2024
Friday, March 29, 2024
with filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk in person!
Avery Auditorium 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm EDT/GMT-4 Set in 1990s Ukraine, this spanning coming-of-age story follows Tymophii and his friendship with a peculiar but intriguing older man whose entire life is shrouded in secrecy. Based on the autobiography "Who Are You?" by Artem Chekh, this drama—with glints of humor—presents a portrait of post-Soviet life that addresses the traumas of war by shuttling between the domestic and public, the personal and the communal. Critic Rich Cline writes, “Shot in superbly visual sets and locations, the film’s narrative unfolds in understated anecdotal scenes that feel bracingly true to life.” Iryna Tsilyk is a Ukrainian film director and writer. She is the director of the award-winning documentary film The Earth is Blue as an Orange, which received the award for the best director at the Sundance Film Festival 2020, as well as dozens of other prestigious honors. Tsilyk is also the director of the fiction film Rock. Paper. Grenade based on the novel "Who Are You?" by Ukrainian writer and Iryna's husband Artem Chekh. Additionally, Iryna Tsilyk is the author of 8 books (poetry, prose, children's editions). Her poems and short stories have been translated into several languages and published in a number of international literary magazines and anthologies. During Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, Iryna also began writing columns and essays for various international publications and has been engaged in cultural diplomacy for her country. Iryna and her family live in Kyiv. Iryna’s husband, Ukrainian writer Artem Ckekh, is serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. |
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Avery Art Center; Theater in the Ottaway Film Center 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Joana Pimenta is a filmmaker from Portugal, living and working in the United States and Brazil. Her latest film Dry Ground Burning, codirected with Adirley Queirós, tells the story of the Gasolineiras de Kebradas, a group of women from the periphery of Sol Nascente who steal oil and resist Bolsonaro’s presidency. Dry Ground Burning premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and screened at the New York Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, among many others, receiving more than 30 awards around the world. It was a film of the year for publications such as Artforum, Sight and Sound, and Film Comment, and received glowing reviews in the New York Times, the Guardian, and Le Monde, among others. Dry Ground Burning had theatrical releases in the United States, France, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, and Argentina, among other countries. Pimenta teaches in the department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University, where she is director of graduate studies for Critical Media Practice and director of the Film Study Center. |
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Avery Art Center; Ottaway Theater in the Ottaway Film Center 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Alison Nguyen is a New York-based artist whose work spans video, installation, performance, and sculpture. Her work has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, MIT List Center for Visual Arts, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, the Everson Museum, the Dowse Art Museum, e-flux, the International Studio & Curatorial Program, op.cit., AC Gallery Beijing, Signs and Symbols KAJE, Ann Arbor Film Festival, International Film Festival Oberhausen, Channels Festival International Biennial of Video Art, True/False Film Festival, and Microscope Gallery. Nguyen received her MFA in visual art from Columbia University and her BA in literary arts from Brown University. She is a 2023–2024 artist in the Whitney Independent Studies Program. |
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Avery Art Center; Theater in the Ottaway Film Center 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Suneil Sanzgiri is an Indian-American artist, researcher, and filmmaker. Spanning experimental video and film, animations, essays, and installations, his work contends with questions of identity, heritage, culture, and diaspora in relation to structural violence and anticolonial struggles across the Global South. Sanzgiri’s films offer sonic and visual journeys through family history, local mythology, and colonial legacies of extraction in Goa, India—where his family originates. His first institutional solo exhibition Here the Earth Grows Gold opened at the Brooklyn Museum in October 2023. His films have circulate widely at film festivals and art institutions across the world including International Film Festival Rotterdam, New York Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Camden International Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Doclisboa, Viennale, BlackStar Film Festival, Open City Docs, REDCAT, Menil Collection, Block Museum, MASS MoCA, moCa Cleveland, Le Cinéma Club, Criterion Collection, and many more. |
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Avery Art Center; Theater in the Ottaway Film Center 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EST/GMT-5
Hao Zhou is a filmmaker from southwest China. Exploring Queer relationships, diasporic themes, and traditionally overlooked spaces, Zhou’s films have been selected by the Berlinale, SXSW, Hong Kong, Sarajevo, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Images Festival, Outfest, and BlackStar, among others. Zhou’s feature The Night, which centers on Queer sex workers in China, premiered at the Berlinale and won top prizes at other international festivals. In 2021, Zhou’s experimental documentary Frozen Out won a Gold Medal at the 48th Student Academy Awards. “Here, Hopefully,” Zhou’s 2023 short documentary, follows a nonbinary aspiring American in Iowa (distributed by PBS). Zhou’s latest film, Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way, follows a genderqueer costume designer between Iowa and Guam. An alum of Cannes’ Résidence and Berlinale Talents, Zhou has made work with funding from IF/Then × Hulu, Firelight Media/CAAM, Talents Tokyo/TOKYO FILMeX, Art With Impact, Frameline, Iowa Arts Council, and other organizations. They received an MFA in film and an MA in photography/intermedia from the University of Iowa. |