Film Categories: history

  • American Nurse

    America’s war in Vietnam is over, but the scars of that war remain with many Asian-Americans who served there. More than 60,000 Asian-Americans served in the United States armed forces during the Vietnam War. Many who lived through this lost war in Southeast Asia still silently suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. But there are others willing to speak out about the conditions that they as Americans of Asian ancestry experienced in Vietnam. Lt. Lily Lee (Adams) now of Mill Valley, California, nursed wounded soldiers and worked in triage for a year in Cu Chi. Her story in “American Nurse” chronicles…

  • General Idea: Art, AIDS and the Fin de siècle

    “General Idea: Art, AIDS and the fin de siècle” is a humorous, informative and ultimately poignant documentary about the internationally acclaimed Canadian artists’ collective General Idea. Formed in 1969, they produced art that targeted and mimicked media, consumerism and celebrity, creating a revolutionary new spirit of art making. Interviews with AA Bronson, the sole survivor of the trio, lends personal relevancy to this poignant story of art and sexual politics. “GENERAL IDEA: Art, AIDS and the fin de siècle” is a tale of love, fame, overwhelming loss and, ultimately, renewal. Selected screenings: Canadian Art Reel Artists Film Festival, 2009; Hot…

  • Others, The

    Of Spanish, Scottish/Irish, Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, and Cherokee ancestry actor Lou Diamond Phillips is an icon of difference and otherness due to the numerous ‘ethnic characters’ he’s played in Hollywood movies (primarily in the late 1980s and early 1990s) including Mexican, Navajo, Inuit, Lakota, Puerto Rican and Arab. “The Others” features found footage of Phillips’ numerous ‘ethnic characters’ and places them in dialog with each other, literally, by employing classic Hollywood editing style and storytelling tropes. Through these conversations comes an investigation of identity, ethnicity and authenticity. “The Others” is part of the Trinity Square Video Themed Commissioned Project: ICONS.…

  • Stubblejumper

    In the fall of 1975, while attending the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, Doug Wilson placed an ad in the student’s newspaper, seeking to start a campus gay group. This seemingly benign action would serve as the catalyst for a dramatic unfolding of events, shaping the future of Wilson’s life. “Stubblejumper” is a 48-minute biographical docudrama on the life and work of gay activist Doug Wilson – a story filled with activism, poetry, performance, politics, and a touching yet tragic love story.

  • Défi des étoiles

    “Ladies and Gentlemen: Would you please now rise for our Canadian troops in the Persian Gulf War…for our Gold Medal – winning team, and for our Country?”

  • Disobey

    A young man decides he can no longer sit by while his people are being brutalized. disobey is an unsettling look at the seeds of hatred and the complex zone between justice and revenge. — Media Wave Film Festival

  • Tziporah

    “Tziporah” is the Hebrew work for a bird. The film is another cinematic reflection on loss and grief. Premiere: October 2007, New York Film Festival: Views from the Avant Garde January, 2008, Rotterdam International Film Festival April 6, 2008, San Francisco Cinematheque April 27&29, 2008, San Francisco International Film Festival September 6,2008,Toronto International Film Festival:Wavelengths Program October, 2009, FAMU, Prague, Czech Republic October, 2009, WRO Art Center, Wroclaw, Poland

  • Accidental, The

    This film is about inappropriate attention to sensory experiences other than the visual while driving and in response to an accident. Sound, touch and taste may disrupt safety to others and might threaten public order when not kept in check by the dominion of the visual. Dogs know all about this.

  • All Fall Down

    “All Fall Down” is an experimental documentary that takes as its starting point a nineteenth century farmhouse in Southern Ontario, Canada, and asks the question “what has been here before?” The film weaves together a complex temporal structure that juxtaposes the lives of two figures, one historical (Nahneebahweequa: a nineteenth century aboriginal woman and land rights activist) and the other contemporary (an ex-pat drifter and father of the filmmaker’s step-daughter) across two hundred years. “All Fall Down” explores these characters through a variety of archival materials: diaries, landscape paintings, photographs, heritage films, poems, phone messages, maps, historical reenactments, songs) that…

  • Retrato Oficial 2 | Official Portrait 2

    Retrato Oficial 2 | Official Portrait 2 animates the dissimulation and reconstruction of the great liberator of Chile, 19th-century revolutionary and republican Bernardo O’Higgins, and the historical reach of the late-20th-century dictator Augusto Pinochet. Based in part on a conceit borrowed from Raul Ruiz’s essay Images of Images and original footage shot by Patricio Guzman on September 11, 1973, the short video is an exploration of the mediated image and the mnemonic possibilities of video and still image technologies.