Los Angeles to Seoul is 5973 miles, but the distance of a loved one lost is so much further. When my father was mentally and physically suffering while I was in California and he was across the ocean, I learned that the idea of “grief” is neither simple nor easily dismissed. The feelings of sadness, anger, and guilt – in the face of pressure to “move on,” – get imprinted in the body and in one’s interactions with the world.

These women filmmakers have attempted to find corollaries in filmic spaces, ways of exorcizing some elements of the profound grief each has faced. These works invite us to the deep space of the body where emotional understanding is prioritized over intellectual thinking.  The works that resonate with me the most are those that investigate a continuous process of grieving, not destined to have any type of resolution.

The program centers around British experimental filmmaker Sarah Pucill's work, Stages of Mourning, which exhibits her attempts to physically reenact and represent her partner who passed away from anorexia. Onyou Oh's Pyrotechnics elongates a discourse on cinema and loss of theater experience during the global pandemic by utilizing different forms of cameras with celluloid film. Celeste Olliveir’s FATHER utilizes reenactment to exorcize the embodied pain coming from an intense father-daughter relationship. Jeong Yoon Ahn’s I have never met you uses extreme close-up shots on photographs taken by her late sister, emphasizing the tactility of emotional pixelation and visual noise, from a sister which Ahn can no longer reach. Xiao Zhang’s Tongue Film showcases loss of liquid from the female body. Water, directly associated with aliveness, the work brings ghostly souls on screen. The selected films' haptic realism imprints gestural memories and fades out the tormented marks on women's bodies. The film program will be accompanied by a poetry reading at its conclusion. abbi page will present a short reading of their several works, which center on black femme suffering and tie back to what each film is discussing.

<sup>본 프로그램은 영국 실험영화 감독 Sarah Pucill의 Stages of Mourning을 중심으로 구성되었다. 거식증으로 세상을 떠난 파트너를 자신의 육체로 재현하고, 영화적으로 복원하려는 시도를 담고 있다. Onyou Oh의 Pyrotechnics는 코로나 팬데믹으로 상실된 극장 경험을 다양한 카메라 포맷과 셀룰로이드 필름을 통해 감각적으로 확장해간다. Celeste Olliveir의 FATHER는 격렬했던 부녀 관계에서 비롯된 정서적 고통을 재연이라는 형식으로 치환한다. 안정윤의 I have never met you는 죽은 언니가 남긴 사진을 클로즈업으로 들여다보며, 손끝에 닿을 듯한 뾰족한 픽셀 이미지와 시각적 잡음을 따라간다. Xiao Zhang의 Tongue Film은 여성의 몸에서 흘러나간 액체의 부재를 보여준다. ‘물’이 생명과 맞닿아 있는 존재인 만큼, 그녀의 영상 속에는 유령 같은 생명들이 스며든다.

이번 상영은 여성의 몸에 새겨진 기억과 상처를 감각적으로 되살려내는 작업들에 집중한다. 프로그램의 마지막에는 흑인 퀴어 여성의 고통을 다뤄온 abbi page의 시 낭독이 함께한다.</sup>

View on Los Angeles Filmforum↗

Curated by Seokyoung Yang
Poster Design by Jaemin Lee