Film screening: Lordville

Rea Tajiri
Lordville (2014)

Date: Feb. 17, 2022
Time: 7 pm CST
Location: Neatby-Timlin Theatre (Arts 241)
Cost: Free and open to the public

As part of the exhibition material + time, currently on view at the University of Saskatchewan Kenderdine Art Gallery, three films that expand on themes of temporality, materiality and built form will be presented. Each work investigates complex and layered accounts of historical moments and worldviews, often bringing societal ambitions for progress into question, as suggested in a narrative sequence from Daniel Eisenberg’s Persistence: “things have become better than they were a year ago, though not much. Or, has one simply grown used to the rubble?”

All screenings are free of charge to the public. Guests must comply with University of Saskatchewan COVID-19 protocols.

Directions to the University of Saskatchewan Neatby-Timlin Theatre can be found here.

LORDVILLE (2014)
RUNTIME: 67 MINUTES

Considering ghosts, the act of walking, and demarcations of ownership, Lordville asks “What does it mean to own the land?” Environmental scientist Tom Wessels reads timelines through physical landscape; Native American genealogist Sheila Spencer Stover gives an account of her relative, Betia Van Dunk, a Minisink woman who married a founder of Lordville but was unable to inherit their property. Lordville examines a once-prosperous town defined by its remote geography and problematic exchanges between Native American and settler communities. The film approaches a historiography based on the reading of environment and its interconnectedness to culture.

Rea Tajiri is a Philadelphia-based filmmaker and educator who has written and directed an eclectic body of dramatic, experimental and documentary films currently in commercial and educational distribution. Tajiri was born in Chicago, Illinois, where her parents resettled after her father served in the 442nd regiment during the Second World War. She earned her BFA and MFA degrees from the California Institute of the Arts, where she studied studio art. Upon graduation, Tajiri began working in video art, having two early works included in the Whitney Biennials of 1989 and 1991. One of her early works, History and Memory, went on to receive the Distinguished Achievement Award from the International Documentary Association and a Special Jury Award from the San Francisco International Film Festival. Tajiri teaches as an associate professor at Temple University in the Film Media Arts Department.

(Description and biography courtesy of Rea Tajiri)

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