EXPS/SLC Screening #1: TIDAL FORCES: Bodies in Motion
This program of experimental films explores choreography underneath, alongside, and in collaboration with oceans, rivers, pools, and lakes. Using movement to address a variety of themes including ritual, migration, and identity, this program highlights the resiliency of the body navigating internal and external worlds.
Thursday October 20, 2022 at 8pm. Union Theatre, 200 Central Campus Drive, Salt Lake City. All programs are free and open to the public. For more information about EXPERIMENTAL SERIES – SALT LAKE CITY and upcoming screenings visit IG @exps.slc
A Guide to Breathing Underwater (2018, video, 7:15), , dir. Raven Jackson
Traversing New York City, a dancer seeks freedom and peace through movement.
River Rites (2011, 16mm to video, 11:30), dir. Ben Russell
A trance dance water implosion, a newer line drawn between secular possession and religious phenomena. Filmed in one shot at a sacred site on the Upper Suriname River, the minor secrets of a Saramaccan animist everyday are revealed as time itself is undone. Rites are the new trypps; embodiment is our eternal everything.
Courtesy of Video Data Bank.
Exile Exotic (2015, video, 14:12), dir. Sasha Litvintseva
Steeped in elliptical history and historical simulacra, Exile Exotic is set at a hotel that is a replica of the Kremlin. Narrating the exotic beginnings of my mother’s and my exile from Russia, the film serves as a platform for us to visit the Kremlin again, albeit by the side of a pool. Soundtracked by an operatic score reminiscent of the song of the sirens making Odysseus stray on his long journey home, our story reverberates throughout the scope of Russian history’s limiting of free movement of individuals. This film is a pilgrimage. This film comes in waves.
ponchartrain (2016, 16mm to Video, 4:08), dir. Adam Sekuler, Shannon Stewart, Angelle Hebert
Ghostly apparitions are seen walking the banks of the Bayou. Caught in a cyclonic tidal force, these specters are seized by the chemical and physical interaction between the emulsion, the body and the seawater.
The Beauty of Being Deaf (2021, video, 3:01), dir. Chella Man
Sharing this poem and film with the world, now, is representative of the community I have since found and the extent from which I’ve healed from ableist trauma. Shooting this piece required both the cast and production’s full hearts as we waded into our vulnerabilities. [excerpt from chellaman.com/the-beauty-of-being-deaf]
Blue (2019, video, 12), dir. Laura Magnusson
Alone on an endless ocean “tundra,” wearing a clamshell-like parka and winter boots, a woman moves, exhales, and burrows through the afterlife of sexual violence. The medium of water, with its destructive potential and capacity to heal, hold the fullness of traumatic experience. In this silent, psychic landscape, she bears witness to the complex nature of trauma and the ongoing process of healing.
No Diving (2022, video, 3), dir. Roxanne Gray
A woman wanders in an oppressive state, "No Diving" shows that even a well-intentioned partner cannot breathe for you.
Swimming in Your Skin Again (2015, Video, 21:32min), dir. Terence Nance
Made in collaboration with director Terence Nance’s brother, musician and producer Norvis Junior, this dance- and movement-based work unfolds in a mesmerizing wash of surreal rituals and religious symbolism.