MÓNICA SAVIRÓN
Films & Videos
Games
Imagine if suffering were real.
Imagine if those old people were afraid of death.
What if the midget or the girl with one arm
really felt pain? Imagine how impossible it would be
to live if some people were
alone and afraid all their lives.
Monolithos, 1982
Jack Gilbert (1925 - 2012)
Answer Print (2016)
Wedding Song (2016)
Broken Tongue (2013)
To Begin With (2012)
SYNOPSIS
"The fading that devastates color films occurs in the dark. It is accelerated by high temperatures and, to a lesser extent, relative humidity. Dye fading is irreversible. Once the dye images have faded, the information lost cannot be recovered"—Image Permanence Institute
"An answer print is the first film after the original has been timed for every shot with fades and dissolves if any. The question that it answers is ‘what is this going to look like’, and ‘what corrections, if any, are needed’"—Bill Brand
Answer Print is made with deteriorated 16mm color stock, and it is meant to disappear over time. Neither hue nor sound has been manipulated in its analog reassembling. The soundtrack combines audio generated by silent double perforated celluloid, the optical tracks from sound films, and the tones produced by each of the filmmaker’s cuts when read by the projector. The shots are based on a 26-frame length: the distance in 16mm films with optical tracks between an image and its sound.
From Poems of Home, by John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892):
"...Slow tracing down the thickening sky
Its mute and ominous prophecy,
A portent seeming less than threat,
It sank from sight before it set."
Images from:
Hamlet, by Douglas Campbell, Encyclopaedia Britannica Films.
The Immigrant Experience: The Long, Long Journey, by Joan Micklin Silver.
Stalking the Spanish Ibex with Rifles, by Alberto Carles Blat.
Sticky my Fingers… Fleet my Feet, by John Hancock.
Changing Art in a Changing World, by Paul Burnford, Film Associates of California.
The Sixth Wheel, by Lawrence Mollot.
Place Value: Modern Mathematics in the Classroom, by Bob Frierson.
Spring is an Adventure, author not identified.
Planet Earth: Challenge of the Oceans, author not identified.
Anonymous discarded film rushes, and camera tests.
SPECIFICATIONS & CREDIT LIST
-Original title: Answer Print
-Country of production: USA
-Date of completion: June 13, 2016
-Release date:
-Running time: 5 minutes
-Format: 16mm print
-Aspect Ratio: 3:4
-Language: English
-Color, or Black & White: Color
-In collaboration with: Bill Brand, Stephen Broomer, John Casey, Cullen Gallagher, Crista Grauer, Jack Rizzo, and Tommy José Stathes
-Editor, Director: Mónica Savirón
FORMATS FOR EXHIBITION (ORIGINAL VERSION)
- 16mm print
- DCP (non-encrypted SMPTE--standard DCI-compliant DCP on an EXT3 formatted USB drive; 2K; DCI 1.33:1 for playback)
- ProRes HQ file
FORMATS FOR EXHIBITION (SPANISH AND FRENCH SUBTITLES VERSIONS)
- ProRes HQ file
SCREENINGS
- Apolló. Pécs, Hungary. Screening March 27, 2019.
- CMR Gallery. Cornwall, UK. Screening March 16, 2019.
- Unpredictable Series. Strange Umbrellas, IKLECTIK Art Lab. London, UK. Screening March 1, 2019.
- Film Center. Kansas City, Missouri. Screening January 28, 2019.
- CAVE Festival - Cellular Cinema. Minneapolis, Minnesota. Screening January 3, 2019.
- Nomadica – Circuito per il Cinema di Ricerca. Bologna, Italy. November 1-4, 2018. Screenings November 2 & 3.
- IC DOCS, Iowa City International Film Festival. Iowa City, Iowa. April 26-28, 2018. Screening April 27.
- Courtisane Festival. Gent, Belgium. March 28 - April 1, 2018. Screening March 31.
- Triskel Arts Centre. Cork, Ireland. Programmed preceding Clio Barnard's feature film Dark River. Screenings March 18-21, 2018.
- Light Field. San Francisco, California. December 7-10, 2017. Screening December 9.
