Los Angeles Filmforum presents **5973 Miles Away: Women’s Exorcisms of Loss**.

Curated by Seok-Young Yang. In person: Xiao Zhang, abbi page, and curator Seok-Young Yang.

Extended program notes at: https://www.lafilmforum.org/

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Los Angeles to Seoul is 5973 miles, but the distance of a loved one lost is so much further. When my father was mentally and physically suffering while I was in California and he was across the ocean, I learned that the idea of “grief” is neither simple nor easily dismissed. The feelings of sadness, anger, and guilt – in the face of pressure to “move on,” – get imprinted in the body and in one’s interactions with the world.

These women filmmakers have attempted to find corollaries in filmic spaces, ways of exorcizing some elements of the profound grief each has faced. These works invite us to the deep space of the body where emotional understanding is prioritized over intellectual thinking. The works that resonate with me the most are those that investigate a continuous process of grieving, not destined to have any type of resolution.

The program centers around British experimental filmmaker Sarah Pucill's work, *Stages of Mourning*, which exhibits her attempts to physically reenact and represent her partner who passed away from anorexia. Onyou Oh's *Pyrotechnics* elongates a discourse on cinema and loss of theater experience during the global pandemic by utilizing different forms of cameras with celluloid film. Celeste Olliveir’s *FATHER* utilizes reenactment to exorcize the embodied pain coming from an intense father-daughter relationship. Jeong Yoon Ahn’s *I have never met you* uses extreme close-up shots on photographs taken by her collaborator Misun's late sister, emphasizing the tactility of emotional pixelation and visual noise, which Misun can no longer reach. Xiao Zhang’s *Tongue Film* showcases loss of liquid from the female body. Water, directly associated with aliveness, the work brings ghostly souls on screen. The selected films' haptic realism imprints gestural memories and fades out the tormented marks on women's bodies. The film program will be accompanied by a poetry reading at its conclusion. abbi page will present a short reading of their several works, which center on black femme suffering and tie back to what each film is discussing. – Seok-Young Yang

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Masks are highly recommended at Filmforum shows - N95 or KN95 are available at the door.

This is an 18+ event

Presented by LA Filmforum

No Covid-19 entry requirements

SCREENING: 5973 Miles Away: Women’s Exorcisms of Loss

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2220 Arts + Archives

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