“2x2x2x2” (aka. L.A. Local – Vol. 0)
June 22, 2022
Join Shadow Kitchen Wednesday 7:30 PM (6/22/22) at Coaxial for an exciting shorts program and conversation featuring the works of these eight Los Angeles based artists:
IN PERSON: Gregory Barnes, Elenie Chung, Iliana Garcia, Tempe Hale, Derek Holguin, Ziyao Liu, Sara Suárez and Evelyn Hang Yin
PROGRAM
A GUIDE FOR WHEN IMMIGRANTS BECOME ANCESTORS
dir. Iliana Garcia, 2022, 6 min.
Featuring references to Selena Quintanilla, Larry Itliong, Google Translate and the filmmaker’s grandfathers, A GUIDE FOR WHEN IMMIGRANTS BECOME ANCESTORS pairs personal experience with poetry to paint an intimate portrait of fourth-generation Mexican Filipino Americans as they navigate what it means to inherit an identity rooted in cultural memory.
THE BLESSING (祝福)
dir. ZIyao Liu, 2022, 6 min.
A young woman struggles to make a video for her mother’s wedding across the Pacific Ocean. Grief, stress, and loneliness deconstruct the fabric of her blessing.
DEF SOUND – “I BEEN”
dir. Sara Suarez, 2022, 4 min.
I BEEN is a poetic meditation exploring (re)memory, landscape, the mundane, and the concept of home. First single off the upcoming FROM SOUTH CENTRAL TO THE WORLD project.
EST. TIME OF ARRIVAL
dir. Elenie Chung, 2021, 10 min, super 8mm
My friend now lives 15 hours ahead of me.
She lives in tomorrow. I live in yesterday.
LET ME TAKE YOU HOME (阿爺 我們回家)
dir. Evelyn Hang Yin, 2022, 6 min.
Ah Yeh’s journey as he meanders through the dreamscape of an old Chinatown, where he is joined by others from his time and finds home to his granddaughter.
THE TOUCH OF THE MASTER’S HAND
dir. Gregory Barnes, 2021, 12 min.
Troubled by an unnatural temptation, a young Mormon missionary must confess the humiliating depths of his pornography addiction.
NIGHT HIKE
dir. Tempe Hale, 2022, 6 min.
A film noir-inspired experimental short constructed almost entirely from still photographs
FILMMAKERS
GREGORY BARNES
Gregory Barnes makes films drawing on his upbringing as a faithful Mormon in Oak Park, IL, blending the absurdity of leaving the religion with dry Midwest humor. His debut, THE TOUCH OF THE MASTER’S HAND, won the Jury Prize for U.S. Fiction at Sundance 2021; his follow-up, TOGETHER FOREVER, was produced by Neon and Kodak. His work has screened at Cannes, SXSW, and Telluride. He holds an MFA from NYU Tisch.
ELENIE CHUNG
Elenie Chung (钟凯琹) is a filmmaker from Trinidad and Tobago. She grew up with a pet turtle, outside Trinidad’s capital, with a bedroom view of the Caribbean Sea squeezed between two terraced houses. Her narrative and documentary films use interpersonal relationships to convey ideas about migration, ancestral amnesia, and the Chinese diasporic experience in a globalized world.
ILIANA GARCIA
Iliana Garcia is a documentary editor and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Creating across both short and long-form docs, Iliana’s work provides an intimate look into the world of identity, loss, and place. Most recently, Iliana edited NOBUKO MIYAMOTO: A SONG IN MOVEMENT (2024; PBS). Her other credits include lead/co-editor work on BENKYODO: THE LAST MANJU SHOP IN J-TOWN (2023; CAAMFest), MAMA BEARS (2022; PBS) and TO THE FUTURE, WITH LOVE (2021; POV).
TEMPE HALE
Tempe Hale is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker and visual artist (MFA, CalArts, 2014) and Sundance Film Institute Filmmaker Fellow (2020), weaving hand-drawn animation with archival footage and collage. Her multimedia films have screened at the Academy Museum, REDCAT, and Pacific Symphony. Since 2015, she’s collaborated with composer Laura Karpman, including the Grammy-winning ASK YOUR MAMA. She edited the Academy Museum’s From the Shtetl to the Studio.
DEREK HOLGUIN
Derek Holguin is an artist based in Los Angeles, whose work includes animation, motion graphics, photography, and projection mapping installation. Derek also works under the alias Lucid Interval, an art-house entity.
ZIYAO LIU
Ziyao Liu is a writer-director creating character-driven narratives across hybrid genres, reimagining lives otherwise constrained by reality. Her sci-fi comedy DAISY IS GONE won the Special Jury Award at the 2024 LA Asian Pacific Film Festival; work has screened at St. Louis, Brooklyn, Dallas, and FIRST. Her 2025 short TEMPORARY DETECTIVE was supported by the Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award. She’s now in post-production on her debut feature, WHALE, selected for the 2025 MNFF Creative Distribution Mentorship. She studied at UW-Madison and UCLA.
SARA SUAREZ
Sara Suárez is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, creative producer, and artist exploring shared worlds, perception, and contested landscapes. Her films have screened at L.A. Filmforum, Slamdance, and Alchemy Film Festival, among others. As a creative producer, she has produced over 100 live journalism events at Zócalo Public Square and co-created virtual care lab (2020–22), a series of artist-led digital projects.
EVELYN HANG YIN
Evelyn Hang Yin works across photography, video, text, and installation to explore cultural identity shaped by movement between China and the U.S. Tracing her peers’ relationship to heritage, she investigates the myths of “American” and “Chinese” identity, and the history of Chinese railroad laborers—forming a hybrid narrative connected not by blood, but by land.