A formal 1861 portrait of a Chinese Mandarin and his wife is the starting point for this allegorical and experimental investigation of the fantasies spawned in the West about the East, particularly that which associates femininity with the mysterious Orient. Adynata presents a series of oppositions-male and female images, past and present sounds-which in and of themselves construct a minimal and fragmentary narrative, an open text of our imaginations, fears and fantasies.
Festivals
Manheim Film Festival
Athens International Film Festival
Rotterdam Film Festival
Leslie Thornton began developing her unique insights regarding technology and ethics at a very young age. She first studied filmmaking at the State University of New York at Buffalo, then at MIT. Her film and media works have been exhibited worldwide, in venues including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Biennial Exhibition, Centre George Pompidou, Rotterdam International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, among many others. She was the only woman experimental filmmaker included in Cahiers du cinema's "60 Most Important American Directors" issue.
Filmography
Adynata (1983)
Peggy and Fred in Hell (1985)
Peggy and Fred in Kansas (1989)
There Wa san Unseen Cloud, Moving (1988)