A Crackup at the Race Riots
★ 4 · 2016 · 56m · Documentary
Set in Florida and inspired by Harmony Korine’s homonymous book, Leo Gabin’s film consists of a collage of YouTube videos, mostly self-made, which depicts negative yet realistic aspects of the lost American dream. Moreover, it interprets contemporary social and political reality similarly to how Korine’s novel collects allegedly documentary fragments of American culture.
More Like This
The Island
2017
The Island is a short film shot entirely on Pulau Bidong, an island off the coast of Malaysia that became the largest and longest-operating refugee camp after the Vietnam War. The artist and his family were some of the 250,000 people who inhabited the tiny island between 1978 and 1991; it was once one of the most densely populated places in the world. After the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees shuttered the camp in 1991, Pulau Bidong became overgrown by jungle, filled with crumbling monuments and relics. The film takes place in a dystopian future in which the last man on earth - having escaped forced repatriation to Vietnam - finds a United Nations scientists who has washed ashore after teh world’s last nuclear battle. By weaving together footage from Bidong’s past with a narrative set in its future, Nguyen questions the individual’s relationship to history, trauma, nationhood, and displacement.
More info →
Western 4.33
2001
Vertiginous documentary, shot in effective black-and-white, treats two painful histories. The first is a love story about a truck driver who, on his way from Johannesburg (South Africa) to Luderitz (Namibia), is haunted by thoughts of his girlfriend and their recently severed relationship. His memories are expressed in an often recurring scene, in which songs by Alec Empire, Macy Gray and Robert Schumann roughly tell the story. This small history is alternated with the tragic fate of the Namibian Heroro people, many thousands of whom died early last century in concentration camps that had been set up by the German colonisers near Luderitz. The depiction of this history is cruder and more poignant, with slanting frames, odd camera angles and a multi-layered sound sculpture. The dilapidated barracks and officers' quarters are the last remnants of the miscarried, so-called civilisation projects in Africa.
More info →
Wall Street
1980
Shot at high noon in New York’s financial district, Wallstreet is much like a vertical tickertape, charting the existence of typical office workers. The film’s elongated shadows suggest these workers’ depersonalized, neuter, nearly uniform lives, which flow by without any solid or stable element that might provide definition.
More info →
Head, Tail, Rail
2014
The starting point of this film was a set of 35mm trailers acquired from various abandoned cinemas. This work reveals the veiled and forgotten images used by the commercial film industry.
More info →
Vineyard IV
1967 · ★ 5
Glen Denny observed: "This film is not ocean, it is panther stalking jungle." Camera flows because it is free to move through space.
More info →
Swimming Stone
1969 · ★ 5
Fluidity of stone. Subatomic motion asserting a surface. Mind loop wandering. Visitation of sound matrix. Liquid solid. Nature transforms a planetary cycle. Relations of a timeless void.
More info →
Young Girls Vanish
2017
Between 1652 and 1657, 58 girls were devoured by a wolf in the Essonne, France. Four centuries later, in the same place, young girls vanish.
More info →
The Hunt for America's Deadliest Hitman
2023
The gripping YouTube video delves into the intense pursuit of America's deadliest hitman. Filled with suspense and investigative depth, it explores the challenges faced by law enforcement in tracking down this elusive figure. The video provides a chilling glimpse into the criminal underworld and the tireless efforts to bring a dangerous individual to justice.
More info →
Home Movie: On the Set of Philippe Garrel's 'Le lit de la vierge'
1968 · ★ 8.1
An experimental and poetic portrait of a woman.
More info →
Ignoring It: The Big Ba$il Story
2017
A documentary about an up-and-coming young rapper with big aspirations.
More info →