet Weaver (2021, US, 8’)
James Hollenbaugh

Jet Line: Voicemails From the Flight Path (2021, US, 12’)
Duane Peterson III and Patrick McCormack

Absolute Threshold (2022, US, 21’)
Mckenzie Blake

Fathomless (2021, US, 8’)
Melissa Ferrari and Dr. Meilín Fernández García

On airs, waters, places (2021, IT, 24’)
Vittoria Soddu

Approved for Release (2022, US, 22’)
Emily MacDiarmid

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by Daphne Xu (2022, CA/US, 82’)

Wednesday 3 August 8 PM
Boedecker Cinema

Huahua, an eccentric and exuberant woman from Xiongan New Area, livestreams herself dancing, singing, and chatting with fans for a living. Cell phone screens, beauty filters, and digital soundscapes reveal a world that Huahua creates with her own image.

*Not available virtually*

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Documentary Block

Thursday 4 August 1 PM
Boedecker Cinema

What marks do we carry from our forebears? How does family shape the way we make sense of the world? Artists in this program boldly use their cameras to arrest the flow of time and analyze the idiosyncrasies embedded in the mundane to better understand their wellsprings. Privileging the local and the personal, these documentaries reveal the invisible, indestructible ties that bind us to those that came before.

Program:

I Wish You Happy Moon Festival (2021, US/CN, 3’)
Xiaolu Wang

Seed Summer Tomb (2021, US, 18’)
Eileen Roscina

Declarations of Love (2022, US, 29’)
Tiff Rekem

Tomorrow's A Long Way Off (2022, CA, 40’)
Zebulon Zang

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Documentary Block

Thursday 4 August 8 PM
Boedecker Cinema

Humans can project their thoughts onto any environment - and then transform it. Perhaps it is the act of making the impossible possible, or perhaps it simply fulfills capitalism’s unbridled desires. Or, maybe, it is just an absurd attempt at the construction of utopia. These projects methodically study the interactions between humans as well as the humanization of the environment around them.

Program:

Expo Film (this film is my memory) (2020, CA, 9’)
Penny McCann

A Machine to Live In (2020, BR/US, 88’)
Yoni Goldstein and Meredith Zielke

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Documentary Block

Friday 5 August 1 PM
Boedecker Cinema

Like a river, historical time is not linear. It changes course, takes detours, and overflows. Shapeshifting currents flow upstream and sideways, changing long-established landscapes. In a program that examines glass slides for magic lanterns, a grandmother’s home in Baghdad, the traces of Dutch colonial life in Manhattan, and the scars of civil war in Abkhazia, these four women documentarians sharply challenge dominant historical narratives and untangle the power structures beneath them. It takes a keen eye to find the way upstream.

Program:

Fragile (2022, US, 9’)
Sasha Waters

Echolocation (2021, US, 8’) *not available virtually*
Nadia Shihab

Water & Wall (2021, US, 9’)
Cassandra Celestin

What We Shared (2021, GB, 69’)
Kamila Kuc

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Documentary Block

Friday 5 August 4 PM
Boedecker Cinema

What does the afterlife hold? Missing letters from 1934; discarded goods on New York City curbs; personal treasures in the ashes of a wildfire; endangered reptiles hiding in plain sight…countless beings, objects, and memories are salvaged and given new meaning. Every species is preserved in the cloud as pixels and code - could the simulation of our lives save us from extinction?

Program:

Three Missing Letters (2021, US/IN, 25’)
Lin + Lam (Lana Lin and H. Lan Thao Lam)

Piled Up (2022, US, 10’)
Sophia Lebowitz

Contents Inventory (2021, US, 31’)
Irene Lusztig

In the Weeds (2022, US, 11’)
Laura Asherman and Charles G. Watson

Our Ark (2021, NL, 12’)
Deniz Tortum and Kathryn Hamilton

The Seismic Properties of Cloud Computing (2022, US, 7’)
Max Oginz

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Documentary Block

Saturday 6 August 1 PM
Boedecker Cinema

New boundaries emerge every moment: miles of barbed wire, concrete security walls, naval detention centers, biometric passport databases, and checkpoints at schools, airports, and roadsides. We live in delineated zones dictating our possibilities, pasts, and paths. In this program, testimonies on settler-colonialism, identity, and migration take us behind, inside, and beyond borders.

