National Archives Microfilm Publication M999 Roll 34: Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands: Six Miles from Springfield on the Franklin Road Trailer (2009)
This film by Kara Walker takes its title and narrative from documents in the Freedman Bureau’s archive and uses her trademark cut-paper silhouettes to animate the disturbing story of an African American family. Controlled by the sticks and strings of their human operators, including the artist herself, the figures moving within a shadow puppet-like theater space remind us of the manipulation of historical oppression and the powerlessness of the oppressed while also emphasizing the theatricality of the film itself. Themes of race, gender, sexuality, and violence intersect and unfold on Kara Walker’s multi-colored stage.
It's Boxing Day and already Karen is making New Year resolutions - chiefly for others - and the family have been burgled,though selectively,causing Sue to cheat on the insurance claim.
Nikki Blue is a dancer at a strip club hidden along a back road in rural New England. Further down the road, Alice, a burnt-out, neurotic college grad with no particular ambitions, spends her days working at a roadside fossil and rock shop.
Set in and around the male and female toilets of a Dublin jazz bar. A drama concerning the trials and tribulations of two lowly paid toilet attendants and the people they serve.
An aspiring tennis player is taken under the wing of an established player as his family life falls apart.
Comments
Have you watched National Archives Microfilm Publication M999 Roll 34: Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands: Six Miles from Springfield on the Franklin Road yet? What did you think about it?
