CONTACT:
X
info@chicagocinemaforum.org
X
(312) 480-1966
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20th Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival
presents
"CYNTHIA'S MOMENT"
Screening and Live Performance with
Shana Moulton in Person!
Friday, June 20 / 9pm
x
at
x
The Nightingale
(1084 N Milwaukee Ave)
co-presented by
Chicago Cinema Forum and The Nightingale
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The work of Brooklyn-based videomaker and artist Shana Moulton might be considered post-post-modern: while she uses odd detritus of pop culture - Angela Lansbury work out videos, Crystal Light drink mix, dimestore tchotchkes, Donald Duck educational cartoons, and more - her videos and performances are infused with an unexpected sincerity rather than the usual distancing irony. Her alter-ego Cynthia is searching for some kind of meaning in her life and, despite her eccentricities and attraction to self-help and new age remedies, Moulton treats her with respect and a sympathetic understanding of her desires. Moulton seemingly lives through her character in some ways and invites the audience to question their own wants and desires by welcoming them to share in Cynthia's Moment.
Electric Blanket Temple Altar (2005, 6 mins., video)
A self-help book guides the reader through a series of self-esteem exercises that culminate in a theosophical theory of electricity. Scenes from the reader's life illustrate the effect these exercises have on reality.
Whispering Pines #8 (2006, 8 mins., video)
Fueled by the sugar-free drink Crystal Light, Cynthia methodically fills a vase with alchemical home decorating items. Once her project is completed, Cynthia is again left to dwell in her thoughts. Suddenly a ladder grows out of the vase. Cynthia climbs the ladder and, through a trap door, enters an ecstatic rave complete with a techno remix of the Crystal Light commercial music.
Whispering Pines #4 (2007, 12 mins., video)
This installment of Whispering Pines follows the artist's character, Cynthia, on a quest for relief from her carpal-tunnel. She visits an Avon lady/medicine woman in the forest and receives a series of treatments, including sound medicine from seashell and pinecone
headphones, a reflexology hand massage and a makeover. Having gained a new sense of physical liberation from the Avon lady's remedies, Cynthia removes her clothes and runs into the forest where her nude but fractal covered body performs an ecstatic dance. After collapsing, she becomes transported to the abstracted world from Disney's 1959 cartoon, Donald in Mathmagic Land. The disembodied Cynthia takes Donald's place in this version and discovers that understanding math is the key to understanding nature, the physical world and her body.
Body ÷ Mind + 7 = Spirit (15 mins., live performance with video)
Moulton brings Cynthia and her strange world to life through live performance and projected video, creating a unique experience that is equal parts personal growth workshop, dance recital, instructional video and fairytale. Cynthia, an anxiety-ridden hypochondriac, wears clothing embedded with medical devices and surrounds herself with inspirational new age knickknacks in order to cope with her life. Through her banal home decorations, Cynthia searches for fulfillment, purpose and salvation. Her struggles with the mundane, the eclectic and the disposable offer a unique perspective on the relationship between spirituality and consumerism in contemporary society.
Feeling Free w/ 3D Magic Eye Remix (9 min, live performance / video)
Appropriating a dated exercise video hosted by actress Angela Lansbury, Feeling Free presents a woman, played by Moulton, who attempts to follow the televised workout in her living room even as elements of her home decor begin to appear onscreen. Deriving its title from an inspirational segment of Lansbury's program, Feeling Free subjects the appropriated footage to eccentric visual and audio displacements, culminating in a psychedelic dance sequence set to a remix of the program's insipid theme song.
Presented as part of the
20th Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival
a production of Chicago Filmmakers
> > www.chicagofilmmakers.org/onion_fest/onion.html < <
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CONTACT:
X
info@chicagocinemaforum.org
X
(312) 480-1966
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