NORTH BY CURRENT is a visual rumination on the understated relationships between mothers and children, truths and myths, losses and gains.
After the inconclusive death of his young niece, filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown, preparing to make a film about a broken criminal justice system. Instead, he pivots to excavate the depths of generational addiction, Christian fervor, and trans embodiment. Lyrically assembled images, decades of home movies, and ethereal narration form an idiosyncratic and poetic undertow that guide a viewer through lifetimes and relationships. Poised to incite more internal searching than provide clear statements or easy answers, NORTH BY CURRENT dives head first into the challenges of creating identity, the agony of growing up, and the ever-fickle nuances of family.
This screening and Q&A discussion is open to the Yale community from 4 - 6:30 PM ET.
Angelo Madsen Minax works in film and video, sound and music, text, and installation. His projects explore queer and trans intimacies, chosen and biological kinships, cosmic, natural, and technological phenomena, and often draw on auto-ethnography. His works have shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the British Film Institute, Tribeca Film Festival, and dozens of LGBT film festivals around the world. Madsen is currently an Associate Professor of Time-Based Media at the University of Vermont and a Queer|Art Mentor.
Thomas Allen Harris is senior lecturer in African American Studies and Film and Media Studies, an award winning filmmaker, and president of the Family Pictures Institute for Inclusive Storytelling, an initiative born from his socially engaged artistic practice. This is an event in a series of screenings in conjunction with his course “Family Narratives/Cultural Shifts” (AFAM 216/FLM 433).
Once you register for the event, you will receive the links to stream the film and join the post-screening discussion!