- Semana dos Realizadores. Río de Janeiro, Brazil. November 16-22, 2017. Anacronías. Screening November 20.
- Microscope Gallery. New York. Curated by Elle Burchill and Andrea Monti. Screening November 13, 2017.
- Sounds Like Audio Festival. Saskatoon, Canada. Dialogues. Screening November 12, 2017.
- Bienal de Curitiba. Brazil. November 9-19, 2017. Screening November 11.
- Strangloscope, Experimental Film, Audio & Performance. Florianópolis, Brazil. Screening November 9, 2017.
- Kino Beat. Porto Alegre, Brazil. November 8-19, 2017. Screening November 8.
- Metrópolis Cinema. Vitoria, Brazil. Screenings November 7 & 8, 2017.
- Olympia Cinema. Belem, Brazil. Screenings November 3-8, 2017.
- 20th Antimatter [media art]. Victoria BC, Canada. October 13-28, 2017. Screening October 27.
- UNESCO, World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. Mexico City. Screening October 27, 2017.
- Âge d'Or Festival. Royal Film Archive, Cinematek. Belgium, Brussels. October 19-24, 2017. Screening October 23.
- Transient Visions, Festival of the Moving Image. Spool Contemporary Art Space, Johnson City, New York. Screening October 20, 2017.
- Center for Film and Media Studies, University of Cincinnati. Mini Microcinema. Migrant Journeys: Films from the Middle East, Mexico and Beyond. Screening October 3, 2017.
- Centre National de Création Musicale, GMEA. Festival Riverrun. Albi, France. Phenomia. Screening October 3, 2017.
- 14th Curtocircuito International Film Festival. Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Explora. October 1-8, 2017. Screening October 3, 2017.
- 22nd Cinespaña. Toulouse, France. September 29 – October 8, 2017. Screenings September 30 & October7.
- Boog City Festival. Cine Soiree, New York City. Screening September 17, 2017.
- Marfa Poetry Festival. Texas. Screening August 10, 2017.
- XII MARFICI, Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Mar del Plata. Argentina. August 5-12, 2017. Screening August 8.
- Analogue Recurring. London. July 21, 2017.
- II Moscow International Experimental Film Festival. July 20-23, 2017. Screening July 21.
- EXiS Experimental Film & Video Festival. Seoul, Korea. July 13-20, 2017. Screening July 19.
- MUTA, Muestra Internacional de Apropiación Audiovisual. Lima, Perú. July 7-15, 2017. Screening July 15.
- 25th Curtas Vila do Conde International Film Festival. Portugal. Experimental Competition. July 8-16, 2017. Screening July 14.
- 71st Edinburgh International Film Festival. Scotland. Black Box: (Dis)appearances. June 21 – July 2, 2017. Screenings June 28 & July 2.
- Festival de Cine de Lima Independiente. Fronteras Destruídas. June 29 – July 8, 2017. Screenings July 4 & 6.
- Filmadrid. Madrid, Spain. June 8-17, 2017. Vanguardias Competition. Screening June 14.
- 33rd Hamburg International Short Film Festival. June 6-12, 2017. Deframed Competition. Screenings June 7 & 10.
- Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, WUFF. Open City Cinema. Manitoba, Canada. June 2-4, 2017. Screening June 3.
- Chicago Underground Film Festival, CUFF. June 1-5, 2017. Screening June 3.
- (S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico. A Coruña, Spain. May 30 - June 4, 2017. Screening June 2.
- Moviate Underground Film Festival. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. May 26-28, 2017.
- CROSSROADS San Francisco Cinematheque. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. May 19-21, 2017. Screening May 21.
- FRACTO. Berlin. May 20-21, 2017. Screening May 20.
- Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, MUFF. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Microlights Cinema. April 20-23, 2017. Screening April 22.
- Limited Access 7. Iran. Tehran. April 7-12, 2017. Screenings April 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11.
- 17th Belfast Film Festival. Northern Ireland. March 30 - April 8, 2017. Screening April 5.
- FOVÉA, La zonmé. Nice, France. Curated by Emmanuelle Negre. Screening April 1, 2017.
