AMERICA NOW!

KAŅEPES CULTURE CENTRE BEAN SCREEN 28.09 / 21.00

The American experiment is the most tremendous and far reaching engine of social change which has ever either blessed or cursed mankind. - Charles Francis Adams.

The “America Now!” special program pulls together a series of screenings from an international call to filmmakers that are speaking to the American condition. America is at the nexus of police brutality, the rise of a new civil rights movement in the protests of Black Lives Matter, deep divisions on the issue of immigration, gun control, terrorism and more, all in a charged election cycle. Covering a range of subjects and genres, the films speak to these issues using innovative techniques, subversive methodologies and direct commentary.  

STOP, Reinaldo Marcus Green, fiction, USA, 2014, 10"

A young man's livelihood is put to the test when he gets stopped by the police on his way home from practice.

POSTERA, Zak Cedarholm & The Poet Azeem, experimental narrative, USA, 2016, 18"

Postera is a living digital art form that exhibits the creative process. A poetic mosaic of past, present, and future craft a journey into the mystic mind of “The Misfit King”.

TWO CITIES, Darius Clark Monroe, biography / documentary, USA, 2015, 13"

Locked inside the mind and memory of Dr. Mtangulizi Sanyika, he reflects what it means to be part of the displaced New Orleans population in Houston.

DIRT, Darius Clark Monroe, fiction, USA, 2016, 7"

Some things must die to live.

THE LOVERS, Johnny Vong, fiction, USA, 2015, 6"

While on vacation in Los Angeles, the lives of a young Canadian couple are torn apart by an unspeakable act of violence.

BORDERLAND, Valerie Schenkman, fiction, USA, 2015, 7"

Joel (26), a rising Latino immigration officer, moves to a Texas town to pursue his career and must decide how to best serve his country while still honoring his culture. Borderland questions how citizens, specifically minorities, in a diverse nation recognize their heritage when mainstream society and politics do not. The story is inspired by a long conversation with a Mexican American border patrol agent on the Texas / Mexico border.

AMERICAN DREAMER, Thomas Haley, documentary, France, 2013, 32"

American Dreamer is the portrait of one young man searching for his way and his identity in a country that also seems to be suffering from the confusion of an identity crisis due in large part to the trauma of 9/11. Against the background of the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and Julian’s north Florida home, we observe the aftermath of this tragic moment in contemporary American history and the tensions that are tearing at the fabric of American society.

Films will be screened in the original language with Latvian subtitles.

Curator: E.G. Bailey