Sub Basement Docs 2022

In My Art or Sullen Craft | 11 mins
An exploration of how art and clay facilitate reflections about craft, consumption and decay.

Director's statement
This film follows an artist, Grace Sachi Troxell, as she makes sculptures out of clay. The film emulates Troxell’s patient work on slow, mundane and repetitive tasks . There is a deep attention to the sound of each of these tasks. Troxell’s choice of materials and color are foundational to this process. Her personal process is juxtaposed with attention to a glitzy art exhibition and decaying brick kilns; in doing so, the film asks what it means for the afterlife of clay to exceed human lifespans? The fragmented storytelling style used in In my Craft or Sullen Art gives a sense of simultaneity instead of linearity. Just as Troxell is interested in different shapes, colors, and textures from the world in her art practice, the film draws attention to how the artist’s body, gestures and sounds unfold through her practice itself.

Credits
Director: Parijat Jha
Parijat Jha is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University. He is interested in the ways that large concepts, like capitalism and climate change, can be understood through everyday materials like apples and clay.

Cast: Grace Sachi Troxell

Second Life | 8 mins
Visual exploration of a community-centered initiative to prevent useful materials from entering the municipal waste stream.

Synopsis
This short observational documentary explores how the time our things have with us is just the beginning of their story. Though statistically in the United States, the things we no longer want are most likely destined to spend their afterlife in a landfill, this doesn’t have to be so. This film spotlights how responsible donation to local initiatives can instead create new value and opportunities for abundance to the community.

Director's statement
U.S. residents are known to have some of the highest consumption rates in the world. As a result, usable goods, often still in excellent condition, are thrown away simply because they are no longer wanted. In their afterlife, these tossed items place an enormous strain on sanitation departments and contribute negatively to the health of those who live near landfills. To combat this issue, numerous small businesses have emerged that prioritize capturing these items and reselling them in the same areas where they were collected. Not only does this provide local access to low-cost materials, but it has also created new opportunities for educating the community about waste issues. Through interviews and observational footage, this film contemplates our relationship with our stuff through one business’ efforts to keep valuable materials out of the trash.

Credits
Director: Kat Roberts
Kat Roberts is a 3rd year PhD Candidate in Apparel Design at Cornell University. Both her creative and scholarly works center the recontextualization of pre- and post-consumer waste, with a particular focus on creative reuse through upcycling and community-based initiatives.

Cast: Pete, Ellie, Chris, Scarlet, Ben and Ray      

Crew: Kat Roberts

CHOSEN | 12 mins
Three Chinese adoptees' reunion after 15 years' growing up in separate American families.

Synopsis
As China has become the number one country which outsources unwanted Chinese kids to America, this documentary contributes to exploring individual life history of international and transnational adoption.

Director's statement
This film project starts with my personal friendships with Sofia, Amy, and Jian. I was a volunteer in their orphanage fifteen years ago. Back to then, I was an outsider who got some sense of their childhood experiences in the orphanage. I also got to know their adoption process. In 2019, I moved to the U.S. for my PhD program. Our stories now take place here with distinct life trajectories. Thanks to this film, we all reunited in Chicago. We had spent three weeks together for filmmaking and revisiting our shared memories. I believe that this film is special for all of us to reflect on transracial and international adoption and celebrate our many years' friendship.

Credits
Director: Xinlei SHA
Xinlei SHA is a 3rd year PhD Anthropology student at Cornell University. She is an international student and a woman of color who pursues collaborative filmmaking and community-building research.

Cast: Sofia Effron, Jian Hilton, Amy McCaslin  

Ghost Coast Girls | 12 mins
I can't see myself in our history but I remember being there - 'The Ghanaian Woman

Synopsis
Formerly known as the Gold Coast, Ghana is the first Sub-Saharan nation to become a post colonial African state and is lauded as a beacon of Africa. Popular history of Her independence is credited primarily to six men known as 'the Big 6' but, where are the women? From sacrificing family as she knew, being jailed, and taking on political leadership roles, Ghost Coast Girls (GCG) juxtaposes the story of Madam Adwoa Naba Nwen known as Ama Nkrumah whose contributions, like most of women in African political struggles, cannot be found in popular history. GCG combines archival material, interviews and cinema to query the 'ghosts' of Ghana's history as a way of address the ghosting of women. What does this historical ghosting and silencing means for gender representations and relation in Ghana? 