- Process. Riga, Latvia. March 22-25, 2017. Screening March 22.
- 55th Ann Arbor Film Festival. Ann Arbor, Michigan. March 21-26, 2017. International Competition. Screening March 24.
- 25th $100 Film Festival. Calgary, Canada. March 22-25, 2017. Notes from the Interior. Screening March 24.
- III FRONTEIRA Festival Internacional do Filme Documentário e Experimental. Goiânia, Brazil. March 16-25, 2017. Screening March 19.
- Troubling the Image: New & Restored Experimental Cinema. University of Chicago, Film Studies Center. January 13 – March 10, 2017. Re-Framings - Stitched & Collaged. Curated by Patrick Friel & Julia Gibbs. Screening March 10.
- Flaherty Seminar NYC. Anthology Film Archives, New York. January 17 – March 28, 2017. Kinesthetic History. Curated by Ruth Somalo. Screening February 28.
- 40th Portland International Film Festival. Northwest Film Center, Oregon. February 9-25, 2017. In Pursuit. Screening February 21.
- 46th Rotterdam Film Festival. Netherlands. January 25 – February 5, 2017. Regained. Screenings January 27 & 29.
- Alternative Film/Video Festival. Belgrade, Serbia. December 7-11, 2016. Screening December 10. Screening December 10.
- 31st Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata. Argentina. November 18-27, 2016. Estados Alterados. Screenings November 26 & 27.
- 23rd L’Alternativa, Festival de Cinema Independent de Barcelona. Spain. November 14-20, 2016. Panorama. Screening November 16.
- 11th Pravo Ljudski Film Festival. Sarajevo. Bosnia and Herzegovina. November 9-14, 2016. International Competition. Screening November 11.
- 35rd Uppsala International Short Film Festival. Sweden. October 24-30, 2016. Time Capsule: International Competition. Screenings October 26, 27 & 28. European Premiere.
- 23rd Festival Internacional de Cine de Valdivia, FICValdivia. Chile. October 10-16, 2016. Nuevos Caminos. Screenings October 13 & 15. Latin American Premiere.
- 54th New York Film Festival PROJECTIONS. October 7-9, 2016. Fade Out. Curated by Dennis Lim and Aily Nash. Screenings October 8. World Premiere.
PRESS
Letterboxd, December 16th, 2016—
Answer Print, by Michael Sicinski.
"Mónica Savirón's Answer Print is a brief little dynamo of formal energy. [...] If Savirón's own print is 'answering' anyone or anything, it could be Conner's own A Movie, one of the first associative films composed of found footage. Conner's film was a cry of despair, depicting a planet going to hell while the capitalist world amused itself to death. Savirón's film, by contrast, implies that we've grown accustomed to the disaster—that we're living in a long apocalypse, and we might do well to sift through the detritus and rebuild".
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Cine-File, June 2nd, 2017—
Crucial Viewing, by Patrick Friel.
"...That Savirón can reveal beauty even in this most compromised material is a wonder, and her sensitive editing creates delicate rhythms and subtly critical associations arising out of the appropriated images, adding depth to that improbable surface...".
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Desistfilm, June 8th, 2017—
(S8) Mostra de Cinema Periférico: An Overview, by José Sarmiento Hinojosa.
"...To work with the frailty of a deteriorated material which will be ruined eventually is a gesture equivalent to sculpting on ice, trying to perpetuate the inevitable. However, for Savirón, this is a starting point for the dialogue that she tries to establish with the spectator: here lies the answer print, my first sketch, in which I reproduce the sound mechanism of the manipulation of celluloid, where I show the frailty of the image, of this process that is a desperate attempt to safeguard something which will exist no more...".
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UZAK, August 18th, 2017—
A Road Outside: Crossroads 2017, by Stephen Broomer.
"...Answer Print focused on the estrangement and orphaning of images themselves, drawing its content from a variety of film prints that had gone magenta, arranging images by the degree of their fading, a long strip of gradation; further, all sound has been displaced by the film’s 26-frame cutting technique (the distance between the gate of a projector and the bulb that reads optical sound). [...] ...Broken Tongue (which showed at Crossroads in 2014) and Answer Print (screening this year) have been deservedly acclaimed and stand as two of the strongest found-footage films of the past decade...".
