Stranger with a camera

Tuesday April 24 at 6:30PM, screening of Stranger with a Camera followed by a talk & discussion with photographer Io Cooman, at the New Orleans Photo Alliance, 1111 St. Mary St.

Belgian photographer and photo editor Io Cooman is often confronted with issues around representation while working for major newspapers in Belgium and The Netherlands. In New Orleans, Cooman is working towards a better understanding of how to deal with these problematics as a professional. After screening the Appalshop film Stranger with a Camera (Elizabeth Barret, 2000) she will give a short presentation on her work followed by a discussion with the audience.

Politics of Imaging

Wednesday May 24 at 6PM, screening of Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty by Renzo Martens + panel discussion with Bmike, Big Chief Brian Harrison Nelson, Garrett Bradley and Kristina Kay Robinson, at the Joan Mitchell Center, 2275 Bayou Road.

Episode 3: Enjoy Poverty is a controversial 90 minute film registration of Renzo Martens’ activities in the Congo. In an epic journey, the film establishes that images of poverty are the Congo’s most lucrative export, generating more revenue than traditional exports like gold, diamonds, or cocoa. However, just as with these traditional exports, those that provide the raw material: the poor being filmed, hardly benefit from it at all.

We, a Dutch non-profit operating in New Orleans, constantly ask ourselves the question of how to share our resources in a way that makes sense as much for New Orleans as it does for us. We’ve invited a number of people who somehow deal with this question in their practice to discuss the film and its thematics after the screening.

Renzo Martens is a Dutch artist who currently lives and works in Brussels, Amsterdam and Kinshasa. In 2010 he initiated the Institute for Human Activities (IHA) that postulates a gentrification program in the Congolese rainforest.

Panelists: 

Brandan “Bmike” Odums is a highly sought after visual artist and filmmaker who uses these chosen mediums to tell stories and make statements that transform the minds of viewers as well as the spaces in which his work appears.

Brian Harrison Nelson is the Big Chief of the Guardians of the Flame. He studied at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. He wrote and directed the short film Keeper of the Flame.

Garrett Bradley was educated in film at UCLA. She focuses on social economic situations, human conflicts and historical reflection and won several prizes, including the Artadia New Orleans Prospect Award and the Sundance Jury Award.

Kristina Kay Robinson is a writer and visual artist born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her written and visual work centers the intellectual geographies and spiritual technologies of Black, Afro-Indigenous, and diasporic peoples.

Archeologies and Other Stories on Roach-O-Vision

Monday May 1 to Wednesday May 31, continuous screening of Archeologies and Other Stories by Giovanni Giaretta on Roach-O-Vision, a livestream by Animal Planet.

Roach-o-Vision

It’s always dinner time for this family of American Cockroaches in New Orleans. Known also as the Palmetto Bug or Water Bug, American cockroaches are the largest common species of pest Cockroach. Watch them as they catch-up with movies on Roach-O-Vision. During the month of May they’re watching Giovanni Giaretta’s Archeologies and Other Stories.

To see the live stream go to www.apl.tv and scroll down until you see the Cockroach cam.

Cockroach Cam is in partnership with the Audubon Butterfly Garden and Insectarium in New Orleans. Every day from 10:30 – 11:00 am ET the roaches are fed. The Insectarium is part of the Audubon Nature Institute. Plan your visit here.

Many thanks to Animal Planet and the Audubon Nature Institute for making this possible!

 

Shot In New Orleans

Thursday March 30 at 8PM, screening of films by Deltaworkers residents Léa Triboulet (FR), Jacob Dwyer (GB) & Giovanni Giaretta (IT), at St. Mary Majaks, 918 St. Mary Street.

With Shot In New Orleans we present films by Deltaworkers’ residents. Alumni Léa Triboulet and Jacob Dwyer stayed with us in 2015 and created and shot their films entirely in New Orleans. Both films have premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and have toured the world since. Current resident Giovanni Giaretta will give an introduction to his work and show 3 of his films.

The Brother (Léa Triboulet, 2016, 9 min)
The Brother
Three young sisters quietly mourn the absence of their brother as they continue their everyday life. Léa Triboulet uses the New Orleans backdrop to create a sensitive, powerful short film about loss and sisterhood and makes us excited about her work in the future.

Donovan Garcia (Jacob Dwyer, 2016, 9 min)
Donovan GarciaDonovan Garcia was shot throughout one day on a trip to the Jean Lafitte Swamps just outside New Orleans. As a voice from behind the lens attempts to document the trip, the presence of another man, whom we’ve been told is with us, comes into question. His name is Donovan Garcia.

 

Giovanni Giaretta will give an introduction to his work and his stay in New Orleans and show the following films:

The Sailor (2017, 9 min)
The Sailor
A sailor dreams of a homeland he has never had: day after day he constructs his new native land, shaping it to the substance of his soul. This video deals with the notion of what we call ‘home’ and ‘foreign’ while simultaneously dealing with issues related to language and translation.

