DRESS REHEARSAL FOR UTOPIA
Dir. Andrés Duque // 75 min // 2012

Experimental documentary-maker Andrés Duque travels to Mozambique to look for old footage that had been made there. But when it becomes apparent that his elderly father is seriously ill, he returns to his homeland of Venezuela. As his father lies dying in a hospital room in Venezuela, the filmmaker’s thoughts travel to Mozambique. Images of dance and revolution – some retrieved from archival footage, some newly shot – conjure up a spectral alternate reality where human figures take part in a cascade of excited movements. A commentary on the finiteness of life, Dress Rehersal for Utopia emanates a personal collage in which feelings transcend- part experimental travelogue, part political statement. A gentle rustling links the different images, their origins and significance together.

Preceded by
Katie Williams recording an excerpt of
THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING by Joan Didion
(script for stage, 2007)

Andrés Duque is a Spanish-Venezuelan filmmaker. studied journalism in his homeland before moving to Spain for a master’s degree in creative documentary at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. He now works as a filmmaker, film programmer and teacher.He is best known for his 2004 film “Ivan Z”, a portrait of the cult filmmaker Ivan Zulueta, which participated in dozens of international film festivals and received a Goya Award nomination. In 2011, he made his first feature film debut with COLOR RUNAWAY DOG. The film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and won the Audience Award at Punto de Vista International Documentary Film Festival. He was a featured artist at 2012 Flaherty Film Seminar and in 2013 he won the City of Barcelona Award for DRESS REHEARSAL FOR UTOPIA.

Katie Williams is one half of Patchwork Farms, an urban farm in Chicago, founded and operated by herself and Molly Medhurst. She is a storyteller and rugby player. Her thoughtful Bruce Springsteen cover band, Miss Bossy and The D Street Band recently played the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art. They hope to play more museums and maybe weddings.

Kelly Christian is a Chicago-based researcher, writer, and artist. Her most recent work explores postmortem and funerary photography. Kelly photographed military funerals in Maine during the height of the Iraq War and created her own new media-Daguerreotypes. She has presented her work at conferences and galleries across the country on postmortem photography, embalming, and “corpse-as-culture.”

Programmed by Christy LeMaster