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SEMANA DOS REALIZADORES, November 17th, 2017—
Anachronies, by Victor Guimarães.
Those who are truly contemporary,
who truly belong to their time, are those who
neither perfectly coincide with it
nor adjust themselves to its demands. They are
thus in this sense irrelevant;
but precisely because of this condition, precisely
through this disconnection and this anachronism,
they are more capable than others
of perceiving and grasping their own time.
– Giorgio Agamben.
"...In Savirón’s extremely meticulous work, the archive image is both a statement and a plastic, sonorous, vital material. If Broken Tongue impresses with its incomparable condensation power – over a century of history in the feverish rhythm of a great three-minute movie –, Answer Print is a renewed look on the material virtues of cinema: file imperfections become vectors with its own visual poetics; the roughness of abrupt cuts makes an unexpected rhythm; the wild noises of projection become music...".
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SYNOPSIS
Film for Janel Leppin's Wedding Song, from the album "Songs for Voice and Mellotron" (2016), Wedderburn Records.
There's a road outside
That we've traveled
A thousand times
We wander and we think
So many ways to get to The Brink
There's a road outside
Lost our hope
A thousand times
But you take my hand
From sea to sea
You'll walk away with me
We'll walk this road
A thousand more times
We'll walk until we're old and blind
And the pearls that you dove for
Are still on my neck
The shackles are all broken
And the wedding night's set
And we'll find our way
Through the fog and hard times
We'll write and we'll write
Because life is our song!
And we are free
Discontinued Eastman Plus-X Negative 16mm film, hand processed without chemical developers.
With thanks to Mono No Aware, Steve Cossman, Chris Knudsen & Brandon Rowe.
"Songs for Voice and Mellotron": Originally titled "Music of the One Armed Woman", Janel Leppin wrote this material when she damaged the ulnar nerve in her right elbow and was unable to play the cello for her solo shows at Pyramid Atlantic and Union Arts in Washington D.C. in 2015.
SPECIFICATIONS & CREDIT LIST
-Original title: Wedding Song
-Country of production: USA
-Date of completion: April 2nd, 2016
-Release date: September 2016
-Running time: 2 minutes
-Screening Format: 16mm on HD video
-Aspect Ratio: 3:4
-Language: English
-Color, or Black & White: Color
-Music and Lyrics: Janel Leppin
-Film: Mónica Savirón
FORMATS FOR EXHIBITION
- MOV file
SCREENINGS
- 37th Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, MSPIFF. Minnesota. April 12-28, 2018. Frame Forward. Screening April 21.
- Microscope Gallery. New York. Curated by Elle Burchill and Andrea Monti. November 13, 2017.
- CROSSROADS San Francisco Cinematheque. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. May 19-21, 2017. Screening May 21.
PRESS
UZAK, August 18th, 2017—
A Road Outside: Crossroads 2017, by Stephen Broomer.
"...A powerful work made to accompany Janel Leppin’s titular song. [Wedding Song] transcends the term ‘music video’ and its implications, allowing the lilt of the song to lead a consistent metric revelation of still images—of aged, amateur photography that assumes a glorious power in its translation to the moving image, in the rough marks of the film’s hand-processing and the slight fades that begin and end many of the images...".
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SYNOPSIS
Broken Tongue is an ode to the freedom of movement, association, and expression. It pays homage to the diaspora of the different waves of migration, and challenges the way we represent our narratives. It is a search for a renewed consciousness, for reinvention, a “what if”, the formal equivalent of asking a question expressed with a broken tongue – or not so broken after all.
Mainly made with images from the January 1st issues of The New York Times since its beginning in 1851 to 2013, Broken Tongue is a heartfelt tribute to avant-garde sound performer Tracie Morris and to her poem Afrika.
