iMAL

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Art Center for Digital Cultures & Technology

NAOMI UMAN — BEFORE WE KNEW NOTHING II (FRIDAY 25.03 - 21:00)

NAOMI UMAN
BEFORE WE KNEW NOTHING II

INTRODUCTION
Daniel A. Swarthnas (Cinema Parenthèse)

LECHE
Mexico | 1998 | 16mm | b&w | sound | 30'00
Made with the most rudimentary tools of filmmaking Leche is a black and white film which examines details of the lives of a rural Mexican family. Uman lived with the family for a year, shooting and hand-processing the film in buckets to dry on the clothesline on site to develop a documentary portrait of their daily life.

MALA LECHE
USA | 2003 | 16mm | color | sound | 47'00
A sequel to Leche, this film follows members of the same Mexican family now living in California’s agricultural Central Valley. Through economic struggles and familial growing pains, the family relies on traditional values to navigate a complex environment of immigrant working life and cultural alienation.

Total 77'00

NAOMI UMAN is an experimental filmmaker and a visual artist, currently living in Mexico City. Her work is often marked by her signature handmade aesthetic, often shooting, hand-processing and editing her films with the most rudimentary of practices. Her films clearly reveal her relationship to the subject, always recognizing the
deforming presence of the camera. There is an intimacy to her work which often focuses on women and their role in their society.

Before We Knew Nothing