2018 Border Zones, Liminal Bodies Program

BORDER ZONES LIMINAL BODIES NMSU University Art Gallery March 12, 2018 10am-6pm Closing Remarks at 6pm Carolina Teixeira, a dancer profiled in one of today’s films, has written that to “live as a disabled person in Brazil is to recognize how one is implicated in a paradoxical social structure that at once suggests the possibility of inclusiveness and the accommodation of disabled bodies while foreclosing the more radical revaluing of disability as a creative force in its own right.” This more radical revaluing of disability as a creative force in its own right animates Teixeira’s work as well as Lilih Curi’s “Carolina” and it serves as a driving force in the selection of films that make up Border Zones, Liminal Bodies.

Meeting violence and erasure with visibility and vision, this one-day exhibit of shortform videos use the medium to confront urgent social issues and reflect upon historical traumas. The creative forces let loose in these films break new ground while they revisit sites of personal and collective grief. These videos recount and remember; they revalue and remonstrate. They become sites themselves of a moral, liminal consciousness of social and political borders zones.

Border Zones, Liminal Bodies is the first live screening event of this year’s Feminist Border Arts Film Festival. It is presented here in collaboration between Gender & Sexuality Studies, University Art Gallery, and the Interdisciplinary Studies Department. #FBAFF18 would like to express its special thanks to Marisa Sage, Director of the University Art Gallery, for her support and belief in this project. The next screening event for the festival is April 16, 2018 at 6-8:30pm in the CMI Digital Theater (Milton 171) in collaboration with Amy Lanasa and the NMSU Creative Media Institute. All events are free and open to the public. genders.nmsu.edu/film-festival/

Border Zones Liminal Bodies: A Video Art Exhibition

#FBAFF18

Boat Raising Sails (5:32) Sharmin Mojtahed Zadeh, Iran from FBAFF17 Hopeful longings. Empty dreams.

Lake Urmia, one of the world’s largest salt lakes, is drying up. How easy it seems to catch a prize in good times on favorable winds.

And yet, how swiftly the dream turns into a nightmare when it is like a solitary sail flailing alone in a distant landscape which we wishfully raise, not mindful that it was part and parcel of some woefully hapless ship, run aground, far, far away.

The Call (3:32) Trina Robinson, United States New Mexico Premiere Inspired by the volume of letters written to northern newspapers by hopeful African American migrants throughout the South, The Call was filmed partially on the Kentucky homestead where the filmmaker's ancestors were enslaved for generations before migrating to Chicago in 1917, and also includes original 19th-century manuscripts connected to those same family members.

Tark (4:09) Hana Mahmoud, Egypt North American Premiere Tark is a visual expression of domestic violence seen through the eyes of a young woman. The film delves into her inner world in her home.

That same home that once looked and felt so familiar is now nothing more than empty walls and haunting memories. She decides to let it go; to let it all go, but in her own way.

In Our Skin (3:50) Rosa Beiroa, United Kingdom North American Premiere In Our Skin is a celebration of nudity and freedom of women within their own bodies. It is a film about form, volume and shape, from the beauty of a fold of skin to the delicacy of a touch.

The film highlights the exceptional and extraordinary that lies within the seemingly routine gestures of undressing and creates a connection with often overlooked feelings and sensations.

Memorándum (15:00) Jennifer Lara, Chile U.S. Premiere During Gen. Pinochet’s dictatorship, hundreds or thousands of newborn infants were stolen and given away or sold in illegal adoptions. Memorándum explores this history of grief through a quiet exploration of the abandoned spaces of former maternity hospital Barros Luco Trudeau. Its striped walls keep secrets. They are burdened daily with the memory of the women who entered and who seek the light that they never saw shine.

Carolina (10:45) Lilih Curi, Brazil North American Premiere Explores Carolina Teixeira’s use of space, matter, & movement in the choreography of daily life.

Teixeira, a dance artist & Disability Studies scholar, seeks “to reimagine not only the social but also the artistic implications that disability might have for dance.” Her “goal is to move ideologically beyond the inclusive model that allows everyone to dance and emphasize the importance of artistic voice and creative autonomy.”

genders.nmsu.edu/film-festival/

Border Zones Liminal Bodies: A Video Art Exhibition

Veer (7:00) Mariama Slåttøy and Sveinung Gjessing, Norway New Mexico Premiere Veer is a poetic short that joins nature, cinema, and the body in a dance to explore the idea of ruling and being ruled. Mariama Slåttøy is a dancer and a director. She experiments with movement, space, and moving images in collaboration with architect and filmmaker Sveinung Gjessing.