SPECIFICATIONS & CREDIT LIST
-Original title: Broken Tongue
-Country of production: USA
-Date of completion: December 15, 2013
-Release date: March 29, 2014
-Running time: 3 minutes
-Format: 16mm on HD video / 16mm print
-Aspect Ratio: 16:9 full frame
-Film Laboratory: Colorlab
-Language: English
-Color, or Black & White: Color and Black & White
-Sound Performer: Tracie Morris
-Editor, Cinematographer, Director & Producer: Mónica Savirón
-In collaboration with: Bill Brand, Steve Cossman, Al Filreis, Crista Grauer, Sean Hanley, Chang Hun Kim, Jake Kreeger, Laura Major, Ryan Marino, Steve McLaughlin, Luis Ortiz Guillén, Alison Sky, Phil Solomon, and Josh Solondz.
LINK TO TRAILER
LINK TO POSTCARD
FORMATS FOR EXHIBITION (ORIGINAL VERSION)
- 16mm print
- DCP (non-encrypted SMPTE--standard DCI-compliant DCP on an EXT3 formatted USB drive; 2K; DCI 1:1.78 for playback)
- HDCAM tape (1080/23.98 PsF)
- ProRes HQ file
FORMATS FOR EXHIBITION (SPANISH SUBTITLES VERSION)
- ProRes HQ file
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
- EEEEH! La Grenette. Nyon, Switzerland. September 9, 2020.
- Winter Poetry Festival. Portland, Oregon. January 11, 2020.
- Natural History Museum, Naturmuseum Winterthur. Switzerland. Exhibition opens September 28, 2019.
- Festival Curtas Belo Horizonte. Minas Gerais, Brazil. August 30 - September 8, 2019. Screening Opening Night, August 30 & September 3.
- Cadence, Video Poetry Festival. Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, Washington. April 4-25, 2019. Screening Opening Night, April 4.
- Revolutions Per Minute Festival. Boston, Massachusetts. Screening February 2, 2019.
- Cine Esquema Novo, Arte Audiovisual Brasileira. Porto Alegre, Brazil. Existir / Resistir. Screening November 27, 2018.
- Engauge Experimental Film Festival. Northwest Film Forum, Seattle, Washington. November 8 - 10, 2018. Screening November 9.
- Rubenstein Arts Center. Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. September 4 - October 2, 2018. The Visible Spectrum. Monuments for the Future. Curated by Chi-hui Yang and Jon-Sesrie Goff. Screening September 18.
- Anìmator Film Festival. Poznań, Poland. July 6 - 12, 2018. Speaking in Frames. Screening July 9.
- Vartex. Medellín, Colombia. May 8 - 12, 2018. Screening May 12.
- Courtisane Festival. Gent, Belgium. March 28 - April 1, 2018. Screening March 31.
- Moviate Underground Film Festival. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Screening March 25, 2018.
- Light Field. San Francisco, California. December 7-10, 2017. Screening December 7.
- Edge of Frame. Close-Up Film Centre, London. December 2-3, 2017. You, Me, Them. Screening December 2.
- Semana dos Realizadores. Río de Janeiro, Brazil. November 16-22, 2017. Anacronías. Screening November 20.
- Microscope Gallery. New York. Curated by Elle Burchill and Andrea Monti. Screening November 13, 2017.
- UNESCO, World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. Mexico City. Screening October 27, 2017.
- Center for Film and Media Studies, University of Cincinnati. Mini Microcinema. Migrant Journeys: Films from the Middle East, Mexico and Beyond. Screening October 3, 2017.
- MUTA, Muestra Internacional de Apropiación Audiovisual. Lima, Perú. July 7-15, 2017. Screening July 15.
- Filmadrid. Madrid, Spain. June 8-17, 2017. Vanguardias Competition. Screening June 14.
- Moviate Underground Film Festival. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. May 26-28, 2017.
- Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, MUFF. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Microlights Cinema. April 20-23, 2017. Screening April 22.
- Limited Access 7. Iran. Tehran. April 7-12, 2017. Screenings April 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11.
- 17th Belfast Film Festival. Ireland. March 30 - April 8, 2017. Screening April 5.
