https://www.dctvny.org/s/firehousecinema/cinema-eye-honors?mc_cid=d67e5b5224

Each year, Cinema Eye Honors spotlights the best nonfiction short films on its Shorts List, the organization’s annual list of semi-finalists for its Nonfiction Short Film Honor. Discover this year’s Shorts List films across three programs!

Program One – 101 mins 

A Swim Lesson 

Directed by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack • POV •  21 min 

A Swim Lesson is an ode to an everyday hero: Bill Marsh, a swim teacher who helps children manage their fears and discover their own power when submerged in an overwhelming unknown. He has taught thousands of kids and their families to instill confidence and safety in their lives.

Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World 

Directed by Julio Palacio • Netflix • 23 min 

Makayla, a teenage girl, who has spent her life grappling with a rare form of autism that rendered her essentially nonverbal until her parents, filled with unwavering belief in their daughter’s potential, embarked on a transformative journey to discover the true depth of Makayla’s inner world.

Instruments of a Beating Heart 

Directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki • NY Times Op-Docs • 23 min 

First graders in a Tokyo public elementary school are presented with a challenge: to perform “Ode to Joy” at a school ceremony. Their journey reveals the Japanese educational system’s tenuous balance between self-sacrifice and personal growth as it teaches the next generation to become part of society.

The Only Girl in the Orchestra 

Directed by Molly O’Brien • Netflix • 34 min 

Trailblazing double bassist Orin O’Brien was never one to seek the spotlight, but when Leonard Bernstein hired her in 1966 as the first female musician in the New York Philharmonic, she inevitably became the focus of media attention and, ultimately, one of the most renowned musicians of a generation. 

Program Two – 96 mins 

Love in the Time of Migration 

Directed by Erin Semine Kökdil and Chelsea Abbas • LA Times • 21 min 

Ronny and Suly are in love. The only problem is that Ronny is in the US, while Suly is in Guatemala. Love in the Time of Migration illustrates the modern-day romance between two individuals from a community deeply impacted by migration, and asks the question: Can love conquer all? 

The Medallion 

Directed by Ruth Hunduma • New Yorker • 19 min

A single piece of jewelry holds the story of generations. Together, filmmaker Ruth and her mother go back to Ethiopia and explore her mother’s story as a survivor of the Red Terror genocide. 

A Move 

Directed by Elahe Esmaili • NY Times Op-Docs • 26 min 

Elahe returns to her hometown in Mashhad, Iran, to help her parents move to a new place after 40 years. Influenced by the Woman-Life-Freedom movement, she’s also hoping for a bigger move beyond just a new apartment. 

Eternal Father 

Directed by Ömer Sami • New Yorker • 30 min 

Having started a family late in life, Nasar fears he won’t live to see his children grow up. He decides to be cryonically frozen after death, hoping they can someday reunite. His family’s dilemma: follow suit or be left behind? As the future overshadows the present, Nasar must reassess what truly matters. 

Program Three – 79 mins 

Contractions 

Directed by Lynne Sachs • NY Times Op-Docs • 12 min 

In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ended a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion in the United States. In a place where a woman can no longer make decisions about her own body, a group of activist performers “speak” with the full force of their collective presence. 

I Am Ready, Warden 

Directed by Smitri Mundhra • MTV Documentary Films • 37 min 

Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Smriti Mundhra for MTV Documentary Films. In the days leading up to his execution, Texas death row prisoner John Henry Ramirez seeks redemption from his victim’s son. 

Incident 

Directed by Bill Morrison • New Yorker • 30 min 

Through a montage of surveillance and police body-camera footage, a reconstruction of a deadly shooting by a Chicago police officer becomes an investigation into how a narrative begins to take shape in the aftermath. 

Sentient | Disobedient
Video Program

August 26 – August 29, 2024
PHI Foundation
465 Saint-Jean Street, suite 120
Montréal, Québec H2Y 2R6

https://phi.ca/en/events/sentient-disobedient/?x-craft-preview=GfDPq1MNrV&token=_JW6vNiiVSIU3C0u8EYnntyJ94N0fc8Y

A.K. Burns, Geneviève Cadieux, Ellen Cantor, Victoria Carrasco, VALIE EXPORT, Nadège Grebmeier Forget, Bettina Hoffmann, arkadi lavoie lachapelle, Ana Mendieta, Lynne Sachs, Aki Sasamoto, Luna Scales, Carolee Schneemann, Nina Vroemen

Contemporary feminism appears to be morphing significantly and is being re-examined in different circles that are exploring progressive ways to love, [1] to be, and to evolve. Emancipation has evolved from issues related to reproductive rights to ideas around relationships, procreation, family, and friendships. The sentient body is at the core of these politics, and internationally, women’s rights movements are reclaiming control over their bodies, fighting for ownership and agency as a way to achieve revolution and true feminism, and attempting to tip over [2] the patriarchy and its male gaze. Beliefs about parenthood and its impact on the self can be debated, and they challenge ideas around autonomy and independence, for example, rather than the sense of purpose that comes with motherhood, the same purpose can be found through bodily autonomy. Moreover, access to freedom and enjoyment of sexuality [3] without fear of reproductive consequences is also folded into these reflections.

