Alain Gomis, Rewind and Play, 2022. Image courtesy andolfi.
Rewind & Play by Alain Gomis with Thelonious Monk
January 20 & 21, 7 pm
$12 ($10 Walker members, seniors, and students). Free for students on Friday
In Paris 1969, jazz legend Thelonious Monk records a spot for French television. Between takes, he is bombarded with questions. Cut together entirely from recently unearthed outtakes, Alain Gomis’s Rewind & Play provides a view from the other side, showing how Monk experienced racism during the event. The stark yet pointed edit by the French Senegalese director (Félicité) indicts not just the interviewer but more broadly the white institutions still upheld by pervasive racism today. 2022, France/Germany, DCP, 65 min.
The January 20 screening will be introduced by guest speaker Davu Seru, an improvising musician, composer, and assistant professor of practice in the department of English at Hamline University.
About the filmmaker
Alain Gomis (France, b. 1972) is a French Senegalese film director and screenwriter. Gomis has often turned his attentions to the topics of identity and narrative deconstruction. His first feature film L’Afrance (2002) won the Silver Leopard at Locarno. His film Félicité (2017) won the Grand Jury Prix at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival. Gomis regularly gives production and writing workshops. In 2018 he and Aïssatou Diop founded the Yennenga Center in Dakar, Senegal, to promote independent film production in Senegal and Africa.
Davu Seru (b. David Allen Underwood) is an improvising musician and composer. Seru has worked with numerous improvising musicians and composers throughout the United States and France. In 2017–2018 he served as composer-in-residence at Studio Z in St. Paul. He’s curated concert series for over the past 20 years and has received awards from McKnight Foundation (2020 Composer Fellowship), Jerome Foundation (2017–2018 Composer/Sound Artist Fellow), American Composers Forum (Minnesota Emerging Composer Award), the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (Next Step Fund), and has received commissions from the Zeitgeist Ensemble and Walker Art Center. A published author, Seru is assistant professor of practice in the department of English at Hamline University.
Anyox by Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora
January 27 & 28, 7 pm
$12 ($10 Walker members, seniors, and students). Free for students on Friday
In a Canadian ghost town, the two remaining residents manage ominous dunes of slag left behind by last century’s copper smelting. This debut feature from Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora is a postindustrial portrait of an abandoned British Columbia. Their measured study utilizes 35mm and 65mm cinematography and a trove of archival records to explore the intersecting histories of labor, immigration, and extractive capitalism that have marred this mountainous coastal landscape. 2022, Canada, DCP, in English and Croatian with English subtitles, 87 min.
About the filmmaker
Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora are award-winning filmmakers based in Vancouver. Their work investigates ways that humans have engraved their histories into natural spaces and is informed by an interest in avant-garde depictions of landscape and labor. Their style is defined by a self-reflexive and structural approach to cinema. Their work has screened at festivals such as Cinéma du réel, EIFF, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Open City, DOXA, and VIFF.
2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards
Jan 31–Feb 18, 2023
Free for Walker and FilmNorth members (Ticket reservations are not yet available; please check back in the coming weeks.)
What defines “indie cinema” today? Find out at a three-week run of artistically adventurous fiction and nonfiction feature films nominated for the Film Independent Spirit Awards, copresented with FilmNorth. This annual partnership program showcases nominees for Best Feature, Best First Feature, and Best Documentary, as selected by the independent film community for their exceptional creativity, unique vision, and innovation. Explore the remarkable achievements and breadth of today’s independent filmmaking with special free Spirit Awards screenings just for members.