On Thursday nights this summer, venture to The Jule for experimental and creative films, free of charge and open to everyone. Each selection is programmed with “Radical Naturalism.” Award-winning filmmakers explore new relationships with nature, image-making techniques, interview subjects and cultural investigations.
What is “Radical Naturalism?”
Guest curators and contemporary artists inspired by nature consider the environment and conservation by creating new work and researching Auburn’s collection of Audubon etchings and other natural history collections.
Free Admission | Open Auditorium Seating | Donations Welcome and Appreciated
Radical Naturalism – Tommy Coleman “A New Nature & my problem with the vessel” is on view at The Jule through July 26, 2022.
Two Years at Sea (2011)
Directed by Ben Rivers
With special musical guests Lefty Bey and Sleepy Sword
Treading a line between documentary and fiction, artist Ben Rivers documents the lives of those who elect to live outside cultural norms, sharing stories from the edge. His award-winning feature debut follows Jake, a man who lives in the middle of the forest. Jake is seen in all seasons, surviving frugally, passing the time with strange projects and living the radical dream he had as a younger man.
Plantarians (2017-2020)
Featuring a conversation with Ellie Kyungran Heo
Korean artist Ellie Kyungran Heo’s work considers the ethics of coexistence, attending to the underlying environmental conflicts in everyday lives. Her series Plantarians (2017-2020) is a rumination on entangled relationships between humans and plants in urban spaces. Divided into episodes, each follows individuals who cultivate, eat and accompany plants in celebration and grief.
El Mar La Mar (2017)
Directed by Joshua Bonnetta and J.P. Sniadecki
An enthralling journey through the Sonoran Desert on the U.S.-Mexico border, El Mar La Mar is an experience unlike anything you’ve seen, heard or felt before. The filmmakers weave together sublime 16mm shots of nature and weather phenomena, animals, people and tracks left behind with a polyphonic soundtrack, creating a cinematographic exploration of the desert habitat—a multi-faceted panorama of a highly politicized stretch of land.
Medium Earth (2013) and INFINITY minus infinity (2019)
Directed by the Otolith Group
Founded by Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun in 2002, the Otolith Group produces films that explore “temporal anomalies, anthropic inversions, and synthetic alienation of the posthuman, the inhuman, the non-human, and the complexity of the environmental conditions of life we all face.” Medium Earth is an audiovisual essay on the millennial time of geology and the infrastructural unconscious of Southern California. INFINITY minus Infinity confronts the compounded timelines of the afterlife of slavery enacted by British colonialism with “the forces and the fictions of 21st Century black feminist digital cosmology.”
Rock Bottom Riser (2021)
Directed by Fern Silva
Artist and filmmaker Fern Silva’s debut feature film examines myriad encounters with an island world at sea. Drawing from subjects as seemingly disparate as the arrival of Christian missionaries and the controversial casting of Dwayne Johnson as King Kamehameha, the film weaves a vital tapestry of post-colonialism and pop culture with cinematic brio and wry wit. Rock Bottom Riser is an essential document and an exhilarating tour-de-force, a palimpsest that traverses geology, ethnography and astronomy.
Special Musical Guests on June 2
Lefty Bey
Musical collaborator with artist Tommy Coleman
Austin ‘Lefty’ Bey is a multi-instrumentalist & singer from Baltimore, Maryland. While growing up in West Baltimore, Hip-Hop culture, along with his family influenced Bey to express himself musically. From a relatively early age, Bey spent his time learning to curate sound, producing for acts in Baltimore. Mainly his uncle, Rickie Jacobs; then for himself.
Sleepy Sword
Photo by Michael Crowe
Produced Exclusively for The Jule
Cinephiles, deck your walls with the film series poster by artist Jason Sturgill. This limited edition screenprint measures 18×24 and is only available in The Museum Store. Your purchases support programs like the Independent Film Series.