Listen (13:08) Min Min Hein, Myanmar/United States New Mexico Premiere A documentary portrait of revolutionary artist Chaw Ei Then, exiled from her homeland of Myanmar. She uses visually striking and emotionally unsettling performance art and artwork as a means of dissent, both to express her political views and to give voice to experiences of victimization and inner struggles.

Resort (5:38) Susanne Slavick and Andrew Ellis Johnson, United States New Mexico Premiere Vacationers flock to seaside resorts, but the open sea is a last resort for migrants and refugees, sweeping them toward shores that will seemingly welcome as well as unwelcome them. In Resort, the immense sea is oddly stilled. The beach chairs turn away from its expanse, emptied of the lounging bodies unavailable or unwilling to assist.

A Drive Through Ciudad Juárez (14:16) Daniela Martin, Germany/Mexico U.S. Premiere URBAN ART DEMANDS JUSTICE: A new movement in Ciudad Juárez's street art scene plays a major role in the fight for justice and urban development in the Mexican border town. The documentary is dedicated to the disappeared women and victims of feminicide in Mexico.

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ENOLA EM EVAEL (7:00) Kathryn Ramey, United States New Mexico Premiere A remake of Man Ray’s 1926 “Emak Bakia,” ELONA EM EVAEL/LEAVE ME ALONE is a response to brutality. The film juxtaposes the recent Amnesty International’s Report “Will I be Next?” on US drone strikes in Pakistan and a list of the 101 children killed by them as of April 2015 with footage of the filmmaker’s young sons who get to experience a relatively banal peacefulness in their everyday lives.

Barbara Kruger on Photography (1:51) Asheila Amara, United Kingdom North American Premiere A short animated film based on Barbara Kruger’s observations on how photography and technology relate to art in the 21st century. Made in conjunction with Tate Modern and the London College of Communication.

genders.nmsu.edu/film-festival/

Border Zones Liminal Bodies: A Video Art Exhibition

Landscape of Absence (9:33) Stiller (Verena Looser & Melina Weissenborn), Germany North American Premiere Film theorist B. Ruby Rich once asked: “How does one formulate an understanding of a structure that insists upon our absence even in the face of our presence?” In Landscape of Absence, female protagonists from 70 films embark on a speculative search across different genres and eras of film history to flesh out this query.

To Touch (1:27) Supanan Wataniyakun, United Kingdom North American Premiere This animation focuses on a quote

by English sculptor Barbara Hepworth about her thought process in creating artworks influenced by nature that inspire human interaction. Made in conjunction with Tate Modern and the London College of Communication.

Dicks (0:55) John Morena, United States New Mexico Premiere An educational film about war and dominant culture’s narrativizing of gender and the body. This film is #20 of 52 experimental animation films the filmmaker created in 2017.

Kokom (5:00) Kevin Papatie, Canada From FBAFF17 A participant since 2004 of Wapikoni Mobile, a First Nations’ organization that provides mentoring to indigenous youth in the audiovisual arts, Papatie presents here a beautiful experimental film, a tribute to his grandmother, his kokom, and, through it, to the Anishnabe people who have survived the trials of history and remained strong.

Papatie is from Kitcisakik, an Algonquin community located in the Abitibi region of Quebec (Canada).

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Peri-feria (2:19) M. Dianela Torres, Mexico New Mexico Premiere Recorded with a cell phone on the US-Mexico border, Peri-feria blends landscape footage with distorted images from Google Maps screenshots, separating, uniting and blurring a sense of borders and limits.

Travelling (10:00) Muyassar Kurdi, United States New Mexico Premiere Travelling is a short 16mm movement film exploring gravity, vulnerability, spaces between spaces, visual rhythm, and presence. The main character overcomes a series of obstacles followed by a sense of solitude, yet it remains unresolved in the end – reminiscent of the silent film era and the American avant-garde.

genders.nmsu.edu/film-festival/