According to the press release, this collection of short films “reflects the inner and outer landscapes of battle, the social and emotional architectures of war.” Included in the program are Carola Dertnig’s “A Room With a View in the Financial District” (2003, Austria/U.S., 5 min.), made in 2001 when the filmmaker was an artist in residence at the World Trade Center; Julie Speechley’s “Fields” (2003, UK, 18 min.), which looks at what nature has done to a series of World War I battlefields; an excerpt from Paul Hanley’s “Viva la Guerra” (2003, Texas, 5 min.), an animated film about war; David Barker’s “Seven Days” (2003, Texas, 10 min.), in which Richard Nixon’s presidency is seen through the eyes of his dog King Timahoe; Victoria Gamburg’s “Right Road Lost” (2001, California, 11 min.), which provides a portrait of a veteran of both the Vietnam and Persian Gulf War; and Susan Youssef’s “Forbidden to Wander” (2004, Texas/Palestiine, 35 min.), a chronicle of a 25-year-old Arab-American Christian woman’s travels in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
This article appears in March 19 • 2004.