A thing among things (2015, 7 min)
A thing among things
The video combines a recollection of visual memories of a blind person with close-ups of transparent minerals. The images work almost as a setting design open to different interpretations: as to see something presuming being something else.

Untitled (Portrait study) (2012, 13 min)
Untitled (Portrait study)
The video documents the relationship between an entomologist with a few different species of butterflies. The gestures and the experience of the entomologist create a narrative between scientific description and a choreography.

*Descriptions by the International Film Festival Rotterdam & Giovanni Giaretta.

Full Aperture: Martha Colburn in person

Saturday March 18 at 8PM, screening of films by Martha Colburn, hosted by the New Orleans Photo Alliance (1111 St. Mary Street), organised by Shotgun Cinema.

Martha Colburn will be present in person to present a selection of her stop-motion animated films along with a show of puppets and an introduction. Starting with her Super8mm films made in Baltimore with Jad Fair (Half Japanese), the Boredoms, and her own band The Dramatics, she has produced over sixty short animations. Her 35mm film Cosmetic Emergency – a film about war and cosmetic surgery – premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005. Tonight’s screening will also include some new films, including her Standing Rock protest animation, Myth Labs, about the American frontier and Meth use, and Metamorfoza, a stop-motion animated doll film which takes place in WWII.

Her style has been called ‘Monty Python meets Hieronymous Bosch’ and her work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (NY) and the Military Museum of Dresden, Germany.

Pricing Information:
$6 general admission; $5 NOPA members

The Outer Limits

Thursday December 1 at 8PM, screening of films by Carlos Motta (Col), Laure Prouvost (FR) & Roy Villevoye (NL), at St. Mary Majaks, 918 St. Mary Street.

Still from Voice Over by Roy Villevoy

Still from Voice Over by Roy Villevoy

 

The Outer Limits forms an introduction to our 2017 side program. Alongside the residency we aim to collaborate with local and international artists, scholars, writers, filmmakers and institutions to explore what we can learn from New Orleans in regards to sexuality, gentrification and absurdism. To start off we’ve selected three films that explore these topics:

Deseos (Carlos Motta, 2015, 33 min)
A correspondence between a Columbian and a Lebanese woman demonstrates how laws and religion determine the dominant discourse on sexuality.

Wantee (Laure Prouvost, 2013, 15 min)
Lessons in representation and absurd storytelling, all washed down with an obligatory cup of tea.

Voice Over (Roy Villevoye, 2015, 22 min)
In the rainforest Papuans build a traditional sculpture for their deceased family member Omomá. In the meantime, the filmmaker has a business conflict elsewhere.

*Descriptions by the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

3 Short Films Selected by Maaike Gouwenberg

Thursday April 21 from 4PM to 5:30PM, screening program by Maaike Gouwenberg, in the theater in Ferguson Student Center on UA campus, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

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The Department of Art and Art History Digital Media area presents a screening of three films selected by Maaike Gouwenberg for the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). The short films will be shown Thursday, April 21, 2016 from 4:00-5:30 p.m. in the theater in Ferguson Student Center on UA campus. The public is invited to attend.

Films (links to trailers on the art.ua.edu press post below)

Dag’aa by Shadi Habib Allah – “A tough journey with a Bedouin group across the Sinai Peninsula, far from habitation. Everything seems to take place outside political and historical frameworks.”

B-Roll with Andre by James N. Kienitz Wilkins – “A documentary-style detective film with anonymous testimony about Andre, who proves more than just a brilliant crook. Clichés scrutinised with humour.”

Night Soil/Fake Paradise by Melanie Bonajo – “A study into the hallucinatory ayahuasca plant’s healing power for modern man. On the limits of Western medicine, love, feminism and eco-consciousness.”

http://art.ua.edu/news/international-short-films-to-be-screened-at-ua/

Maaike Gouwenberg is a curator based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In the last few years she was programmer advisor for IFFR Shorts and since 2015, part of the core team. In her curatorial work, she is interested in performative practice. The projects she has been involved in bring together theatrical and curatorial aspects, which results in performance programs and long-term collaborations with artists. In 2010, Gouwenberg initiated A.P.E. (art projects era) with artist Keren Cytter. Since 2014, Gouwenberg has co-directed her own multidisciplinary residency program, Deltaworkers, in New Orleans. She is a committee member at STROOM (The Hague) and Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, and is a board member of the musical theater group Touki Delphine.

Digital Media is a studio concentration in the undergraduate program of The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History that focuses on new media and digital art. Courses explore digital media as the primary tool, medium and an environment for art and design. For more information, go to http://art.ua.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/digital-media/.