Chris Bravo films two places seemingly unrelated; Wall Street New York and a place in the countryside in upstate New York. Both are connected by activities of the Occupy Movement and both appear to be strangely familiar by the use of his montage techniques. The public strength of the movement may be connected with making the cold centers of these cities accessible again, even though corporate space is designed to keep out the feelings of familiarity.
In similar ways, activities by artists may have effect of feeling connected again. Stephanie Gray explores the city with her hand-held Super-8 camera and tells us about mundane but familiar places, like the old pizza place that will be closed on the other day. Kevin T. Allen is picking up sounds from three bridges in New York, transforming their parts to "organs" or body parts. Even the artificial super-impositions and montage by Rhayme Vermette about "Tudor Village", give us a familiarity to the commonplace residence built in 1968, or possibly even more so, an idea of what a place needs to feel at home in the contemporary city.
Janus Victoria shows us the city of Aurora, Philippines, which can be a confusing experience for the newcomer, but she also tries to warn against the glossy illusions of easy success.The rhythm of human interactions is what makes it a real place.
Telemach Wiesinger in his new film goes back to the sources of early cinema using small staged, funny scenes intervening with the places in "Europe" that he is filming. However, the 'alienation effect' makes those places he loves to film—harbors, steel constructions, bridges, and metal roofs—more human, accessible.
The films of this program, and their mostly visual interventions, illuminate how places have to be accessible, transformable and mundane in order to be human spaces.
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