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FilmNorth & Walker Art Center Present WE TAKE EVERYTHING WITH US
September 22, 2020 @ 10:00 am - October 6, 2020 @ 5:00 pm
Celebrate new works by local and regional emerging filmmakers, guest curated by Valérie Déus and Merit Thursday, programmers and hosts of FilmNorth’s monthly Cinema Lounge series. Explore the myriad ways these 11 artists use experimental and new media practices in this online cinema showcase. Together, they express complex and unique visions and voices of the Twin Cities and the Midwest today.
Program
Everilda by Gisell Calderón
The title of this film about missed and muddled connections over distance and time refers to the filmmaker’s grandmother. 2020, digital, 3 min.
Resist in Place by Ellen Mueller
Engaging with orientation, scale, reflection and repetition, this film invites imaginative play and questions about the human impact on seemingly “natural” or non-commercial spaces. 2019, digital, 2 min.
Superb Owl Sunday by Lyn Corelle
Footage collected in Northeast Minneapolis in February 2015 is paired with reflections recorded in South Minneapolis in April 2020. 2020, digital, 14 min.
Diana by Traci Hercher
This film portrays healer Diana Harper during a moment of immense transition in her life while also speaking to the global political climate, gendered and racist dismissal of non-scientific epistemologies, and the astronomical phenomenon of the eclipse. 2018, 16mm on video, 8 min.
connect here by Fionn Warren
With intimate shots from a smartphone camera and poetic text narration, this work explores the experiences of daily commutes on public transit. At its core, it is a reflection of the inherent layers of existing and the (in)visibility of identities. 2019, digital, 8 min.
Work by Trevon Jakaar Coleman
This formal exploration in black and white investigates language, figuration, and space through meticulous in-camera editing and actively engages the audience in the physics of motion. Work is a partial response to Bruce Conner and Toni Basil’s BREAKAWAY collaboration. 2019, 16mm transferred to digital, 3 min.
the conductor of the sea by Leila Awadallah
This work is a dance/poetry meditation on the thousands of lives lost when fleeing the Mediterranean Sea during the recent and ongoing refugee crisis. Taking time to mourn within dance, and move through the sorrows of loss in open ended reflection: what can we do? 2020, digital, 12 min.
The Monument by Ryan Stopera
This nostalgic poetry film examines childhood, grief, and love. 2019, digital, 3 min.
La Napoule by Sarah Abdel-Jelil
Created in residency at Château de La Napoule in southern France, this film combines durational performance with time-lapse photography in a practice the artist calls “dance time-lapse.” The dancer/mover is invited to slow down to match the pace of the world around them. In doing so, bodies are allowed to listen and recalibrate to the tempo of other living organisms and natural cycles. 2020, digital, 4 min.
The Real Thing by Julianna Villarosa
Using physical media recordings destroyed by Coca-Cola, this work contrasts the famous ad “I’d Like to Buy the World A Coke” with the company’s 2018 scandal of water privatization in Chiapas, Mexico. 2019, 16mm and VHS transferred to digital, 3 min.
Dumpling by Xiaolu Wang
On Xiao Xing’s first day of high school after she moves to the United States, she begins to feel othered and isolated in the cafeteria. 2019, digital, 5 min.
Curators’ Statement
How do we engage with legacy? With heritage? It’s a complicated question: Some of us are stolen bodies living on stolen land, some of us came here to face violent Othering everywhere we go, while some of us are born into and benefit from a white supremacist structure which glorifies individualism and rejects connection. Our heritage is woven inside everything we do and is frequently far more everyday than we expect it to be. We hunt for connection in our community-focused vocations, we shape our movements to mimic our homelands, or we fabricate legacy when our culture offers none. Everything we are is a reflection of where we come from. The show’s title refers to the ways that the legacy of our ancestors lives in our bodies, in our domestic spaces, in our exchanges. By presenting We Take Everything with Us as a free virtual showcase, available online anytime September 22–October 6, we invite audiences to engage with the works of these emerging Midwestern experimental filmmakers, to reflect on our own heritage and theirs, and to consider what we choose to take with us, and what we leave behind.
About the Artists
Sarah Abdel-Jelil is a Minneapolis-based, Mauritanian-American filmmaker, dancer, and choreographer whose artwork explores notions of home, movement, and liminal spaces.
Leila Awadallah is a Palestinian American dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker based between Minneapolis and Beirut, Lebanon.
Gisell Calderón is a first-generation Latinx artist based in Minneapolis whose multidisciplinary practice examines migration, class and labor dynamics, and the mobilized gaze.
Trevon Jakaar Coleman is a multidisciplinary artist living in Iowa City whose work explores alienation theory as a way to challenge expectations and perceptions of Black bodies, representations, and audience responsibility.
Lyn Corelle is a Minneapolis-based artist working across a number of mediums and the author of Bodybuilding Basics: A Field Guide for Young Naturalists.
Traci Hercher is an Illinois-born experimental filmmaker and educator.
Ellen Mueller is an interdisciplinary artist and the director of the MFA program at Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Ryan Stopera is a Chinese American photographer, filmmaker, and educator based in Minneapolis, who has worked with community organizations for more than 15 years.
Julianna Villarosa is a Texas-born filmmaker and activist currently making work in Iowa City.
Xiaolu Wang is a Twin Cities–based filmmaker and narrative healer who grew up in the Muslim autonomous region of northwestern China.
Fionn Warren is an emerging filmmaker originally from Maine and now based in Minneapolis, whose work explores the nuances and complexities of queer existence, often through a lens of intersectional trans/gender experiences.
About the Curators
Valérie Déus is a poet and film curator. Her work has been featured in The Brooklyn Rail, Midway, Aforementioned Productions, the Saint Paul Almanac, and most recently in The BeZine. Her book, Skull-Filled Sun, is available on Amazon. When she’s not writing, she hosts Project 35, a local low-fi radio show featuring a mix of music from around the world, artist interviews, and poetry. She curates FilmNorth’s Cinema Lounge and is the shorts programmer for the Provincetown International Film Festival.
Merit Thursday is a filmmaker, arts organizer, and avid hobbyist. They are an award-winning experimental filmmaker in the Twin Cities and received the Audience Award from Altered Esthetics. Thursday founded, curates, and hosts a film screening series called Video Variant, which exclusively supports the work of LGBTQIA+ filmmakers in the Twin Cities and metro area. They teach media to a variety of age groups and in a variety of contexts and are a current COMPAS teaching artist.