SPIDER & FLY
Dir. Emily Esperanza, 2014.
USA. 47 min.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 14 – 10:00 PM
MONDAY, AUGUST 29 – 7:30 PM
Director in attendance for Q&A on August 14!!!!!
Blending existentialist ideals and lo-fi aesthetics with offbeat pacing, gritty in-camera sound, theatrical performances, and stark poetic romanticism, Emily Esperanza’s lo-fi debut featurette-length film, SPIDER & FLY, is an unpolished portrait of an impassioned outsider’s journey through an urban wasteland of archetype, transcendence, nostalgia, and truth. Featuring a feverish and haunting soundtrack from influential outsider musician, Jandek, and Santa Fe-based duo, Evarusnik, SPIDER & FLY is self-aware, self-indulgent, and patient, offering an unabashed look inside the most vulnerable parts of a person.
Called “an original voice in a sea of mundane posers,” by Jon Mortisugu collaborator Amy Davis, Emily Esperanza is a Chicago-based filmmaker exploring stillness, duration, atmosphere, and archetype, specifically relating to representations of femininity. Presented in a series of tableaus and two-channel videos, her works feature highly stylized sets and iconic locations, use of isolated and displaced sound, static and often very wide shots, and characters that exist simultaneously within and outside of time.
In addition to SPIDER & FLY, this program features:
Severance (5 min. 2016) A video ritual about cutting ties and reclaiming personal agency, set in the desert of Southern California.
GLORY/INFERNO (23 min. 2015) A murder mystery, in two parts.
day/night (12 min. 2015) Existing somewhere between dream state and the uncanny, day/night observes stillness, atmosphere, duration, anxiety, sensuality, and the confines of femininity.
Esperanza is currently working on her first feature titled, El Culto De La Muerte, shot in Oaxaca and Chicago. She is also the founder and curator of Chicago’s WRETCHED NOBLES, an immersive monthly film/video series & shorts program.