Part of First Look 2017
Sunday, January 8, 2017, 2:00 p.m.
Redstone Theater

Dir. Alexandra Cuesta. Ecuador/U.S./Argentina. 2016. 66 mins. N.Y. Premiere. In Spanish with English subtitles. In 1927, French poet Henri Michaux travelled across Ecuador and jotted down his impressions in a diary as he discovered the country’s landscapes and populations. With Territorio, Alexandra Cuesta took this fragmented account as her starting point starting, as she journeys from the ocean, across the mountains, and into the jungle. Each frame is composed with great subtlety, and throughout the journey, an unspoken bond forms between the filmmaker and the people who are being filmed or waiting to be filmed. Cuesta, who studied film with James Benning, carefully emphasizes the contract between both sides of the camera. With great mastery, she reveals a sometimes humorous picture of her home country that is both fragmented and visionary. Preceded by Recordando El Ayer (Dir. Alexandra Cuesta, 2017. 9 mins.), an experimental portrait of Jackson Heights that questions the meaning of “home,” and A Model Family in a Model Home (Dir. Zoe Beloff, U.S., 22 mins., 16mm), an uncompleted Bertolt Brecht 1940s film project inspired by a Life magazine article about a “model family” of American Midwestern farmers forms the basis for a beguiling and historically fascinating blend of documentary material, drawings, puppets, photographs, home movies, and other material that draws a line between the House Un-American Activities Committee and the 2008 housing crisis.

Tickets: $15 (Free for members at the Film Lover level and MoMI Kids Premium levels / free for Silver Screen members and above). Order tickets online. (Members may contact [email protected] with questions regarding online reservations.)

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