Container #23 Chris Kennedy showcase screening
with the filmmaker in attendance as well as recommendations for the Melbourne International Film Festival...
Hello. Thank you once again for joining us.
Tonight’s Screening: Tuesday, July 18
The World Re-Presenting the World, Chris Kennedy, 2008-23, 72m
A selection of disparate films by Chris Kennedy. Though both form and subject change with each work—whether touching on memory, landscape or the crowd sourced conspiracies of a Reddit group—his films investigate how we, the world, make sense of things.
The Initiation Well (2020, 3.5m)
Tamalpais (2009, 14m)
Simultaneous Contrast (2008, 5.5m)
Brimstone Line (2013, 10m)
One Roll in the Darkness (2011, 3m)
Watching the Detectives (2017, 36m)
This programme is introduced in person by filmmaker and artist Chris Kennedy with a Q&A following the screening.
Unrated 15+
Presented on 16mm
Chris Kennedy’s visit is made possible with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts
Additional Readings (for those who have the time and curiosity):
Since we’re a fan of Chris Kennedy and his work, we thought we’d share a key extensive interview between Michael Holboom and Chris along with reviews—particularly focusing on his longest work Watching the Detectives—in Artforum, Brooklyn Rail and Long Pauses (which discusses Tamalpais, pictured above.)
Melbourne International Film Festival
Australia’s main film festival is upon us and we thought we’d recommend a few titles. We’ll skip obvious major titles like the Palme d’or winning Anatomy of a Fall which have local distribution and focus on interesting works that will likely disappear after their festival circuit. (Think of them as potential Container titles.) In no particular order:
The Sweet East. (Sean Price Williams) A dirtbag picaresque road trip around the US, structured around a woman who, as obscure object of desire, resists a series of gatekeepers and their various unusual communities. Never in control and better for it (pictured above)
R21: Restoring Solidarity (Mohanad Yaqubi). A niche but smart archival documentary about the intersection of Palestinian resistance and the Japanese left (including the Red Army).
Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella). A novelistic 4.5hr film divided into chapters on the before and after response to the disappearence of a woman. Lauquen comes from a very interesting Argentinian scene, centred around the production company El Pampero Cine which also released the quite novelistic multi-part 14hr La Flor.
Eureka (Lisandro Alonso). An ambitious study of colonialism and the role of policing indigenous people over three periods—a stylised Western, a realist contemporary drama and then a dream like jungle work. Not as controlled as the director’s previous Jauja, but it makes up for it.
The Delinquents (Rodrigo Moreno). A slow bucolic work ostensibly about a bank robbery, but more about freedom, not wanting to work and its cost (pictured below.)
Gush (Fox Maxy.) A post tiktok diaristic experimental film by a US First Nation trans filmmaker. Their work is stronger with shorts which require less structure, but still alive and fascinating.
Thank you. We look forward to catching you tonight for our s our showcase of the world of Chris Kennedy with the filmmaker in attendance, and then in a fortnight for our screening of Daniel Zimmerman’s Walden: a documentary ostensibly about the circulation of wood, from tree to furniture, but also a tour de force of timing and composition similar to Il Buco.