“Conversations Here and There”
April 25, 2024
feat. Michael Robinson, Erica Sheu, Jordan Wong,
Tzuan Wu and Zachary Zezima.
Shadow Kitchen turns five this April!!!
For our birthday bash, this edition features the first group screening of 2024 and debuts “L.A. Local,” an ongoing SK series that revolves around Los Angeles and its filmmakers/artists.
L.A. Local – Volume One: “Conversations Here and There” includes films from Michael Robinson, Erica Sheu, Jordan Wong, Tzuan Wu and Zachary Zezima.
Ranging from stop motion ceramic tiles, the psychedelic swirls of cinemascope animation, to the filmic reconstructions of memory and the epic collaging of pop images, this collection of films dive into the formal experiments of exploring relationships, trauma and the conversations in between.
Join us Thursday, April 25th at 7:30 PM at Coaxial Arts for our inaugural “L.A. Local” series and a Q&A with the artists after!
IN PERSON: Michael Robinson, Erica Sheu, Jordan Wong and Zachary Zezima
THE PROGRAM
GRANDMA’S SCISSORS (阿嬤的剪刀)
(dir. ERICA SHEU / 2021 / 5:34 / super 8 & digital / color & b/w / silent)
Is it a reconstruction of memory in the silence, or rather, notes before the memory disappears? The voice cannot be heard again, but one can still feel it through the eyes. The camera turns tactile into textile. The filmmaker connects with her grandma from her own craft to hers.
I WOULD’VE BEEN HAPPY
(dir. JORDAN WONG / 2023 / 8:52 / video / glazed ceramic tiles + quilted cyanotype fabric + embroidery + 16mm + CGI)
An attempt to map a fraught relationship through the use of intricately coded pictographs and schematic abstractions applied onto glazed ceramic tiles and quilted cyanotype fabric. The aesthetics of architectural language are used to reconstruct memories of my family’s domestic spaces in the hope to uncover logic to a broken home.
FRIEND OF A FRIEND
(dir. ZACHARY ZEZIMA / 2020 / 14:00 / digital 2k cinemascope animation)
A young man is sexually assaulted and subdues, punishes, then befriends his own attacker while confronting his past and the ambiguities of sexuality. Part fiction, part non-fiction, part autobiography and part dream, “Friend of a Friend” attempts to broaden the conversation around abuse and its motivations and implications, as well as the survivor vs. assailant dynamic and results of ostracism.
fur film vol.1: I don’t own a cat
(dir. TZUAN WU & ERICA SHEU / 2021 / 7:07 / s16mm, 16mm & super 8)
The cat I don’t own runs through windows between different spaces and times, and it disappears before finishing a sentence.
Using outtakes and rushes (what “fur film” means in Mandarin) to redeem the effects in these images we produced for. The film is the first volume of an ongoing exchange diary project between Erica Sheu and Tzuan Wu. From the filming exercises. hand processing. editing and sound design, we experiment with different workflows of audio and visual between Taiwan and USA.
POLYCEPHALY IN D
(dir. MICHAEL ROBINSON / 2021 / 23:00 / HD video with stereo sound)
A densely collaged exploration of the existential drift, collective trauma, and psychological free-fall of the contemporary moment. Leaping, falling, and meeting one’s new self in an earthquake; we lose one head so as to grow another.
THE FILMMAKERS
MICHEAL ROBINSON
Michael Robinson is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker and artist whose work explores the emotional mechanics of popular media, the transcendent potential of heartache, and the instability of the collective realities we inhabit. His work has shown internationally at venues including London’s National Portrait Gallery, The Whitney Biennial, RHA Dublin, The Austrian Film Museum, The Walker Art Center, and MMCA Seoul, and has been regularly included in major film festivals like Rotterdam, New York, Berlinale, Toronto, London BFI, Melbourne, Jeonju, Hong Kong, and Cinéma du Réel. Michael has been supported by MacDowell, Creative Capital, Wexner Center, The Film Society of Lincoln Center, FIDlab Marseille, and his films have received awards from numerous festivals. He holds an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), his work is distributed by Video Data Bank, and he is currently a visiting faculty member in the Program in Film and Video at CalArts.
ERICA SHEU
Erica Sheu / 徐璐 makes short films, expanded cinema and installation with celluloid film. Her work is often about diary film, handmade film, screen and projections, cross-generational memories, Taiwanese identity politics. Her experimental short films have been shown at NYFF Currents, TIFF Wavelengths, IFFR Bright Future, (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periferico, EXiS, TIDF among other film festivals and venues. Sheu holds an MFA in Film/Video from CalArts. She works and lives in Los Angeles.
JORDAN WONG
Jordan Wong is an animator and experimental nonfiction filmmaker driven by emotional honesty and analog processes. His films have been exhibited worldwide including: Rotterdam, True/False Film Festival, Slamdance, Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, DOK Leipzig, European Media Arts Festival, London International Animation Festival, Newfest, and Frameline. His work has been featured in group exhibitions at Socrates Sculpture Park, New York; Verge Center for the Arts, Sacramento; The REEF, Los Angeles; Anne Reid ’72 Gallery, New Jersey; Automata, Los Angeles; and George J. Doizaki Gallery at Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, Los Angeles. Wong lives and works in Los Angeles.
TZUAN WU
Tzu-An Wu works between experimental film and its expansions. He makes collages with analogue films, through mixing heterogeneous images, audio, and texts in an attempt to inquire about the constructs of (cinematic) narratives and the selves. He holds an MA in Media Studies from The New School, New York, and a BA in Gender and Cultural Studies from NTHU, Taiwan. His works have been shown internationally, including BFI Flare (London), IFFR (Netherland), CROSSROADS (San Francisco), Golden Horse Film Festival (Taiwan), TIDF (Taiwan). Exhibitions include Taipei Art Awards, Taiwan Biennial, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, and Taipei Artist Village, etc. He also does programming of experimental cinema.
ZACHARY ZEZIMA
Zachary Zezima is an animation director based in Los Angeles. He received his BFA from Parsons The New School for Design and his MFA from CalArts. His work frequently includes elements of psychology, the body, interpersonal relationships, science-fiction, and autobiography. His most recent short film, “Friend of a Friend,” premiered at Annecy in 2020 and has also screened at film festivals such as Slamdance, Stuttgart, and Guanajuato. It won the Special Jury Award at the Anilogue International Animation Festival and Best International Short Animated Film at the Go Short International Short Film Festival. In 2021, he directed animation for an episode of PRIDE; a six-part docu series on FX/Hulu detailing LGBTQ+ civil rights throughout six distinct decades. He is currently in production on a new documentary exploring the history of the US Military’s influence on surfing and surf culture.