THE BROAD @ ARRAY
Iranian born artist Shirin Neshat + New Orleans based filmmaker Garrett Bradley discuss common themes of movements and migration across time and land through screenings of their recent work.
SATURDAY
10.19
3:00PM
LAND OF DREAMS
Director: Shirin Neshat
Year: 2019
Country: USA
Language: English
Run Time: 20mins
Deeply rooted in personal experience, Land of Dreams is a rumination on cultural identity told through the viewpoint of a female photographer from Iran, traveling across the western U.S. Shown with America directed by Garrett Bradley.
About the Filmmaker:
Shirin Neshat’s photographs and videos address individual freedoms under attack from or repressed by social ideologies. Throughout most of Neshat’s career, she has been exiled from Iran, an outside observer of the increasing rigors of Islamic law’s effect on the country’s women and daily life. Her self-portrait series “Women of Allah” (1994) was created in response to Neshat’s shock at fining women still forcefully wearing the chador, the traditional Islamic veil, upon her return to Iran in 1990 after 12 years away. In the photographs, her face, feet, and hands (the only parts of the body allowed to be shown by Islamic law) are covered in Iranian poetry by Forough Farrokhzad and Tahereh Saffarzadeh. The breadth of Neshat’s work extends beyond identity politics. Other significant works by Neshat, “Rapture” (1999) and “Possessed” (2001) tap into the collective dreams, fantasies, and horrors confronting the Iranian people. The exhibition “Shirin Neshat: I Will Greet the Sun Again” will be on view at The Broad in Los Angeles from October 19, 2019 – February 16, 2020.
AMERICA
Director: Garrett Bradley
Year: 2019
Country: USA
Language: English
Run Time: 29min
A cinematic omnibus rooted in New Orleans, challenging the idea of black cinema as a “wave” or “movement in time,” proposing instead a continuous thread of achievement. Los Angeles Premiere. Shown with Land of Dreams directed by Shirin Neshat.
About the Filmmaker:
Garrett Bradley received her MFA from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and BA from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Her short films and feature-length projects have exhibited internationally at museums and festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, the TriBeCa Film Festival, the Film at Lincoln Center’s New Directors/New Films, and more. Bradley's 2017 short film Alone was honored with the Sundance Film Festivals Grand Jury Prize and was released by the New York Times OpDocs. That same year, Alone was included in the Academy Shortlist for short non-fiction filmmaking. Bradley is one of 75 artists included in the 2019 Whitney Biennial and will have her first solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston which opens December 14th, 2019. Bradley is also a 2019 receipt of the Prix de Rome. She co-founded Creative Council, an artist lead after-school program aimed at developing strong college portfolios and applications for students attending public high schools in New Orleans. Creative Council is supported by The New Orleans Video Access Center (NOVAC).
The Broad @ ARRAY is an ongoing screening series featuring classic and contemporary films curated by filmmaker Ava DuVernay to explore the intersection of art, history and cultural identity. With cinematic images as the centerpiece, this series engages audiences through robust post-screening conversations with a wide spectrum of artists and scholars. These immersive discussions offer an integrated exchange of ideas and insights beyond the screen that enliven many issues addressed by artists in the Broad collection.