FREE and open to the public!
Three thesis films by graduate students completing their MFA in Film and Video Production,
presented by the UI Department of Cinematic Arts. Includes post-screening dialogues with each filmmaker.
Mirror, Mirror Perfected (2019), dir. P. Sam Kessie
Mirror, Mirror Perfected is a fictionalized yet intimate look at a day in the life of aspiring teenage dancer Sissy Ocheng (played by Nolte Academy trained dancer Sandrah Ochola), and examines the evolution of real-life "avatars". Situated in an alternative distopia, Sissy is a seventeen-year-old immigrant who lives alone in a small town, with dreams of becoming the perfect dancer by joining a prestigious dance company. She balances work in an ice cream shop with daily dance practices for company auditions, shares her dances by transferring them onto an older avatar model, Sy, then uploads her on the virtual dance competition platform, FLUXe, receiving token from online fans who validate her performance. After her technophile friend, E, introduces a way to upgrade life-like 3D avatars for augmented spaces to help with her movement, newly enhanced Sy begins to converge the lines of reality and fantasy, changing Sissy's life forever.
Daddy of 'Em All (2019), 16mm on video, dir. Traci Hercher (pictured)
Since its inception in 1897, the annual Cheyenne Frontier Days has drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors to Wyoming for a 10-day celebration of "Western roots," culminating in the world's largest outdoor rodeo nicknamed "The Daddy of 'Em All." Shot during the 2018 Frontier Days, Daddy of 'Em All tracks the proliferation of settler colonial narratives that the event seeks to ossify through its signs, symbols and sets. Through dislocated images and interviews with past and present Frontier Days volunteers and attendees including my mother, a then-resident of Cheyenne, the film grapples with heritage, ideology, violence, and borders in a time of growing nationalism.
#millcore2 (2019) dir. Kai Swanson
A #sketch #comedy #webseries exploring the intertwining #lives and #identities of a group of #millennials who develop a #friendship after one #tinder swipe right.