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Tree Identification for Beginners

Tree Identification for Beginners

2018 · 35 min

In the turbulent summer of 1966, the artist’s mother, a 20-year-old Moroccan student-socialist, was one of some 50 'Young African Leaders' invited on a State Department-sponsored propaganda tour of the USA. In this film, Barrada interweaves events of political history with her own family stories and myths. These 'sediments of history' come together here through archives, reports, and journals. The colourful, abstract 16mm stop-motion animation was made with the educational tools that are used for Montessori education.

Directed by Yto Barrada

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Wrestling with writer’s block for her first film, Bouchra, a queer Moroccan jackal living in NYC, starts having difficult yet overdue phone calls with her mother in Casablanca that begin influencing the project. Balancing the precarity of working as an artist, the rift in her cultural identity and an array of romantic interests, Bouchra’s emotional reckoning becomes her path to expression.
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A Guide to Trees for Governors and GardenersA Guide to Trees for Governors and Gardeners · 2014
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In 2003, Barrada presented a table-sized automated model Gran Royal Turismo based on a road racing set. A convoy of three black Mercedes emerges from a tunnel and just before they arrive at the town, palm trees push out of the ground, the sidewalks and walls flip over to reveal clean freshly painted surfaces, flags blossom along the route. It seems to be like a Potemkin Village display – perhaps for the benefit of a visiting head of state.
Ether Reveries (Suite for Thérèse Rivière no.2)Ether Reveries (Suite for Thérèse Rivière no.2) · 2017
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A Day Is a DayA Day Is a Day · 2022
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Barrada turns her lens to two “weather acceleration” facilities in Miami and Phoenix dedicated to testing the durability of consumer products. Moving between the two laboratories and their surrounding landscapes, Barrada signals the visible consequences of natural and manmade environmental distress. She entwines a specialized visual vocabulary of age and decay with an exploration of motherhood, inheritance, and subjectivity.
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Industrial testing laboratories simulate exposure to the elements—solar radiation, wind, rain, salt, heavy storms, fog, heat—in order to weather-test products and materials: plastics, coatings, automotive parts, paints, textiles… Accelerated weathering tests re-create real-world conditions in a condensed time frame, to test future durability to fading and corrosion. The two main means of testing materials are outdoor exposure racks and accelerated laboratory chambers. The xenon lamps used in sunlight weathering machines are said to have the power of two or three suns.
Home, or maids in my familyHome, or maids in my family · 2001
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