Artists in Person

What do we truly desire? The films presented tonight bravely address a harrowing journey to that elusive destination. Vielleicht indulges us in a trancelike state that takes us to the edge of desire, while All About My Lover mesmerizes with a montage that draws relationships between spectatorship, violence, and love. Passions impeded by seemingly insurmountable boundaries are seen in Unmapping Desire, in which two women are separated by political divides, and in A Haunting, where a woman's quiet despair is due to a permanent separation. Characters who do not know precisely what they want or how to get it are witnessed in the contemplative Princess Fever and the dynamic Jimi's Blues. Endearing obsessions are depicted in Blood and Monkey, an homage to the art and amor of Frida Kahlo, and in A Touch of Tutelage, an ode to the special attachment that can transpire between a teacher and student. Finally, denial is the insidious demon in two works: In the Eye portrays how one woman must finally grapple with her unrealized feelings toward an abusive figure, and in Love Ltd. the stakes are palpable as we behold how truth sets one family free.