Short film programme: Ties That Bind Us
How can family ties be depicted on film? Connections that at first are pre-determined, and from which it is often difficult to break free. Sometimes they are beautiful, sometimes they are painful. Maya Steinberg would like to understand: Her father has become an Orthodox Jew, she herself is a secular Jew. For the film, she travels to the place where her father has become so religious. She can’t get access to where he is because it is heavily gendered. She is assigned other areas. She mainly encounters people assigned the female gender, and remains unseen with her queerness. What happens when a beloved person dies and their estate comprises a whole archive of lesbian art? Barbara Hammer attended to the archiving of her work while she was still alive. After her death, the pictures, films and writings still remain and allow her partner Florrie Burke to look at them and continue to see new connections. LeAnn Erickson contributes two films to the programme, one with childhood images of her son, and a second that she produced together with him and which starts in her own childhood. The look into the past takes Jack LaLanne into the family fold, the television character who has accompanied the director for such a long time and been so important to her. The programme ends with a family initiation ritual: Axelle celebrates a weekend hen party with her sister and three of her friends, which raises the question: Isn’t this a loss, too? Why exactly are they celebrating here?
One of Us Now
Maya Steinberg
Maya Steinberg, herself a secular Israeli, spends a few weeks in an Orthodox community in Galilee in order to trace […]
Love, Barbara
Brydie O’Connor
With over 100 films to her name, Barbara Hammer was a pioneer of lesbian experimental film. Hammer’s incredible influence on […]
Fun Days with Jake
LeAnn Erickson
An animation film by LeAnn Erickson made up of drawings that look like they were done by children tells of […]
I (heart) Jack LaLanne: A Cartoon Memoir
LeAnn Erickson
One of film-maker LeAnn Erickson’s earliest childhood memories is of rushing home after kindergarten to watch Jack LaLanne’s TV show […]
Burial of Life as a Young Girl
Maïté Sonnet
Axelle is experiencing one of the worst weekends of her life: She’s still caught up in dealing with the pain […]