Filmmakers on Site: The Search for Emak Bakia's Oskar Alegria

On September 14, Walker screened The Search for Emak Bakia, with director Oskar Alegria on site to talk about his work with the audience. The screening was followed by Man Ray’s Emak-Bakia (1927), the inspiration for Alegria’s film, and live accompaniment by St. Paul musician Richard Griffith.The Search for Emak Bakia is as much an exploration of language and meaning as it is a tribute to Man Ray’s film. Its narrative playfully breaks from linearity and reads more like a nonfiction cinepoem than it does a documentary film. In one of his contingent storylines Alegria finds one of Griffith’s CDs at Man Ray’s grave. He was so inspired by the music that he put it in his film.