Thursday, January 14, 2010

IF YOURE IN LA THIS SHOULD BE FUN!

 The Cinefamily at The Silent Movie Theatre


1/21 @ 8:00pm
The Films of Shana Moulton

"Sick with pastel plastics and cluttered with Enya-era New Agey home décor, Moulton's off-kilter chroma-keyed studio performances succeed at being both soul-cringingly creepy and living-room-rave exuberant, channeling the spirit of 1987 in ways even Shirley MacLaine could never have predicted." - Ed Halter, Village Voice

Rising art star Shana Moulton comes to the Cinefamily for an evening of her uninhibited, life-affirming and psychoactive video works, including the highly confessional Whispering Pines series. As her alter ego "Cynthia", Moulton plays a sad, mute young woman whose ongoing attempts at blissful enlightenment through a variety of New Age tokens and techniques (reflexology, sound medicine, self-help tomes and plug-in waterfalls) is matched by the heavy, neon-colored saturation of her banal domestic surroundings (exercise videos, reclining chairs, Bioré nose strips and Crystal Light drink.) Throughout the series, the viewer never knows whether or not Cynthia achieves salvation, but for her, the journey itself is the prize, rather than the outcome. Using charming lo-fi video effects, Moulton has found true, arresting psychedelia buried in the Bodhi Tree aesthetic, creating images that linger with you beyond casual viewing. But she also goes light-years beyond a mere ironic, detached view of the "New Age type," portraying Cynthia as a genuinely desperate yet optimistic heroine, resulting in profound works that warm the spirit more than a hundred healing dream-catching dolphins from outer space. Shana will be here live on the Cinefamily stage to perform next to, in front of and within her videos during the screening!

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