March 3, 2011: Film Screening and Discussion: Aventuras familiares and post-discussion

March 3, 2011: Screening: US Premiere of Aventuras familiares with post-screening discussion with Carmen Oquendo-Villar and Marcial Godoy-Anativia, as well as directors Lissette Olivares and Cheto Castellano

About the film

In the near future, at the threshold of a political transition that seeks to transform the state of Chile into a private entity, a non-traditional family begins their adventure. Triggered by the discovery of a family secret, mother Trans (Carola Jérez), father Payaso (Samuel Ibarra) and porn-star wannabe daughter Jot (Aida Vera) begin a life-changing journey that takes them from the countryside to the apocalyptic urban center of Santiago, where they must battle against cyborgs controlled by the evil multinational Horsehead Corporation.  As the family joins an anarchist battle led by Segundo Malatesta (Antonio Becerro) and Rata (Domingo Santamaría) they must struggle to keep their family united while fighting for a better future.

Please also join us with a post-screening discussion with Carmen Oquendo-Villar and Marcial Godoy-Anativia, as well as directors Lissette Olivares and Cheto Castellano

Directed by: Cheto Castellano, Daniel Benavides & Lissette Olivares
Cast: Carola Jérez, Samuel Ibarra, Aida Vera, Domingo Santamaría, Antonio Becerro, et al.
Made in Chile
http://www.aventurasfamiliares.com

• 6pm
• Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics
• 20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor
• New York, NY 10003
• (free, photo ID required)

 Concept

Aventuras Familiares is an experimental video and trans media[1] project that seeks to define and develop new audiovisual languages and possibilities.  As an experiment in genre collage Aventuras Familiares merges science fiction, drama, and suspense, while citing and incorporating mass media communication aesthetics including the parody of Latin American telenovelas, reality tv, as well as exploring marginalized mass media forms. Conceived as a hybrid and interdisciplinary entity, each element in its production (story, photography, editing, genre, casting, special effects, etc.) attempts to exceed the structure of traditional film narratives. Furthermore, as a collective and anarchist endeavor, Aventuras Familiares sought to enforce an anti-hierarchical production structure and its creative concept was developed by three directors (Cheto Castellano, Daniel Benavides, and Lissette Olivares).  An important element in this project is that none of the cast members identify as actors -- instead, the characters are played by Chilean underground contemporary performance artists and by street performers. Similarly, much of the original “script” was drastically transformed during production since part of our objective was to blur the boundaries between performance and film.  All of these interdisciplinary attributes interrupt the reproduction of the real and problematize frontiers between performance and film, visual culture and visual anthropology, documentary and fiction, fantasy and science fiction, creating what we believe is a unique experiment in trans-media.

[1]Trans-media, coined by revolutionary performance artist Sandy Stone, is a term that resists the commercial appropriation of “new media” – its etymological root, “trans” is used to emphasize movement that exceeds a stable category or definition, while also embodying the politics of dangerous border violations, and that in this case, hopes to violently transport viewers to another state or place, far beyond traditional spectatorial conventions.

 

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[1] Trans-media, coined by revolutionary performance artist Sandy Stone, is a term that resists the commercial appropriation of “new media” – its etymological root, “trans” is used to emphasize movement that exceeds a stable category or definition, and that in this case, hopes to violently transport viewers to another state or place, far beyond traditional spectatorial conventions.