Shorts Block #4 - PARADISE AND ITS REVERSE - 9 SHORT FILMS from Ecuador, Japan, USA

8PM at the Midtown Cinema

Shorts Block #4 - PARADISE AND ITS REVERSE (8PM: 77min)

"Leather Graves" by Malic Amalya/16mm/USA/12min
---Explores the permeable boundaries between exile and ecstasy. Cruising amongst gravestones engraved with references to queer culture and sexuality, queers defy death by devouring candy-coated blossoms. The cast and crew are all trans, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, and/or femme queer people.

"(another) Perfect Film" by Justin Clifford Rhody/16mm/USA/5min - Silent ---"A lot of film is perfect left alone, perfectly revealing in its un- or semi-conscious form. I wish more stuff was available in its raw state, as primary source material for anyone to consider, and to leave for others in just that way, the evidence uncontaminated by compulsive proprietary misapplied artistry, 'editing', the purposeful 'pointing things out' that cuts a road straight and narrow through the cine-jungle; we barrel through thinking we're going somewhere and miss it all. Better to just be pointed to the territory, to put in time exploring, roughing it, on our own.” - Ken Jacobs

"Break All The Vases, Steal All The Flowers" by Michael Alexander Morris/16mm/USA/4min ---Oh rascal children of Gaza, You who constantly disturbed me with your screams under my window, You who filled every morning with rush and chaos, You who broke my vase and stole the lonely flower on my balcony, “Come back – And scream as you want, And break all the vases, Steal all the flowers, Come back, Just come back…” -- Khalid Juma

"A Telephone for God" by Nicky Tavares/16mm/USA/11min
----Breathe in to receive. Exhale in a sharp burst through the nostrils to send. Quartz is the medium—amplifier, transducer, archive. Inspired by the research of Marcel Vogel—IBM senior research chemist turned spiritual scientist—A Telephone for God oscillates between past and present, tuning into frequencies of human–plant communication and energetic healing. The film follows Drew Tousley, one of the few crystal cutters personally trained by Vogel before his passing in 1991, as he creates a four-sided Vogel crystal modeled after the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Alongside him, energy healer and Reiki master Carly Tousley reflects on the use of crystals in healing. Award-winning artist Merik Goma stars as Vogel’s present-day assistant.

"BETTER LIGHTING" by Kathryn Ramey/16mm/USA/2min
---An agitprop made from two 30-second GE adverts from the 1970s repurposed to rebuke the role white women voters in the US have chosen to uphold white supremacy and the patriarchy instead of supporting the interests of women and anyone who loves them.

"Garúa" by Javier Andrade/16mm/Ecuador/20min
---Numbed by her grief, Lucía wanders through a small fishing town in the middle of nowhere. She is in a place where she doesn’t belong, but it is all she has left. A hollow version of herself, she silently floats from distraction to distraction; having meaningless sex, wandering through town, and nursing a hangover. Facing her new reality, Lucia takes a fishing boat to a rocky island. She digs up the cremated remains of her loved ones. The constant, misty rain (“garúa” in Spanish) and grey skies are the same color as the ashes. As much as she wants to look away from death, she confronts it head-on.

"The Escape" by Erica Schreiner/VHS/USA/6min
---Filmed on VHS, The Escape takes us into the intimate walls of Erica’s New York City apartment where she brews a potion of butterfly wings, flowers, a key, an old pocket watch, glitter, and a raw egg—and drinks it, slipping into a series of dreamlike inner realms. A butterfly world, flower world and sensual dance world: each offering the hope of escape. However, even in the alluring world of flowers, there is no perfect escape. Original score by Toby Goodshank (The Moldy Peaches, The Pizza Underground).

"The Story of The Cricket Queen" by Natalie Peracchio/Super 8 and 16mm/USA/4min ---Recreates digital media tropes, trends, and aesthetics with analog film techniques.

"Hyodo's Paradise" by Jacque Rabie/Digital/Japan, USA/22min
---Hyodo lives near Tokyo in a vibrant house filled with hundreds of sex dolls. An unconventional character living amidst the normalcy and conformity of Japan, his life blurs the lines between reality and fantasy. Hyodo’s hedonistic, imaginative world is explored unflinchingly in an affectionate portrait of a deeply complex man.