Program:

Cruces (2020, US/MX/GT, 24’)
Carlos Tobon Franco

What the Pier Gave Us (2021, US, 7’)
Luna X Moya

Ajjigiingiluktaaqtugut (We Are All Different) (2021, CA, 17’)
Lindsay McIntyre

True Places (2022, US, 7’)
Gloria Chung

Requerimiento (2020, CH, 8’)
Andrea Bordoli

Come On Pilgrim (2022, GB, 27’)
Marcy Saude

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Documentary Block

Saturday 6 August 4 PM
Boedecker Cinema

Picture yourself in an imploding myth; radiation fills the most placid landscape with adventure. Reject the picturesque view and embrace the scenically challenged, experience the drama of a life-cycle, and witness the sustenance of an ecosystem. Pit cities against countrysides, both infected with history - a virulent but necessary contagion.

Program:

History is a Black Circle (2021, NO, 23’)
Hamid Waheed

What Travelers Are Saying About Jornada del Muerto (2021, US, 14’)
Hope Tucker

Phase II (2022, US, 7’)
Kelly Sears

Grassland (2019, US, 20’)
Sarah Kanouse

Datura's Aubade (2021, US/MX, 17’)
Bretta C. Walker and Jean-Jacques Martinod

The Truth About Hastings (2021, US, 10’)
Dan Schneidkraut

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Documentary Block

Saturday 6 August 8 PM
Boedecker Cinema

The hyper-masculinist worlds of politics and barber shops get a make-over. These projects are a multifaceted look at gender identity, expression, and how once-exclusionary realms transform into spaces of affirmation and self-realization.

Program:

T/TIME (2021, US, 5’)
Lane Epstien

Last Race (2022, US, 19’)
John Haley

Manscaping (2022, US, 62’)
Broderick Fox

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​Documentary Block

Sunday 7 August 1 PM
Boedecker Cinema

The beloved’s presence upsets the balance, cutting us off from our quotidian existence. Love is a process of distancing and disconnection - creating a new world that stands in opposition to the old. From earthly love and transcendental love, to the forbidden love of an outlawed species, projects in this program depict worlds created for the beloved to survive in.

Program:

a story that doesn't have to do with me (2021, US, 7’)
Kym McDaniel

The Narrows (2022, US, 9’)
Laura Conway

Doggy Love (2022, IR, 60’)
Mahmoud Ghaffari

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Documentary Block

Sunday 7 August 4 PM
Boedecker Cinema

From the IRA’s dirty protests to Guantanamo Bay press tours, violence and trauma reverberate across the map and throughout generations. These projects include field reports filed post-captivity that dismantle the illusion of redemption narratives and expose inequalities in crime and punishment.

Program:

We Had Each Other (2021, US, 15’)
Kelly Gallagher

Midwaste (2021, US, 24’)
Liz Roberts

Signal and Noise (2022, US, 13’)
Jess Shane and Katie Mathews

Dreams Under Confinement (2020, US, 3’)
Christopher Harris

Dark Cell Harlem Farm (2022, US, 27’)
Alexander Johnston

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by Elie Aufseesser (2022, US, 85')

Sunday 7 August 8 PM
Boedecker Cinema

Pas de Deux is an intimate direct cinema study following an Olympic hopeful and a globetrotting bohemian from the competitive swimming pool at Columbia University to the sands around the Dead Sea. This stylized documentary tenderly captures the intricate, invisible ties that form the fabric of family life.

*Not available virtually*

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These expanded documentaries are unconstrained by the single screen, drawing from a range of artistic practices including sound, installation, performance, interactivity, and extended realities.

This program is installed in the B2 Center for Media, Arts, and Performance in sub-basement of the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. They will be on show from Thursday, August 4 to Sunday, August 7 and are free and open to the public.

by Che Applewhaite (2022, DE/US/TT/GB, 9’)

4-7 August 11 AM-6 PM
B2 Center for Media Arts and Performance

A speculative documentary that explores how an archive of networked moving images, featuring famed ballroom hosts Selvin “MC Debra” Mizrahi and Kelly Gorgeous Gucci, enables worldly ways of seeing.

