Nation and Its Fragments: Experimental Films from India

From 2008 to 2016, Bangkok-based filmmaker Sompot Chidgasornpongse, best known by his nickname “Boat,” rode every line of the Thai railway, capturing countless hours of footage of his encounters through the lens of his digital camera. Produced by his long-time friend and colleague Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Boat’s remarkable documentary Railway Sleepers depicts an unparalleled journey comprising elements that resemble the “real world” we live in—with its families, friends, food, chitchats, and hustles—but only exists amid the temporariness of the railroad; a fantastical world with a sense of nostalgia. Shot in a first-person point of view, the film starts as the train slowly leaves the station, establishing the inevitable reality of departure, of saying good-bye, that one faces before embarking on a journey to a new world. From school kids on a field trip to friends and young lovers, from foreigners in the nicer part of the train to the cramped section in the back, Boat’s inquisitive mind gently wonders and sparkles in the lights penetrating through the windows, the camera lens, and the dawn that breaks through the quiet darkness of the night. Railway Sleepers is an immersive field of fantasy where strangers relate, time stands still, and a sense of nostalgia subtly lingers.

Programmed and note by Hyesung ii.

 This series, guest programmed by Madison Brookshire, explores a poetic vision of the world through the sensuous work of Vincent Grenier. Brookshire writes:

Artist, programmer, and professor Vincent Grenier was a mentor and friend to many, including myself. He was beloved by both students and peers, and, for those of us lucky enough to experience them, his sensuous experimental films and videos have had a deep and lasting impact. 

Over his fifty-year career, Grenier created a body of work unlike any other in contemporary experimental cinema. Utilizing many approaches, his 16mm films and videos move fluidly between modes of abstraction and documentary, sound and silence, spectral superimposition and stark clarity. He often uses the frame in a painterly way. Whether deftly layering images, as in Time’s Wake (1978) and Watercolor (Fall Creek) (2013), or creating documentary portraits such as Out in the Garden (1991), his use of space and emphasis on the everyday recall both Mondrian and Muqi. 

While many of his best-known works are silent, his use of sound is sensitive and complex as well, deepening and extending the visual field to reveal the world around the frame. There is a delicacy to his work, as well as an openness that is profound. In the end, I believe it presents us with a poetic vision of the world, at once formal and deeply felt, whose beauty is not superfluous, but vital.

Programmed and note by Madison Brookshire.

All films directed by Vincent Grenier.