ReelNewYork - Overview

Home	On REEL NEW YORK By Kathy High Independent Series Curator Page 3 of 4

Topics In This Year'S Selections

As with the diversity of financing and production models, so the range of topics addressed by the works in this year's REEL NEW YORK reflects the continuing diversity of the field.

In looking at work for possible inclusion in REEL NEW YORK, it became apparent that certain themes surfaced and needed to be included--themes that are under-represented on television but exist as large issues for our culture. One such topic is AIDS.

From Beverly Peterson's THE ANDRE SHOW.

The series opens with I'LL BE YOUR MIRROR, by the photographer Nan Goldin, which documents her life and that of her friends. This tape traces various histories, and looks at the changes that have occurred since the seventies -- traveling from fantastically free sex and drugs to the onset of AIDS and the never-ending losses. This piece is a reality check to keep us from getting carried away with our own nostalgia for an era gone by, keeping us firmly rooted in the present. The frankness in this piece (mostly from Nan's photographs) acts as an important kind of collective memory, but one which is not fixed in time---always changing, as people's lives do.

THE ANDRE SHOW is another project which discusses AIDS from the perspective of an extended family. Beverly Peterson amazes me with her openness and directness, discussing what it meant to take someone into her life. André and his family become an extension of Beverly's making human what we too often see as stereotypes on TV.

In Ayoka Chenzira's SNOWFIRE, another family copes with AIDS. A Jamaican father has to come to terms with the loss of his gay son who has died of AIDS. Much like Goldin, Chenzira illustrates this story with photographs, letting stills tell the tale---as densely packed documents of moments in history, moments of discovery, somehow more resounding than the moving images could be.

Then there is the theme of media persuasion, or how the mass media makes us all believe.

In LOCKDOWN USA, we are asked to look at the penal system and how the news depicts crime in the country. In a deconstruction of the true life cop shows on TV, it is pointed out that the audience is asked to identify with the authorities in these programs, the camera eye taking its stance right next to the arm of the police -- with the "criminals" as the subjects. Why don't we see white-collar criminals in these programs as well? WE'LL CHANGE YOU, a videotape by Samir Vural and Rise and Shine Productions, looks at the ways we are over-stimulated and over-saturated with media. Situated in New York's Times Square, a young boy is trying to resist the overwhelming media temptations.

PAPAPAPA by Alez Rivera looks at how Alex's father, an immigrant from Peru, visits his language and his homeland through the television every night. PAGE 1 (LEARNING TO WATCH) and PAGE 99 by Caterina Borelli also explore the ways we take in media information.

Human rights issues are brought up in many of the projects as well. LOCKDOWN USA throws open the entire issue of the criminal justice system and human rights. Haven't you ever asked yourself why there are so many prisons in this country? Is it really that crime is so much on the rise? And do prisons really change anything anyway? It seems that there is a big business here. LOCKDOWN exposes this issue.

From Pat Saunder's and Rea Tajiri's
YURI KOCHIYAMA: PASSION FOR JUSTICE.

The political activist, Yuri Kochiyama, in the documentary of her life entitled YURI KOCHYAMA, becomes a role model for us to consider in working towards cross-cultural dialogue among people of color. She opens doors and never tires from her struggle to raise issues of abuse and injustice.

In PASSING, Kym Ragusa takes us back in time to a moment when her grandmother was faced with her own identity as a pale-skinned black woman. Her grandmother claims her territory boldly and realizes the struggles as hand. Ragusa retells this oral history as a reminder of both the similarities and the differences between struggles.

There are stories that are told through fantasy that are metaphorical struggles for personal identity. PAPAPAPA links the migration of Alex Rivera's father from Peru to the U.S. with that of the potato. Alex speaks of immigrant problems through a TV game show, Inka Vision. He eventually takes his father to a cybermodel of his home town---Lima, Peru---where he is courted by corporate icons. Finally, he defies his need for TV by blowing up the screen.

Mary Hestand's HE WAS ONCE is a curious affected rendition of the David and Goliath story using the characters from the claymation program Davey & Goliath. Here, Davey fights a Freudian battle with his father. The characters are surrealistically exaggerated and wear plastic enlarged ears and hairdos, while the faithful dog/friend of Davey, Goliath, is really a talking spotted footstool.

