A FLOWER FALLING BACK INTO THE EARTH

Revisiting footage originally captured for a feature documentary—specifically, an interview with a Tamil mother whose son vanished in the Sri Lankan war’s final stages–a filmmaker wrestles with the divide between them, what can be shown versus what remains unreachable, and cinema’s ability to bear witness while tangled within ethnographic and colonial perspectives. The text read in the film was sourced from Robert Gardner’s memoir, The Impulse to Preserve.

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SHORTS: SURPRISE WITNESS

Can I get a witness? A ride-or-die? Some proof of life? Ride shotgun with six films that explore the act of witnessing as testimony, recognition, and impossible act.