With filmmakers Nadia Shihab (MFA’21) and Al Wong in person!
The films in this program include a diary film, portrayals and testimonies of family and friends, and recognition of those who have passed. Anna Kipervaser records her grandparents with some cherished objects. In Paper Sister, Al Wong cuts into a photo in a myriad of ways in a meditation on a family member he never met. Nadia Shihab’s Echolocation begins with overlapping photos of her grandmother’s living room in Baghdad and ends by revealing her own artistic process. Super 8 home movies accompany Courtney Stephens’s mother recounting her illegal abortion in 1969. Sky Hopinka listens to a fifty-year-old recording of his grandmother and interviews his mother in his tribute to his ancestors. During the COVID-19 lockdown, John Gianvito follows the unfolding pandemic online and nature’s cycles outside his back door. Keisha Rae Witherspoon documents three participants in Miami’s T Ball, who make T-shirts and outfits to honor their dead.
Image: Nadia Shihab, “Echolocation” film still.