
Listen to the Beat of Our Images
SCREENING
First Look Shorts: Nonfiction Showcase
Sunday, Mar 27, 2022 at 1:00 pm
Location: Redstone Theater
Part of First Look 2022
Four films from First Look 2022 that exemplify the diversity of the nonfiction short form, from Tsai Ming-liang’s nocturnal portrait of Hong Kong to associative essays by Jessica Bardsley and Maxime Jean-Baptiste and Audrey Jean-Baptiste, to an attentive family portrait by Polen Ly. (TRT: 68 mins)
The Night
Dir. Tsai Ming-liang. Taiwan/Hong Kong. 2021, 19 mins. Made in November 2019 at the height of mass protests against Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Law, Tsai’s plaintive durational portrait of emptying streets and an overpass on Causeway Bay builds almost imperceptibly to its exquisite pang of sorrowful longing. New York premiere
Listen to the Beat of Our Images
Dirs. Audrey and Maxime Jean-Baptiste. France/French Guiana. 2021, 15 mins. In French with English subtitles. Recovering a history of colonial expropriation in Kourou, French Guiana, where, in 1964, France established its Guianese Space Center by displacing 600 Guianese villagers, the Jean-Baptistes’ delicately composed archival film orchestrates a mesmerizing, radio soundtrack to conjure an image of a lost time before the Europeans. New York premiere
Life Without Dreams
Dir. Jessica Bardsley. U.S. 2022, 13 mins. Life Without Dreams is set within the outer space of consciousness, where the surfaces of far-out planetary bodies form the terrain for an exploration of the gradual disappearance of darkness, 24/7 capitalism, and insomnia. World premiere
Side by Side
Dir. Polen Ly. Cambodia. 2021, 21 mins. In Tampuan and Khmer with English subtitles. Through daily routines in a rural village, an indigenous elderly couple recalls their strange marriage to their granddaughter, and sometimes to each other, in the changing rhythm of nature around them.