Artists in Person

Opening with strangers and closing with friends, this program highlights exemplary work by a fresh crop of UC Berkeley filmmakers. Strangers: An Image of Disintegration reworks a road-trip narrative to examine the fragility of memory, while the tactile 100 Pets recalls YouTube videos with its mix of intimacy and performance. Old People Driving is a documentary study of two motorists as they approach one hundred. The hypnotic Over There Somewhere heightens perceptual discovery through rapid cutting, while in the stop-motion animation Fly, movement is a function of evolving line and form. The atmospheric music video Catch the Moon conveys its story through song, whereas the letter of Dear friends, is a poignant examination of war and its effect. Sami's Cock is a nod to the Iraqi tradition of oral storytelling, an approach to language that is countered by the visual syntax of Chinese characters in the portrait piece You Look Like Your Mother. Delicately shifting between intimacy and remoteness, clarity and disjunction, this diverse program exposes the youthful sincerity and boldness of Cal's new cinematic visionaries.-Sarah Bonnickson, Kelsa Trom

Strangers: An Image of Disintegration (Mike Harris, 2010, 12 mins). Over There Somewhere (Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck, 2010, 9 mins, Color/B&W). 100 Pets (Jonathan T. Wang, 2010, 3:30 mins). Old People Driving (Shaleece Haas, 2010, 24 mins). Fly (Christine Chia, 2010, 1 min). Catch the Moon (Esau Hamadanyan, 2010, 4:30 mins). Sami's Cock (George Larkin, 2010, 4:30 mins). You Look Like Your Mother (Lillian Guo, 2009, 6 mins). Dear friends, (David Wallace, 2010, 7 mins)

Film and Video Makers at Cal is curated by UC Berkeley students Wesley Abellon, Shoko Ando, Sarah Bonnickson, Eun Joo Chun, Vanessa Elliott, Mahaliyah Ayla O, Michael Raimi, Kelsa Trom, Leah Younesi, and Maria Zaragoza, as part of an internship offered by the Department of Film and Media and BAM/PFA, under the guidance of Kathy Geritz with the assistance of Jonathan Knapp. Presented with support from the Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Endowment.