Coyote (2023) by Colectivo los ingrávidos
thickened light / underground pulses
Friday, September 8 | 9:30pm at Gray Area
CROSSROADS opening night capstone is presented on the occasion of partner organization Canyon Cinema’s Cine-Espacios, a bilingual publication documenting independent Mexican film and do-it-yourself microcinema cultures, edited by Walter Forsberg and Tzutzu Matzin. Elena Pardo’s masterful three-projector 16mm work Pulsos Subterráneos, a subjective, expanded cinema account of communities’ resistance to corporate mining in the states of Oaxaca and Zacatecas, is presented with a live score by the Bay Area’s own Guillermo Galindo. Urgently sensuous and agitational landscape films by Bruno Varela and Colectivo los ingrávidos open the screening.
La culminación de la noche de apertura de CROSSROADS se presenta en ocasión a la publicación bilingüe de la organización Canyon Cinema, Cine-Espacios documenta el cine mexicano independiente y las culturas del do-it-yourself microcinema, editada por Walter Forsberg y Tzutzu Matzin. La obra magistral de Elena Pardo en tres proyectores y 16 mm es Pulsos Subterráneos, un relato cinematográfico subjetivo y pieza de cine expandido acerca de la resistencia a la minería corporativa en las comunidades de los estados de Oaxaca y Zacatecas. Este se presenta con música en vivo del artista del Área de la Bahía, Guillermo Galindo. Abriendo la proyección, incluye los cortometrajes de paisajes agitadores y sensuales de Bruno Varela y Colectivo los ingrávidos.
SCREENING: presentes impuros (la luz espesada) (2023) by Bruno Varela (Mestizo); digital video, color, sound, 6 minutes. Coyote (2023) by Colectivo los ingrávidos (Tehuacán); digital video, color, sound, 16 minutes. Pulsos Subterráneos/Underground Pulses (2022) by Elena Pardo (Mexico); 3x 16mm projectors, color, sound, 40 minutes; live score by Guillermo Galindo. TRT: 64 minutes
program community partners: Canyon Cinema & Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
PROGRAM TICKETS
$12 General/$10 Cinematheque Members, Gray Area Members & students (with ID)
FESTIVAL PASSES
$110 General/$88 Cinematheque Members, Gray Area Members & students (with ID)
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CROSSROADS 2023
presentes impuros (la luz espesada) (2023) by Bruno Varela
impure present / (thickened light) / dense times / badly curdled // Clotted within other clots / Sedimented emulsions, layers of the dissected world. // interface shapes / Exchange zones. spells, sigils / forms of subtle existence / light and time traps / /The program against the program / investigation from the smoking ruins of the capital cinema. (Bruno Varela)
north american premiere
Coyote (2023) by Colectivo los ingrávidos
This is the howl, gaze, and agitation of the Coyote into the mountain. The Path of the Coyote. (Colectivo los ingrávidos)
world premiere
Pulsos Subterráneos/Underground Pulses (2022) by Elena Pardo with music by Guillermo Galindo
Pulsos Subterráneos/Underground Pulses is a subjective account of communities’ resistance to corporate mining and their defense of territory, life and culture. Calpulálpam, Ixtlán, San José del Progreso, San Pedro and San Pablo Ayutla in Oaxaca; Vetagrande, Salverna and Concepción del Oro in Zacatecas: these communities have very different experiences. For example, Calpulálpam has a long tradition of organized struggle that has allowed them to oppose the reopening of a mine that operated for more than 200 years. On the other hand, the community of Vetagrande, where mines have operated since the late 1500s, is now on the brink of collapse due to unprecedented large-scale mining activity. Why do some communities manage to resist the incursion of this and other extractive industries imposed by the Mexican authorities? What is at stake? This project seeks to understand the struggle to protect the territory through the stories told by its inhabitants and the experiences evoked by its landscapes. (Elena Pardo) bay area premiere
Bruno Varela (Mestizo/Mexico DF 1971). Audiovisual artist graduated from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana UAM X in Social Communication but self-taught in the mysteries of the audiovisual. Since 1992 he has been working full time in research/production with film and video. His process has developed essentially in the geographical and conceptual south of the continent, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatan and Bolivia.
Colectivo los ingrávidos (Tehuacán) is a Mexican film collective founded in 2012 to dismantle the commercial and corporate audiovisual grammar and its embedded ideology. The collective is inspired by the historical avant-gardes, and their commitment to using both form and content against alienating realities. Their methods combine digital and analog mediums, interventions on archival materials, mythology, agitprop, social protests and documentary poetry. Their radical experimentations on documentary and cinematographic devices produce images, both visual and auditory that are political possibilities in their own right.
Elena Pardo (Mexico) Visual artist and filmmaker interested in experimenting with the moving image. Since 2004 she has been part of the expanded cinema collective Trinchera Ensamble. She is also co-founder of Laboratorio Experimental de Cine (Experimental Film Laboratory; LEC), a collective art project that engages in educational activities and programming of content related to photochemical film. Elena also collaborates in audiovisual training programs in Oaxaca and Mexico City.
Guillermo Galindo The extent of the work of experimental composer, sonic architect, performance artist and visual media artist Guillermo Galindo redefines the conventional limits between music, the art of music composition and the intersections between art disciplines, politics, humanitarian issues, spirituality and social awareness. His acoustic work includes two commissioned orchestral compositions by the OFUNAM (Mexico University Orchestra) and the Oakland Symphony Orchestra and Choir, solo instrumental works, two operas, sonic sculptures, visual arts, computer interaction works, electro-acoustic music, film, instrument building, three-dimensional immersive installations and live improvisation. Galindo’s graphic scores and three-dimensional sculptural cyber-totemic sonic objects have been shown at major museums and art biennials in America, Europe and Asia.