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by Ama Gisèle (2022, US, 26’)

4-7 August 11 AM-6 PM
B2 Center for Media Arts and Performance

An experimental documentary with modern dance elements. Using twelve questions from The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers by Bhanu Kapil, Gisèle explores intimacy, loss, triumph and more in the film’s four parts: Flowers, Grounded, Past, and Future.

by Sana Akram (2021, PK/US, 120’)

4-7 August 11 AM-6 PM
B2 Center for Media Arts and Performance

Take a drifting journey across Little Pakistan and rediscover this resilient Pakistani-American neighborhood as an ensemble of meanings across space, time, and generations.

by STUDIOLANDA (Vittoria Soddu and Giorgia Cadeddu) (2021, IT, 31’)

4-7 August 11 AM-6 PM
B2 Center for Media Arts and Performance

Sardinian poet and ecologist Orlanda Sassu devoted her entire life to recording audio as an archive for the memory of her village and of the Sardinian language she was afraid to lose.

by Derek Jenkins (2021, CA)

4-7 August 11 AM-6 PM
B2 Center for Media Arts and Performance

A consideration of collection as both archive and act, Herbaria × pelicula examines the work that takes place at the HAM Herbarium of Royal Botanical Gardens (Canada), located in Burlington, Ontario along the edges of Cootes Paradise wetland, traditional territory of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee peoples. The work positions the specific labor of botanical gathering and collection as an image-making practice in addition to a mode of knowledge production.

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by Jack Cochran and Pamela Falkenberg (2020, US, 11’)

4-7 August 11 AM-6 PM
B2 Center for Media Arts and Performance

A film poem in three parts in collaboration with renowned poet Lucy English. A passionate indictment of careless land development and the impact of climate change on the natural environment.

by Federica Foglia (2021, CA, 4’)

4-7 August 11 AM - 6 PM
B2 Center for Media Arts and Performance

A self-portrait of the filmmaker is crafted through the manipulation of several layers of an 8mm orphan film via hand-painting, film decay with soil, yeast and sugar, and, ultimately, digital manipulation.

by Carleen Maur (2021, US, 4’)

4-7 August 11 AM-6 PM
B2 Center for Media Arts and Performance

Through the limits of language breaking visually and sonically over a burning forest, Puncture pierces through the affect of its own particular moment in time.

by Carlos Isabel García (2021, CH, 19’)

4-7 August 11 AM-6 PM
B2 Center for Media Arts and Performance

Mankind has landed on the moon and flies around in space. But under our feet there are about a million kilometers of cave systems—only one percent of which have been explored.

(2022, US, 20’ Performance)

4 August 5 PM
B2 Center for Media Arts and Performance

Conjuring analog apparitions and scan line specters, Mystic Fire creates a hypersonic visual immersive experience.

Conversation
Wednesday 3 August 10 AM
Boedecker Cinema

A conversation with MDF2022 artists about environment and ecology.

Topics include: climate and displacement, visual research and ethnography, collection and labor,
community-centered stories.

Suggested watch list:
Song of Salt
Phase II
Contents Inventory
The Lowland
Piled Up
I Want to Breath Sweet Air
Puncture
Herbaria x Pelicula
The Seismic Properties of Cloud Computing

Conversation
Thursday 4 August 10 AM
Boedecker Cinema

A conversation with MDF2022 artists on identity and personal documentary.

Topics include: cultural performance, the personal and political, the social and the self, individual and collective memory.

Suggested watch list:
Declarations of Love
Tomorrow is a Long Way Off
Happy Moon Festival
T/Time
Seed Summer Tomb
Manscaping
Convergence
a story that doesn't have to do with me

Conversation
Sunday 7 August 10 AM
Boedecker Cinema

A conversation with MDF2022 artists on decoloniality and politics of form.

Topics include: hybrid modes of making, mapping and migration, nuclear colonialism, architectures of violence, resistance.

Suggested watch list:
Cruces
What We Shared
Dreams Under Confinement
Come on Pilgrim
Signal and Noise
Dark Cell Harlem Farm
What Travelers Are Saying About Jornada del Muerto
What the Pier Gave Us