Sentient | Disobedient is a screening program of videos that evoke art history and the feminist practices that have marked it. These are presented alongside contemporary video works by Québec artists. A critical focus for the program is using the body to challenge the roles and decisions imposed upon us. How do we achieve freedom? These works place feminism in search of its new wave, where politics and emotion can be embodied together through the sentient body.

In this program, the act of performance frees the body towards autonomy, guided by ideas of reproductive rights, sexual freedom, passing time, sensuality, and love. The first part features a selection by artists that created a contemporary art history through video works, starting with artists like VALIE EXPORT, Carolee Schneemann, and Ana Mendieta, as well as their peers A.K. Burns, Ellen Cantor, Lynne Sachs, Aki Sasamoto, and Luna Scales. This part of the program conceptually references a few historical moments, like the censorship of performance [4] in Singapore from 1994-2004 that raised the question of ‘obscenity’ in art. This is one example of how certain parts of the world have been restricted creatively with their use of the body. The first part of this program closes with Contractions by Lynne Sachs calling our attention to the 1973 ruling of Roe v. Wade in the United States which protected abortion laws until 2023, a fact that reminds us that abortion is still illegal in many parts of the world.

Paramour [5] by Geneviève Cadieux opens the second half of the program, in which there is a division between a man and a woman. Their voices and desires are disconnected in time and space, between them and also with the viewers. This artwork is powerful because of the visual language Cadieux develops through the image. It is one of strength, vulnerability, and detachment, that deals with the complexities of relations, being, love, and sensuality. These strengths and sensibilities are reflected in the remainder of the program: Aki Sasamoto expresses a nonchalant yet energetic, powerful, and controlled performance of a passage through time while connecting with the viewer in Do Nut Diagram. In Hubba Hubba, Nadège Grebmeier Forget is idle, submissively chewing gum, and exaggeratedly performing for the camera, following an early trend of online clichés understood as beauty standards. La grève des pondeuses, by arkadi lavoie lachapelle, is a futuristic fiction that possibly reveals the true future of fertility. Bettina Hoffmann’s Mechanics of Touch is a sensitive and poetic piece about touch, evoking the familiarity and comfort of gestures, and closeness. In Surface Depth, Nina Vroemen sensualizes and reimagines the myth of Narcissus, reconnecting us to nature and queerness, and challenging the fixedness of what it means to be a body. 

Finally, as a curator and former artist, feminism has always been an important part of my work. This is why I am including the video work Control, which was part of my previous practice as an artist. In this piece, I explored the presence and meaning of eroticism in everyday life, questioning what constitutes independence and pleasure as both a vision and a choice. This program will continue to evolve, with more video contributions from local and national artists in its next iteration in 2024-2025.

Curator: Victoria Carrasco

[1] See Simon(e) van Saarlos, Playing Monogamy, trans. Liz Waters (Rotterdam: Publication Studio, 2019).
[2] Susan Sontag, The Double Standard of Aging, On Women (Picador, 2023), 3-39.
[3] The enjoyment of sexuality is referenced in another work by Carolee Schneeman, titled Fuses (1964-67). This 30 minute experimental film depicts the artist and her partner having intercourse as equals. Fuses has been censored many times and became a controversial reference and an inspiration to filmmakers and artists.
[4] This censorship came about after the artist Josef Ng performed Brother Cane (1993) where he cut a piece of his own pubic hair while performing.
[5] Paramour (1998-1999) was originally presented as a video/sound installation, and will be presented in this program exceptionally as a screening.

