OPEN ENGAGEMENT CONFERENCE AND THE NORTHWEST FILM CENTER PRESENT TRUE STORIES: SOCIAL PRACTICE AND REINVENTING REALISM
VISITING ARTISTS—What is a documentary practice in an era of conflict and contradicting realities? TRUE STORIES is a collection of shorts by four contemporary artists whose work explores social relations and collaboration through documentary film and video. These works weave together artifice and authenticity by staging scenes, reenacting events, and activating experiences in an exploration of realism. Included in the program are NO FALSE ECHOES (2008), by Wendelien Van Oldenberg, which explores the efforts of the Dutch government to control radio broadcasting in its colonial control of Indonesia and the Dutch East Indies; THE FORBIDDEN ZONE (2000), Harrell Fletcher’s collaborative, multimedia work in which a man with Down syndrome is transported to a “Star Trek”-inspired planet where he can live with the illusion of being normal; and DEATH AND POVERTY (2008), by Althea Thauberger, an allegorical play which considers the complex recent history and fate of the small Ladin minority who live in the Dolomite area in northern Italy. (70 mins.)
TRUE STORIES is co-presented with the Open Engagement Conference, an initiative of Portland State University’s Art and Social Practice MFA concentration.