O Seeker. 2024. USA/India. Directed by Gavati Wad. In Hindi, English; English subtitles. 18 min. US premiere.
Moon v. State. 2024. USA. Directed by James N. Kienitz Wilkins. 16 min. World premiere.
315. 2023. Netherlands/Peru. Directed by Daniel Jacoby. In Spanish; English subtitles. 14 min. North American premiere.
The Moon Also Rises. 2024. France. Directed by Yuyan Wang. In Mandarin; English subtitles. 23 min. North American premiere.
From the personal to the cosmic, this grouping of artists’ films demonstrates that the most daring and probing works are often short in form. In Gavati Wad’s O Seeker, a flurry of 16mm images—from circus acts to photograms—accompanies a young woman’s swirling thoughts on the magic of science and its mythological roots through conversations, possibly imagined, with scientists, spiritual healers, and loved ones. James N. Kienitz Wilkins returns to Doc Fortnight with Moon v. State, an archival photo-film whose rapid-fire monologue by Emily Davis (star of Broadway’s Is This a Room) harkens back to the disarray of a small Texas town in the late 1950s, where a bewildering robbery has gone fatally awry. In 315, Peruvian artist Daniel Jacoby’s birthday, May 31, becomes the beat that gives structure to the chaos brought about by sorting through years of home movies and streams of found imagery, searching for the junctures where his own life coincides with world events of all stripes. Inspired by China’s plans to launch artificial moons to light up the night sky above urban areas, Yuyan Wang’s The Moon Also Rises features a retired couple holding onto the last gasp of darkness the night before permanent light takes over.
Program approx. 70 min.