A Song Often Played on the Radio (2019) by Raven Chacon & Cristóbal Martínez
Live curator’s talk on Opening Night: March 16
Please register in advance for the Zoom webinar at
sfsu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-Af8Pp10Ql-Kk5xOmELljw
The Cousin Collective was formed in 2018 by Adam Piron, Alex Lazarowich, Sky Hopinka and Adam Khalil. The question of how to find other Indigenous filmmakers who are making work that is experimental and exciting was where we began. How to support and share their films is where we’re at now. The programs in the Cousins and Kin series are a culmination and a survey of the moving images we’ve curated individually and collectively over the years.
program one
Cycle 0
Curated by Cousin Collective
March 16–April 15, 2021
Cousins and Kin opens with Cycle 0, an acknowledgment of what comes before a beginning. These films—by Raven Chacon & Cristóbal Martínez, Kite, Fox Maxy and Rhayne Vermette—embody artistic dedication, to practice and to self, and have been deeply inspirational to the Cousin Collective.
SCREENING: A Song Often Played on the Radio (2019) by Raven Chacon & Cristóbal Martínez; digital video, color, sound, 23 minutes. Pahá kiŋ lená wakháŋ (2017) by Kite; digital video, color, sound, 8 minutes. Domus (2017) by Rhayne Vermette; digital video, color, sound, 15 minutes. San Diego (2020) by Fox Maxy; digital video, color, sound, 32 minutes.
A Song Often Played on the Radio (2019) by Raven Chacon & Cristóbal Martínez
The mysterious El Cantor is sent by the King of Spain to find the mythological Cities of Cibola amongst the sands of the Rio Grande Valley. Meanwhile, La Cantante is another scoundrel on the search for the valuable metals of the desert. Spurred by the justification of moralistic “dichos,” the rival explorers come to learn what truly brought them to this land, understanding their true identities and finding that they were only stealing from themselves. Featuring Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Nacha Mendez. (Raven Chacon & Cristóbal Martínez)
Pahá kiŋ lená wakháŋ (2017) by Kite
A light cone is the path that a flash of light,
From a single event,
Traveling in all directions,
Takes through spacetime.
On a two-dimensional plane,
The light from the flash
Spreads out in a circle.
These are all the points I ever reach
All points which are the speed of light away from me at birth.
Domus (2017) by Rhayne Vermette
“The block of marble is the most beautiful of all statues” (Carlo Mollino)
This is the story of the godlike architect, Carlo Mollino, animated within the desk space of failed architect, Rhayne Vermette. Made with love on 16mm, 35mm and Super-8mm, this classic tale of Pygmalion investigates intersections between cinema and architecture. For E. Ackerman, A. Jarnow and T. Ito. (Rhayne Vermette)
San Diego (2020) by Fox Maxy
This film is a reaction to colonialism & quarantine. (Fox Maxy)
Artist Bios
Raven Chacon (Diné) is a composer, performer and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. Chacon has exhibited or performed at the Whitney Biennial, documenta 14, the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, the 18th Biennale of Sydney and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is the recipient of the United States Artists fellowship in Music, the Creative Capital award in Visual Arts, the American Academy’s Berlin Prize for Music Composition (among other awards. He lives in Albuquerque NM
Cristóbal Martínez is an artist and publishing scholar. He has been a member of the interdisciplinary artist collective Postcommodity since 2010 and founded the artist-hacker performance ensemble Radio Healer in 2003. In 2015 Martinez completed his PhD in Rhetoric, Composition and Linguistics at Arizona State University and is the Chair of Art and Technology at the San Francisco Art Institute.
Kite (Oglála Lakȟóta) is a performance artist, visual artist and composer, a PhD candidate at Concordia University, a Research Assistant for the Initiative for Indigenous Futures, a 2019 Trudeau Scholar, a 2020 Tulsa Artist Fellow and a 2020 Women at Sundance | Adobe Fellow. Her research is concerned with contemporary Lakota ontologies through research-creation, computational media and performance practice.
Rhayne Vermette (Métis) was born in Notre Dame de Lourdes, Manitoba. It was while studying architecture at the University of Manitoba that she fell into the practices of image making and storytelling. Primarily self taught, Rhayne’s films are opulent collages of fiction, animation, documentary, reenactments and divine interruption. Ste. Anne (2018) is her first feature narrative.
Fox Maxy (Payómkawichum & Kumeyaay) (he/she, his/hers) is a filmmaker and artist living in San Diego. He makes his own rules. His film company, Civic Films, produces experimental films, artist profiles and music videos. He made two short films during the 2020 quarantine which have screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, AFI Docs, ImagineNative Film Festival and Camden International Film Festival among others. Upcoming screenings of Fox’ work include those at the Museum of Modern Art’s Documentary Fortnight and Made in LA at the Hammer Museum. Fox is currently filming his first feature film, Watertight, which explores issues including suicide, adoption, the protection of Standing Rock and different endeavors for wellness experienced by Natives and non-Natives in america today.
Sky Hopinka’s Around the Edge of Encircling Lake (2018, Green Gallery Press) and Perfidia (2020, Wendy’s Subway) are currently available in Cinematheque’s online bookstore.
Cousins and Kin is presented with the generous support of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
