OKLAHOMA CITY – Everyone loves a sprawling, world-spanning epic, with heroes crossing continents or road-tripping across the country with the locales and physical settings providing a shifting backdrop to the action.
But what about when the location itself is the focus? What happens when the physical spaces in front of and around the camera cease to just be a setting and instead become the main character?
That’s the question posed by a handful of films screening around OKC in coming weeks, each considering the ways that we view, remember, and engage with the physical spaces around us, from a single home to a storied city to the full scope of a nation.
Through a pair of creative documentaries and a brand new, powerful German film, our connections to the spaces that we inhabit are placed centerstage, and our understanding of time’s effect on place is unraveled
‘Los Angeles Plays Itself’ – Uncanny Art House – Norman – Friday, January 23rd
Few American cities are as ubiquitous – or as recognizable – on screen as the City of Angels.
From “Sunset Boulevard” to “La La Land,” Los Angeles has provided the backdrop to some of the most acclaimed and indelible films in history.
But just like the real city, the L.A. of the cinematic world is almost impossible to define or pinpoint, with the presence and personality of the town always seeming to revolve around the film, rather than the other way around.
That shifting artistic portrayal and nebulous character of the city is the focus of 2003’s “Los Angeles Plays Itself,” from documentarian and video essayist Thom Anderson, who narrates the film atop a consistent montage of clips of L.A.’s depiction on screen.
As the legendary cinematic surrealist David Lynch – now one year gone – was a longtime resident and staunch advocate of Los Angeles, with many of his films taking place in the city, Norman’s Uncanny Art House has partnered with the Oklahoma Film Exchange to present this screening as part of their “In Dreams: A David Lynch Tribute Exhibition.”
For more, visit uncannyarthouse.com.
‘The United States of America’ – Oklahoma Film Exchange – Tuesday, January 27th
The Film Exchange team then heads back to their usual home on Film Row for their bi-monthly collaboration with Oklahoma City University’s Wide Open Experimental Film Festival, featuring screenings of groundbreaking works from throughout the history of experimental film.
This time, that groundbreaking work is “The United States of America,” from activist, experimenter, and one-time University of Oklahoma faculty member James Benning.
His 2022 fly-on-the-wall film “The United States of America” invites viewers to sit for a moment in places representing the full sprawl of the country, with the entire film comprised exclusively of static, two-minute shots of everyday spaces in America.
Through the simplicity and stark reality of these shots, Benning encourages the viewer to consider the lives lived in these places and the human element that calls each of them “home.”
For more, visit oklahomafilmexchange.com.
‘Sound of Falling’ – Oklahoma City Museum of Art – Friday, February 6th through Sunday, February 8th
From German writer/director Mascha Schilinski comes this Cannes Jury Prize-winning exploration of the lingering memories, generational traumas, and immortal ghosts that can shape a home.
Centering on a single farmhouse and its many inhabitants across four generations of history and life, Schilinski builds a mosaic of scenes criss-crossing time to connect the stories of four different women throughout generations.
Each of their experiences in the house is echoed inevitably across the years and across each other’s lives, creating a tragic cycle encompassing trauma and abuse from the beginnings of the 20th century through world wars, evolving modernity, and the familiarities of the present day.
Schilinski presents the non-chronological glimpses as something almost like a ghost story, with the memory, energy, and inexhaustible humanity of each woman and each era informing the ones behind just as surely as the ones ahead.
For more, visit okcmoa.com.
Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Brett Fieldcamp is our Arts and Entertainment Editor. He has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for 15+ years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
