Journey Into Darkness

Journey Into Darkness: Films by Kerry Laitala
March 10, 7 pm
FREE
Arts@Renaissance (former Greenpoint Hospital)
2 Kingsland Ave.Basement Level

Using techniques gleaned from early cinema and animation, San Francisco-based filmmaker Kerry Laitala's work is a kaleidoscopic array of imagery and optical alchemy. Ranging from hand-made films to performances, installations and sculptural works, her projects explores cinema's relationship to sex and death, illness and illusion, lies and lyricism. On March 10th, at the former Greenpoint Hospital, Laitala will present Journey into Darkness, films with medicine and madness as a theme. The program includes Secure the Shadow..., a "meditation on disintegration and mortality" using Victorian era medical photography; Out of the Ether, a dizzying exploration of institutions and infection; Awake but Dreaming, an uncanny, alchemical constellation of image and sound made and processed in a former youth prison.

Laitala writes: Experimental film encourages the viewer to engage with and have a dialogue with the screen. Like pieces of a puzzle the viewer is encouraged to actively participate with what they see on an intellectual level. But why does a film need to be understood or explained? It only needs to be experienced as one would experience a painting or sculpture.

This is a rare East Coast visit from a regular participant in the New York Film Festival and Rotterdam International Film Festival!