The Queer Cinema and the Movies of Gus Van Sant Film Club

Flores portrays a natural crisis scenario, the entire population of Azores is forced to evict due to an uncontrolled plague of hydrangeas, a common flower in these islands. Two young soldiers, bound to the beauty of the landscape, guide us through the stories of sadness of those forced to leave and the inherent desire to resist by inhabiting the islands. The filmic wandering becomes a nostalgic and political reflection on territorial belonging and identity, and the roles we assume in the places we came from.

This screening of two short films, Flores (Jorge Jácome, 2017) & Weed Killer (Patrick Staff, 2017) will be accompanied by a live reading by artist Patrick Staff.

Weed Killer is a work inspired by artist-writer Catherine Lord’s memoir The Summer of Her Baldness (2004)—a moving and often irreverent account of the author’s experience of cancer. At the heart of Weed Killer (2017) is a monologue in which an actress reflects upon the chemically induced devastation of chemotherapy. This monologue is intertwined with comparatively otherworldly sequences, including choreographic gestures shot with high-definition thermal imaging. Presented as an immersive installation, Weed Killer suggests a complex relationship to one’s own suffering and draws into focus the fine line between alternately poisonous and curative substances.Flores portrays a natural crisis scenario, the entire population of Azores is forced to evict due to an uncontrolled plague of hydrangeas, a common flower in these islands. Two young soldiers, bound to the beauty of the landscape, guide us through the stories of sadness of those forced to leave and the inherent desire to resist by inhabiting the islands. The filmic wandering becomes a nostalgic and political reflection on territorial belonging and identity, and the roles we assume in the places we came from.

The Queer Cinema and the Movies of Gus Van Sant Film Club is a nomadic project and porous collective founded by Round dedicated to queer filmmaking.

This is the second of three screening events and was programmed with Lucia Pietroiusti and Kostas Stasinopoulos.