The Pine Barrens

a documentary by David Scott Kessler. Music by The Ruins of Friendship Orchestra

Inhabited: Short Experimental Films

 

Pine Barrens
directed by Nancy Holt

(1975, 30:24 min, color, sound, 16 mm film on HD video)

"Pine Barrens is concerned with evoking through film a barren wilderness in south-central New Jersey. The camera is always in motion — tracking, pivoting, and walking through the landscape. Though they are never seen in the film, the voices of the local people, the 'Pineys,' are heard relating their feelings about the land, their attitudes about city life, their myths of the area, etc. their voices and the music of 'Bill Patton's Pine Barrens Trio' add a psychological dimension to the landscape." — Nancy Holt

In-person Only

 

The Whelming Sea
directed by Sean Hanley

(2020, USA, 29’)

Three animal lives entangle at the edge of the sea. Horseshoe crabs spawn on eroded urban beaches, migrating shorebirds seek sustenance at a midpoint, and humans attempt to make a difference in this age of mass extinction.

In-person Only

 

Landscape to be Invented
by Josh Weissbach
(2020 | USA, Ireland, Greece, 12’)

Other than the ocean, the rest of the planet was bathed in purple, which was due to the color of the vegetation. The change in the sun's radiation had probably caused the plants to evolve as they adapted to the new light.

In-person Only

landscape.jpg
 

Moon Viewing
(
A project by Nadia Hironaka & Matthew Suib with Eugene Lew, part of Moon Viewing Platform, 2019)
first floor monitor, loop

The films of Moon Viewing, brought cosmological awareness to an abandoned urban fragment, a nether zone that starred as both a film set and as a viewing garden within the city of Philadelphia. Taking inspiration from the metaphysical aesthetics of the Japanese garden, particularly the karesansui, or “dry gardens” of rock and sand associated with Zen Buddhism; Moon Viewing showcased an assembly of gardeners comprised of artists, activists, chefs, musicians and the next generation of humanitarians. Some of those featured include artist, Sarah McEneaney; chef and activist, Cristina Martinez; and musician, Harold E. Smith. Designed to draw us inward, eight short stories follow the lunar phases, casting a spell of moonlight for precious moments of respite from our troubled and troubling world. www.hironakasuib.com/portfolio/moon-viewing-platform

In-person Only

 

a STUDIOSCOPIC production - directed by David Scott Kessler