- Society for Cinema & Media Studies, SCMS. Chicago. Migrations and Mediations: The Politics of Movement. Screening March 23, 2017.
- 55th Ann Arbor Film Festival. March 21-26, 2017. 100 YEAЯS OF DADA. Curated by Aline Juchler & John Canciani. Screening March 23.
- Kino Tuškanac. Zagreb, Croatia. Avant-Noir. Curated by Greg de Cuir, Jr. Screening March 7, 2017.
- 35rd Uppsala International Short Film Festival. Sweden. October 24-30, 2016. Screenings October 27 & 28.
- 23rd Festival Internacional de Cine de Valdivia, FICValdivia. Chile. October 10-16, 2016. Nuevos Caminos. Screenings October 13 & 15.
- Whitstable Biennale, Kent, UK. Analogue Ensemble: Live Film and Performance. Curated by Cathy Rogers & Joseph Dance. Screening June 9, 2016.
- Vancouver Art Gallery, VAG. The Cinemateque, British Columbia, Canada. MashUp: The Birth of Modern Culture. Shadow Boxing: The Legacy of Joseph Cornell in American Avant-Garde Cinema. Curated by Kim Knowles & Angela Piccini. Screenings May 25 & 26, 2016.
- Institute of Contemporary Arts, ICA. London, UK. Dada in Dialogue with the Present. Curated by Aline Juchler & John Canciani. Screening May 20, 2016.
- Kinoflow Kísérleti Film Fesztivál. Örökmozgó Filmmúzeum, Budapest, Hungary. Curated by Péter Lichter. Screening April 22, 2016.
- Strangloscope, Mostra Internacional de Áudio, Vídeo/Filme & Performance Experimental. Santa Catarina, Brazil. Curated by Cláudia Cárdenas & Rafael Schlichting. Screenings April 15 & 17, 2016.
- GAZE, Artists' Television Access. San Francisco. Here, Then, There. Screening April 8, 2016.
- Cabaret Voltaire. Zürich, Switzerland. Do You Get It?!. Curated by Aline Juchler & John Canciani. Screening March 6, 2016.
- On Film. University of Rochester, New York. Voicing. Screening February 18, 2016.
- 19th Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur. Switzerland. November 3-8, 2015. 99 YE∀ЯS OF DADA: In Dialogue with the Present. Curated by Aline Juchler & John Canciani. Screening November 8.
- 6th Cinemigrante Festival. Buenos Aires, Argentina. September 16-23, 2015. Screenings September 17 & 20. Jury Special Mention.
- AADK. Murcia, Spain. Centro Negra. Film Without Screen. Curated by Silvia Rey. Screening July 26, 2015.
- Screen Loud Film Festival. Anthology Film Archives, New York. Screening April 30, 2015.
- Experiments in Cinema v10.T36. Alburquerque, New Mexico. April 15-19, 2015.
- 33rd International Festival of Films on Art, FIFA. MEDIA ARTS. Montreal, Canada. March 19-29, 2015. Screenings March 21, 22 & 28.
- Las Palmas International Film Festival. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. March 14-21, 2015. Screenings March 18 & 20.
- Cinema Project. 38th Portland International Film Festival. Portland, Oregon. February 5-21, 2015. Screening February 17.
- Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival. January 18-25, 2015. Screening January 18. Opening Night.
- 28 Stuttgarter Filmwinter. Stuttgart, Germany. January 15-18, 2015. Screening January 16.
- Los Angeles Filmforum. Los Angeles, California. Screening January 11, 2015.
- Cine Tonalá. Mexico City, Mexico. Screening January 10, 2015.
- National Gallery of Art. Washington DC. Screening January 3, 2015.
- Euro-in Film. Novi Sad, Serbia. Curated by Jeanne C. Finley. Screening December 18, 2014.
- Cineclub “La Furia Umana”. Cinéma Saint-André des Arts, Paris. Curated by Toni D’Angela, Enrico Camporesi, and Raquel Schefer. Screening December 14, 2014.
- Filmmaker Festival Internazionale di Cinema. Milan, Italy. November 28 – December 8, 2014. Screening December 3.