Director's statement
As the global push for gender equity and equality grows, it is important to recognize that there is no smoke without fire. Embedded within these inequalities and inequities are histories that dictated who could be where, when, how and what. Even though it might be hard to completely quench the fires of gender inequality, we can lessen them by confronting history and using that as a vehicle towards gender equality and equity.

Credits
Director: Ami Tamakloe
Ami Tamakloe is a first year PhD Anthropology/Artist at Cornell University. She believes that accessible storytelling is one of the most potent tools in societal reconstruction. Her work is mostly reparative with a focus on women, Africa, queerness and visibility. 

Cast: Grace Thompson 

Breaking Even | 8 mins
A snapshot of a scrapyard for used metals in Tel Aviv that relies on the destruction of apartheid.

Synopsis
This ethnographic short explores an emerging component of Tel Aviv’s apartheid economy, zooming in on a new scrapyard that has grown in the shadow of the city’s economic surplus. At this hectic industrial site, pilfered beams from construction projects and abandoned electronics gain new value for their stripped metallic contents. The film highlights the dangerous yet playful work of smashing, crunching, and melting the city’s excess objects.

Director's statement
As the global push for gender equity and equality grows, it is important to recognize that there is no smoke without fire. Embedded within these inequalities and inequities are histories that dictated who could be where, when, how and what. Even though it might be hard to completely quench the fires of gender inequality, we can lessen them by confronting history and using that as a vehicle towards gender equality and equity.

Credits
Director: Nadav Wall
Nadav Wall is an Anthropology PhD student interested in alternative forms of valuation that bind together formal and informal economies. He is originally from Tel Aviv and plans to conduct fieldwork in Mexico for his dissertation research on family values, austerity, and queerness.

Ticker | 10 mins
Fear and love for unknown persons in a hyper-connected city.

Synopsis
Shot in New York, a city full of strangers, Ticker explores the anxieties produced by the influence of mass media in everyday life and the specter of men and women we learn to fear and love through the continuous stream of signs.

Director's statement
Ticker is about the stories that make us stop and stare. 

It is about the anxiety of living through near and distant histories. The pang of a headline that may or may not be novel. Endless exposure to media personalities and news events pushes the bounds of empathy; suffering and prejudice towards the human group spotlighted in the media cycle results. Together, we presume intimacy with one another, go about our lives, and do it all over again.

Ticker reflects my own fascination with New York as a woman from a relatively sheltered upbringing. It is about the screen’s ability to rupture and fortify shortsighted worldviews. This is a magic that simultaneously unifies and repels us from one another. 

I think many different audiences can identify with the themes and feelings presented in this film.

Credits
Director: Nia Whitmal
Nia Whitmal is a first year student in Cornell University’s anthropology PhD program. Some of her interests include ethnographic and documentary filmmaking, pop culture, Black life and culture in NYC. She has previously produced a short film about posthumanism, Barbie, and Tiktok, and is working as a production assistant and researcher on a feature-length documentary about Harlem-based historical preservationist Michael Henry Adams. 

Crew: Jack Huang

Advance Documentary (Anth/PMA 4401/7401) Instructor: Professor Natasha Raheja
Department of Anthropology Events Coordinator: Elizabeth Kirk

Professor Jeffrey Palmer and Professor Daniel Fermín Pfeffer

Media Assistant: Randy Hendrickson
Communications & Events Coordinator: Youngsun Palmer
Communications Manager: Gary Gabisan

Cornell Cinema Manager: Mary Fessenden
Cornell Cinema Manager: Douglas McLaren
Cornell Cinema Projectionist: Matthew Hidy