Octet of Film Poems from The Alice Project

The Film Poem Octet is a series of digital media works inspired by the poetry of my late aunt, Alice Gonçalves Sousa. Alice’s poems express the challenges particular to women coming of age in mid-century America and growing old in a generation with limited options for women. Using Alice’s poems as a script, I created a series of short digital media pieces that amplify Alice’s poetry with images from the archive, newly shot material, spoken words, sounds, and music.

Mirrors Today

A mirror is like a window, it can both provide a reflection of the world or fabricate lies. Shades both reveal and conceal. This Film Poem provides both a reflection on aging and a fantasy of youth and beauty that only exists in one’s memory and imagination.

Still from “Mirrors Today”

It’s Over

As trains move in opposite directions on separate tracks, so too people depart from their shared direction and emotional bonds. A single image film, “It’s Over” provides an abrasive visual trope for breaking up with a singular finality.

Excerpt from “It’s Over”

Promises

An attempt to convey the emotions felt when things fall apart, this Film Poem provides a litany of expectations and disappointments of a failed relationship. The reflections of clouds in the pond reference both dreams and a degree of narcissism and self-interest expressed in the poem.

Excerpt from “Promises”

Alvaro

“Alvaro” is based on a poem written by Alice Goncalves Sousa about the death of her brother. It is a meditation on loss and embodies the Portuguese spirit of Fado, the urban folk music of Portugal that accompanies a portion of the film. The poem expresses the degree to which Alice was devastated by the death of her brother. The film includes imagery taken from inherited archival photographs, as well as material objects, furniture, clothing, the things that are left behind after a person passes. Nature and the seasons are a metaphor for the fragility of life and human emotions and attempt to communicate the loss that one feels when a loved one is gone. This film is a tribute to my Aunt Alice and Uncle Alvaro.

Excerpt from “Alvaro”

The Mermaid, a commission for the Chicago Film Archive 2020 Media Mixer

The Mermaid is a digital collage film with raw material drawn from the Chicago Film Archive collections related to movement, including dance, wrestling, sports, and entertainment. Responding to the centennial of Women’s Suffrage and the MeToo movement, the focus of this film is on women in 20th century America and the limited options available to them. An excerpt from an Adrienne Rich poem provides a narrative thread to the imagery and invites a feminist interpretation of the action. It is a commentary on beauty as agency in a “man’s world,” with the arts and entertainment as areas where women were allowed entry, while at the same time raising the question of female identity and available role models that transcend common gender tropes. The performative element and the spectacle of the female body are the driving force of the film, and form the locus of the women’s strength and power, but are also the source of exploitation, limitation, and compromise. This film was commissioned by the Chicago Film Archive for their 2020 Media Mixer.