- FIVA Festival Internacional de Videoarte. Buenos Aires, Argentina. December 1-3, 2014. Screening December 2.
- 29th Mar del Plata International Film Festival. Mar del Plata, Argentina. November 22–30, 2014. Screenings November 25 & 26.
- L’Alternativa – 21st Barcelona Independent Film Festival. Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona, Spain. November 17-23, 2014. Screenings November 21 & 22.
- 31st Kassel Documentary Film & Video Festival. Kassel, Germany. November 11-16, 2014. Screening November 15.
- INVIDEO, International Exhibition of Video Art and Cinema Beyond. Milan, Italy. October 29 – November 9, 2014. Screening October 31.
- 17th Antimatter [Media Art]. Victoria, British Columbia. October 17 - November 1, 2014. Screening October 19. Canadian Premiere.
- New England Festival of Ibero-American Cinema. Yale University. New Haven, Connecticut. October 21-26, 2014. Screening October 24.
- 52nd New York Film Festival PROJECTIONS. October 3-5, 2014. Curated by Dennis Lim and Aily Nash. Screening October 5. New York Premiere.
- 24th International Film Festival MESSAGE TO MAN. Saint-Petersburg, Russia. September 20-27, 2014. Screenings September 22 & 25. Russian Premiere.
- ARKIPEL, Documentary and Experimental Film Festival. Jakarta, Indonesia. September 11-18, 2014. Screenings September 12 & 17.
- I FRONTEIRA International Documentary & Experimental Film Festival. Goiânia, Brazil. August 30 – September 7, 2014. Screening September 6. First Prize Best Film/Short.
- 11th EXiS, Experimental Film and Video Festival. Seoul, Korea. August 28 - September 4, 2014. Screenings August 31 and September 3.
- Artists' Film and Moving Image Biennial, Institute of Contemporary Art, ICA London. Avant-Noir. Curated by Greg de Cuir, Jr. Screening July 6, 2014.
- 18th FIDOCS, International Film Festival. Santiago, Chile. June 23-29, 2014. Screenings June 25 & 27. Latin American Premiere. Jury Special Mention.
- Edinburgh International Film Festival. Edinburgh, Scotland. June 18-29, 2014. Screenings June 25 & 29. UK Premiere.
- 60th Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen. Oberhausen, Germany. May 1-6, 2014. Screening May 2. International Premiere.
- IC DOCS, Iowa City International Film Festival. Iowa City, Iowa. April 17-19, 2014. Screening April 19. Jury Honorable Mention.
- Spectra Film Series. Kansas City, Missouri. Action : Aesthetics : Politics. Curated by Caitlin Horsmon. Screening April 17, 2014.
- Sarasota International Film Festival. Sarasota, Florida. April 4–13, 2014. Screening April 5.
- Crossroads, San Francisco Cinematheque. San Francisco, California. April 3-6, 2014. Screening April 6. Bay Area Premiere.
- 52nd Ann Arbor Film Festival. Ann Arbor, Michigan. March 25-30, 2014. Screening March 29. World Premiere.
PRESS
Reverse Shot, Museum of the Moving Image, November 29th, 2016—
New Pathways in Latin America, by Ela Bittencourt.
"...The result is a thrilling melodic and visual collaboration between filmmaker and performer that stretches the notion of cinema by emphasizing the auditory, performative aspect and then providing images that cannot be fully 'seen.' The hypnosis created by the combination of sound and image serves as a reminder that as both viewers and historical subjects we unconsciously succumb to outside forces. The relentless 'makeover' that Morris’s voice performs on the main sentence is also an embodiment of how certain voices prevail, while others are silenced".
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La Furia Umana, May 15th, 2015—
Incision to Incite: Notes on Broken Tongue and the Radical Implications of Collage, by Sophia Satchell-Baeza.
"...Through the circular black frame, these images peep out like grainy discoveries under the lens of a microscope; with the exception of the leader, they are the only notes of colour in an otherwise monochromatic work. These butterflies are also curiously reminiscent of a stained glass window. Perhaps this is no coincidence: Savirón has compared the editing process to the reflection brought on «by light on broken glass». The circular frame directs our gaze, concentrating our visual field onto the centre of the screen. But this frame is also fragile, with an almost imperceptible flicker that gives evidence to its hand-made processes...".