WELCOME TO OUR CRISIS
REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE

June 1st, 2024

Media archives, a frozen prawn, skipping school, a women‘s clinic in Memphis, Tennessee, a greenhouse, and a lavish dinner among mothers are the settings for the women and girls of this program. They should all have the basic right to make decisions about their own behavior and their bodies, including the right to an abortion. This is not always the case, as we will see, especially when legal restrictions, patriarchal systems, or social stigma are at play. (mm)

https://www.viennashorts.com/en/films/contractions

CONTRACTIONS

Lynne Sachs, US 2024, 12 min 42 sec
English with English subtitles, Color, Austrian premiere

GETTY ABORTIONS

Franzis Kabisch, DE/AT 2023, 21 min 49 sec
German with English subtitles, Color, Vienna premiere

CREVETTE

Elina Huber, Jill Vágner, Noémi Knobil, Sven Bachmann, CH 2023, 5 min 13 sec
French, Color

FLOWER SHOW

Elli Vuorinen, FI 2023, 8 min 31 sec
English with English and German subtitles, Color, Austrian premiere

MOTHERS & MONSTERS

Édith Jorisch, CA 2023, 16 min 57 sec
No dialog with No subtitles subtitles, Color, Austrian premiere

https://agxfilm.org/events/2024/4/20/abortionclinicfilmcollective

Saturday, April 20, 2024
7:30 PM  9:00 PM
AgX Film Collective
144 Moody Street, Building 18, 2nd Floor
Waltham, MA, 02453 United States (map)

In the Abortion Clinic Film Collective series, we hear from medical directors and staff, mothers and daughters, criminal defense attorneys and advocates, about how their personal and professional lives have been affected post-Dobbs. Each portal provides a window into the broad and life-threatening ramifications of that Supreme Court decision and its devastating legacy for the health and well-being of our country.

Doors open at 7pm. Program begins at 7:30pm.

Screening will be followed by a discussion led by participating filmmaker and AgX member Raymond Rea.

Program Details (approximately 50 min total runtime):

A Mile and a Half, Ray Rea, 5.5 min

The border between North Dakota and Minnesota is physically only a narrow river but legislatively a canyon. In the sister city straddling that border a move of a mile and a half saved lives.

Contractions, Lynne Sachs, 12 min

In a place where a woman can no longer make decisions about her own body, we listen to an OB-GYN who can no longer perform abortions and a “Jane” who drives patients across state lines while a group of activists perform outside a women’s health clinic.

As Long as We Can, Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, 10.5 min

As the Arizona state supreme court hears arguments on whether to reinstate an abortion ban that originated in 1864, we glimpse into the day-to-day activities of this for-now still functioning clinic, one of just two left in the state that provides surgical abortions.

Retracing Our Steps, Kelly Gallagher, 8.5 min

A woman reflects back on her time spent assisting abortion seekers when Roe v. Wade was the law of the land.

The Longest Walk, Đoan Hoàng Curtis, 9 min

A filmmaker returns to Kentucky in the wake of its total abortion ban, to revisit the clinic – now closed – where she terminated a pregnancy that resulted from her assault at age 13. She reaches out to the male classmate who witnessed the aftermath of her assault decades earlier.

We Are About to Commit a Felony, Sasha Waters, 4 min

Arson at a Planned Parenthood and the closing of a community clinic endanger the lives of women in Knoxville, TN. A teaching doctor reflects on what the post-Dobbs world means for her patients and her students, who are the next generation of reproductive care workers.

PLEASE NOTE:
Masks are strongly encouraged at this event to help protect the most vulnerable among our community. If you are hoping to attend but feel that you need a specific accommodation of any sort, please do not hesitate to reach out to hi[at]agxfilm.org.

MAR. 16 2024: HUGHES + GRUFFAT + SACHS/WATERS/GUEVARA-FLANAGAN +

Utterly inspiring are the creative responses by US women artists–both individually and collectively– to last year’s deplorable dismantling of Roe Vs. Wade. Now, the opening half of our annual SisPix show is proud enough to boast a diverse selection of resonant pieces from contemporary female makers on a variety of women’s issues, tho we’re equally honored to dedicate the evening’s latter half to the initial group screening of the Abortion Clinic Film Collective‘s righteous howls of rage! So, in the first 40 mins. of (mostly) new work we’ll be treated to Salise Hughes‘ Big Daddy Learns a Lesson, Sabine Gruffat‘s Move or Being Moved, Christina Ibarra‘s Dirty Laundry, Kate Novack‘s Hysterical Girl, and more! Then our second block sets out to amplify the angry voices and visions of of a newly developing network of fierce feminists producing protest pieces to rally our will to resist the retrograde forces raiding our hard-won rights. Among that cadre is Lynne Sachs, Sasha Freyer Waters, Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, Ray Rea, Doan Hoang Curtis…and more coming in! $10-100 fund-raiser for the Ntl. Network of Abortion Funds non-profit. Celebrate Women’s History Month!