Dyke TV

Cultural theorist Stuart Hall offers an extended meditation on representation. Moving beyond the accuracy or inaccuracy of specific representations, Hall argues that the process of representation itself constitutes the very world it aims to represent, and explores how the shared language of a culture, its signs and images, provides a conceptual roadmap that gives meaning to the world rather than simply reflecting it. Hall's concern throughout is the centrality of culture to the shaping of our collective perceptions, and how the dynamics of media representation reproduce forms of symbolic power.

This documentary dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of silent film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. The film explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs--from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and gun-wielding "terrorists"--along the way offering devastating insights into the origin of these stereotypic images, their development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much today.

Origin of the Species is an experimental documentary that explores the current climate of android development with a focus on human/machine relations, gender and the ethical implications of this research. The film provides an insider look into cutting edge laboratories in Japan and the USA where scientists attempt to make robots move, speak and look human. These scientists and their discoveries are contextualized with cinematic and pop culture references, to underline the mythic, comic and uncanny aspects of our aspiration to create machines that are eerily similar to ourselves.

Mary Patiernio set out to make a documentary about what she thought might be the last few years of her brother’s life when she found out about his HIV-positive status. However, as the title suggests, things didn’t quite pan out as she expected. Beginning with the video footage from her brother’s surprise marriage to his female chiropractor, following his break up with boyfriend Carlo, the documentary (which was five years in the making), cleverly unwinds to tell one of those stories you simply wouldn’t believe in a fictional film.

Science fiction and desire collide when an American researcher meets a Japanese translator. Clouds drift beyond the towering high rise blocks; down below, nature suffocates in a Tokyo river.

"Sodom By the Sea is a 17 minute experimental documentary about immigration to the United States. It uses the historic site of Coney Island as a point of departure from which to explore both the hopes and failed dreams of those who left their native lands to start a new life in America. Optically printed images of contemporary Coney Island are juxtaposed against the voices of immigrants describing their varied yet shared experiences. Intertitles serve to stitch together two parallel themes: that the heyday of Coney Island and the heyday of immigration to America occurred simultaneously, and that the two had both a subtle and lasting impact on each other." - Mary Patierno