The Botanical Turn November 2 at 7 pm
Playhouse Cinema, Hamilton 177 Sherman Ave. North Hamilton
FREE ADMISSION
Known for her innovative use of phytography and hand-processing film techniques, Francisca Duran’s art practice intersects with a deep commitment to teaching, mentorship and community-building. For this special screening, the Dandelion Film Collective invites Duran to present her film “compendium” in the cinema alongside a selection of experimental plant-based films that influenced her path towards the recent exhibition Research Garden and its offshoots.
Direct engagement with film material has been a constant of artist filmmaking throughout the last century, but a significant strain of recent work bears the unmistakable mark of plant life on modes of production. Tried-and-true methodologies, notably hand-processing and direct animation, have proven fertile ground for experiments with plant material. This vibrant program demonstrates the ways analog film has become a medium through which artists are engaging directly with the nonhuman and from which they are considering the political, economic, and ecological conditions of late capitalism and the Anthropocene.
Verdant and wild, The Botanical Turn is a celebration of the circle of filmmakers who have inspired Duran’s plant-based films, as well as those she continues to inspire.
Films by Cecilia Araneda, Yuula Benivolski, Cristal Buemi, Larissa Fan, Dawn George, Siyao Guo, Bea Haut, Derek Jenkins, Robin Riad. This screening also includes the communal film created by participants at the 2023 Phytogramming Workshop facilitated by Franci Duran.
Post-screening Q&A moderated by Derek Jenkins.
The Botanical Turn is part of the Light Study Series. This event is co-presented by Dandelion Film Collective and Factory Media Centre and generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.