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Ism, Ism, Ism: Dark Matter: Collective, Singular and Parodic Resistance

Ism, Ism, Ism: Dark Matter: Collective, Singular and Parodic Resistance

Zona intertidal, by Grupo Los Vagos

Sunday, October 29, 2017, 7:30pm

Los Angeles Filmforum presents

Ism, Ism, Ism: Dark Matter: Collective, Singular and Parodic Resistance

At the Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028

INFO: www.lafilmforum.org, 323-377-7238

Created during and between military coups, civil wars, diverse authoritarian regimes, and invasions led by the United States, experimental cinema in Latin America has not escaped the impact diverse forms of social upheavals and violence.  In many of these contexts, resistance, even social commentary, can be a precarious, even dangerous, project, and tonight’s program surveys some of these expressions.  In the war-torn El Salvador of 1980, the collective “Los Vagos” shot documentaries and one fiction film, Zona intertidal, a poetic treatment of the politically motivated assassination of a leftist professor by death squads.  In 2014, in the town of Iguala, in Southern Mexico, 43 students from a rural teachers’ college were detained by the military and handed over to a local criminal organization.  Forensic specialists have only been able to identify the remains of two of the students among the numerous mass graves excavated during the ensuing search for clues to their disappearance, a process which Bruno Varela comments upon in Materia Oscura (2016).  The Colombian filmmaker Camilo Restrepo’s Impresión de una Guerra (2015) visits textile factories, tattoo parlors, print shops, and punk rock concerts to offer up an essayistic reflection on the lasting legacies of decades on his homeland.

Featuring the California premiere of the Pardino d'argento award in Locarno in 2015, Impresión de una Guerra, by Camilo Restrepo; the US premiere of Materia Oscura (Dark Matter), by Bruno Varela; a brand new 16mm print of Zona intertidal (Intertidal Zone), by Grupo Los Vagos; and a 35mm print of La Guerra sin fin (I’m very happy) [The Unfinished war (I’m very happy)], by Zigmunt Cedinsky!

Tickets: $10 general; $6 for students/seniors; free for Filmforum members. Available in advance from Brown Paper Tickets at http://bpt.me/3103989 or at the door.

For more information: 323-377-7238 or www.lafilmforum.org

Screening (partial list - more to be added)

Zona intertidal

Grupo Los Vagos,

1980, 14 min, 16mm, El Salvador

 

Materia Oscura

Bruno Varela

2016, 8 min, digital, Mexico

 

Impresión de una Guerra

Camilo Restrepo

2015. 26 min., 16mm/DCP, Colombia/Francia.

This screening is part of Los Angeles Filmforum’s screening series Ism, Ism, Ism: Experimental Cinema in Latin America (Ismo, Ismo, Ismo: Cine experimental en América Latina). Ism, Ism, Ism is an unprecedented, five-month film series—the first in the U.S.—that surveys Latin America’s vibrant experimental production from the 1930s through today. Revisiting classic titles and introducing recent works by key figures and emerging artists, Ism, Ism, Ism takes viewers on a journey through a wealth of materials culled from unexpected corners of Latin American film archives. Key historical and contemporary works from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, México, Paraguay, Perú, Uruguay, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the United States will be featured. Many of the works in the series are largely unknown in the United States and most screenings will include national and area premieres, with many including Q&A discussions with filmmakers and scholars following the screening. The film series will continue through January 2018 at multiple venues, organized by Filmforum. www.ismismism.org

Ism, Ism, Ism is accompanied by a bilingual publication, Ism, Ism, Ism / Ismo, Ismo, Ismo: Experimental Cinema in Latin America (Jesse Lerner and Luciano Piazza, editors, University of California Press, 2017) placing Latino and Latin American experimental cinema within a broader dialogue that explores different periods, cultural contexts, image-making models, and considerations of these filmmakers within international cinema. Available worldwide, https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520296084.

Ism, Ism, Ism is part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles. Explore more at www.ismismism.org, lafilmforum.org, and www.pacificstandardtime.org.

Lead support for Ism, Ism, Ism is provided through grants from the Getty Foundation.

Significant additional support comes from the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.

Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.