COHEN/STRATMAN/BROWN: REFLECTIONS ON PLACE

Faculty Picks

COHEN/STRATMAN/BROWN: REFLECTIONS ON PLACE
DIRECTOR: JEM COHEN, DEBORAH STRATMAN, BILL BROWN
US, 1996-2002

FACULTY PRESENTER: MATT MCCORMICK—“These three experimental documentaries fall into what one might call ‘new landscape’ films, in that they reflect personal connections to a new or changing environment. Jem Cohen’s LOST BOOK FOUND (1996) reads as a scrapbook of artifacts the artist collected as he acclimated to life in the big city (37 mins.). In IN ORDER NOT TO BE HERE (2002), Deborah Stratman penetrates the controlled isolation of suburbia and nearly becomes entrapped by it (33 mins.). And in BUFFALO COMMON (2002), Bill Brown reflects on the dismantling of nuclear missile silos in the Dakota plains—a drastic change to the landscape that is perhaps more symbolic than visual (23 mins.). Collectively, these films explore new ways of considering personal surroundings while inadvertently serving as time capsules of a particular time and place.”—MM. (93 mins.)

Filmmaker and School of Film faculty member Matt McCormick will introduce the films.