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Reverse Shot, Museum of the Movig Image, November 14th, 2014—
Persistence of Vision, by Genevieve Yue.
"The film features Tracie Morris’s poem “Afrika,” whose single line Morris repeats, in whole or in fragments. Her voice rises and dips throughout the short duration of this potent film...".
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The Moviegoer, October 4th, 2014—
The Visions Persist, by Aaron Cutler.
"...On a visual level, Tracie Morris’ outstanding performance makes me think of René Magritte’s fragmentations of meaning; Laurie Anderson’s explorations around visual language; the rapid-fire montage of Robert Beer’s film Recreation; the poetry of Takahiko Iimura’s abstract avant-garde film, White Calligraphy; the political awareness of Aldo Tambellini’s films Black Series; and the power of music to reunite opposing voices of Ernst Lubitsch's Broken Lullaby".
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Film Society of Lincoln Center, October 2nd, 2014—
NYFF Projections: Broken Tongue Director Mónica Savirón on Movement and Expression, by Brian Brooks and Alexander Hunter.
"...The sound in Tracie’s performance enacts the thing itself: it is the “how” that matters. The images follow the sound’s pitch, duration, and intensity".
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Fandor, October 2nd, 2014—
NYFF's Projections: The Visions Persist, by Aaron Cutler.
"...The images follow the sound, emulating or breaking its rhythm. In her delivery of her poem ‘Afrika,’ Morris turns the human voice towards reinforcement and critical thinking at once by breaking down language in order to push words to their limits".
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Desistfilm, September 4th, 2014—
Fronteira: Broken Tongue by Mónica Savirón.
"...The effect of the visualization works on the subconscious mind and the preconceived notions of a motionless world, to heavily re-signify what our mere identity is, or what we believed it to be... Frame by frame, Broken Tongue is very much a modern masterpiece of a film, a plethora of images and words deeply inserted into the avant-garde and a work that commands to be seen over and over again".
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Incinerrante, August 17th, 2014—
Notes: Broken Tongue, by Marcelo Ribeiro.
"Cinema, poetry, performance and contemporary art become interwoven... In the discontinuity of its montage, Broken Tongue finds the movement which animates its images. The stillness of the newspaper pages becomes inhabited by the polyphony of Morris’s voice, which is turned into an echo. The voice’s rhythm alternately corresponds to and diverges from the montage, giving the poem’s sentence an uneven cardiac beat".
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Festivalists, May 10th, 2014—
Kurze Filme langer Sinn, by Greg de Cuir, Jr.
"...I think it was Samuel Beckett who said that language does not reach its expressive potential until it is broken".
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SYNOPSIS
To Begin With is a poetic reflection on a contemplative moment of both fear and excitement, when the time comes to move on. A moment of both new and old memories. A moment of decision – what to keep and what to leave behind, what is lost and what is gained, and what is always there to begin with.
This video could be read as a single sentence, with the cadence of three stanzas of free verses, and an open ending.
Samuel Beckett: “Who is not spared by the mad need to speak, to think, to know where one is, where one was, during the wild dream, up above, under the skies, venturing forth at night… Ah if I could only find a voice of my own, in all this babble”.
SPECIFICATIONS & CREDIT LIST
-Original title: To Begin With
-Country of production: USA
-Year of completion: 2012
-Running time: 8 minutes
-Screening Format: DV on HD video
-Aspect Ratio: 3:4
-Language: English
-Color, or Black & White: Color
-Post Production: Chang Hun Kim
-Editor, Cinematographer, Director & Producer: Mónica Savirón
SCREENINGS
- Microscope Gallery. New York. November 13, 2017.
- Experiments in Cinema Festival. Albuquerque, New Mexico. March 18th, 2013.
- IC DOCS Festival, Iowa City. April 12, 2013.
- Anthology Film Archives, New York. July 31, 2013.
FORMATS FOR EXHIBITION
- MOV file
