Fern Silva (b. 1982, Hartford, CT) has created a body of film, video, and projection work that has been screened and performed at various festivals, galleries, museums and cinematheques including the Toronto, Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam, New York, Edinburgh, and Ann Arbor Film Festivals, Anthology Film Archive, Wexner Center for the Arts, San Francisco Cinematheque, Roulette Gallery, LMAKprojects, White Box Gallery and the Greater New York exhibition at MOMA P.S.1. His work emerges out of travel, documenting movement through the world as a conduit into the realms of the personal and ephemeral, and the effects of geography, climate and environment on social relations, communication, and the metaphysical. He's drawn to subjects that defy a national identity or obscurity through myth, folklore, mysticism, or particular rituals. Rather than focusing on one aspect, he moves through moments to show commonality amongst beings and structures. In an effort to avoid conventional aspects of documentary, he reinforces imagination through embracing suggestions of possible narratives. Driven by curiosity and memory, his work reflects the tensions between mystification of the observational and experiential and the realization of moments in time as a form of unification. He was listed as one of the Top 25 Filmmakers for the 21st Century in Film Comment Magazine’s Avant-Garde Filmmakers Poll, is the recipient of the Gus Van Sant Award from the 49th Ann Arbor Film Festival and was nominated for Best International Short Film at the 2012 Edinburgh International Film Festival. He received a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art, MFA from Bard College and is currently based in Brooklyn, NY and Chicago, IL where he teaches film-making at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Program:
Concrete Parlay (2012 18mins-16mm transfered to video)
- Passage Upon the Plume (2011 8mins-16mm transfered to video)
- In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails (2010 14mins-16mm transfered to video)
- Peril of the Antilles (2011 6mins-16mm transfered to video)
- Servants of Mercy (2010 14mins-16mm transfered to video)
Realised in collaboration with FAMU, program series curated by Henry Hills, visit of Mr. Fern Silva supported by Trust for Mutual Understanding.