Janie Geiser's THE RED BOOK is a beautiful animation that recounts a mysterious fall and loss of memory and language of a woman who cannot find herself. Told through a series of graphic cut-outs and paintings, this doll-woman tries to reconstruct her home through strange architectural drawings, finds herself on the operating table being dissected and reassembled, and seems to lose the key to herself.

"In Kristin Lucas' HOST, we can see the crossing of our identity with that of technology."

Caterina Borelli's PAGE 1 and PAGE 99 gracefully plays with our memories and our desire to fill in the blank pages with images, instructing us to be cautious of the overconsumption of images.

And there are the various depictions of strong-willed women in the nineties.

In Kristin Lucas' HOST, we can see the crossing of our identity with that of technology. Here is a young woman who has perhaps been miswired and is seeking professional help from the techno-gurus. Where do we go from here?

JUGGLING GENDER by Tami Gold reveals how tightly we hold onto our notions of gender identity. If a woman looks like a man, is she then not still a woman? Jennifer Miller, bearded lesbian, takes a bold stance and fixes her position squarely between all our old terms.

Meredith Holch's ROCKET GIRL'S REVENGE really strikes at the heart and desires of all NYC tenants. Holch creates a strong woman character who is smart, technically skilled (a rocket scientist) and takes some real chances with her future -- besides getting back at her landlord.

The theme of challenges and choices comes up in many of the works -- moments when we are presented with difficult decisions that will most likely affect the rest of our lives, moments of sheer courage and will power. This particular theme can be seen in almost all of the works, but three films/videos were programmed together especially around this theme.

From Ayoka Chenzira's IN THE RIVERS OF MERCY ANGST.

IN THE THE RIVERS OF MERCY ANGST by Ayoka Chenzira is a powerful tape about dealing with our innermost enemies and coming to terms with ourselves. In this mythic piece, Mercy struggles with the Keepers not to lose herself and to regain her dignity through her proclamation of self-love. In the end she leaves her angst behind.

In Malcolm Lee's MORNINGSIDE PREP, a high school student, Terrance, is torn between his different lives: one on the streets with his friends, and one in an upper-class white prep school where he is one of two black students. When another more vocal and less diplomatic student from outside the neighborhood joins the school, Terrance is faced with his own dilemma and finally has to make a choice.

And Chris Eyre's TENACITY is a heartbreaking story of injustices practiced in this world, as we witness a young kid take a stance against the insanity.

And finally a theme that has arisen in many works---the depiction of the city--New York City in particular-- as a landscape of dreams and of estrangement.

Muriel Magenta's TOKEN CITY and Lise Carrigg's SUBWAY DIARIES both explore the fantasies and fears of riding underground. Neil Goldberg, in his work, uses repetition to underscore his understanding of the complexities of this urban environment. From 70 gay men stroking their pet cats in SHE'S A TALKER---they call their cats "talkers"---to a multitude of East Village store owners opening their shop gates as they start their day (HALLELUJAH ANYWAY NO. 2), Goldberg constructs ballets from mundane elements that are around us all the time. When he travels the streets of Manhattan with a small music box in HALLELUJAH ANYWAY NO. 3, sweetening all the images, everyday sidewalks and shops turn into magic and poetry.

From Maria Venuto's THE TOURIST.

Maria Venuto's frightening and beautiful tale, THE TOURIST, deals with a woman's inability to cope with our system of living. Set in the haunting and stark landscape of JFK Airport, this protagonist is caught in her own trauma from which she seems unable to escape. Underscored by the tensions presented by an airport setting, with families arriving and separating, a story of escape is told.

Donald Blank's WIRED shows the homeless artist Thai Varick and his successes in keeping alive. He is a survivor who talks about the streets and his life and artwork.

And Michael Dwass' BWAY reconstructs an obsessively long day's walk down Broadway. This film reveals how truly territorial we all are, being familiar with only some parts of this north/south marker and not others.

The inclusion of Leita Luchetti's POETRY BREAK: ALLEN GINSBERG is an homage to one of the finest poets and thinkers of this century. In the piece, Ginsberg's simple reading of his poem "Homework" while sitting on a NYC rooftop is lyricism itself. To Ginsberg we owe much in the way he coined definitions of independence and artistry throughout his life.

NEXT: AN INDEPENDENT MEDIA PROGRAMMER'S VIEW OF TELEVISION.