A Body to Live In is an intimate inquiry into the life and work of Fakir Musafar, an influential figure in the queer body-modification community. The film explores his outsized impact and the formation of the “Modern Primitive” movement through decades of archives and interviews with those close to him. Creative treatment of the archives presents them as living texts—photos and video are layered, inverted, and interpolated to bring them new meaning and texture. Angelo Madsen’s sophomore feature is supplemented by seamlessly interwoven personal accounts to craft an portrayal that is loving yet not afraid of critique, embracing both the joy of self-discovery as well as the complex spirituality Musafar came to represent. Through his life and work, the film gives rise to profound questions of bodily autonomy and the body’s relationship to our sense of self.
Andrés Narváez, Colombian social leader, music minstrel and empirical poet, returns to the Montes de María after his exile in Spain, following an attempt on his life in which he was shot four times. His time in Asturias and the melancholy of a forced migration inspired him to compose several of his best known songs, connecting through song the two Europes: the one he left and the one that welcomed him. Upon his return, with the violence still latent, Andrés delves into the deepest landscapes of his territory and the most painful memories that the war left behind, composing in memory of those who no longer walk with him; music saved him and that is why he decided that 'it is better to sing than to point out'.
On the outskirts of the city, a strange moss proliferates in the forest. Despite warnings of its supposed dangerousness, several people visit the place in a gesture of radical freedom. Dos veces bestia (Twice the beast) navigates through space-species where friendship and sensuality converge with science fiction.
In the dilapidated industrial buildings in Upper Ladadika or in the wider area of Valaoritou in Thessaloniki, bands and creators flourished for over four decades. Rooftops, music studios and rehearsal halls with the decibels turned up created the space and time for a continuous explosion of cultural action, personal and collective expression. Through the eyes of the musicians and individuals who continue to shape the city's underground music scene, we see how all this creative expression is increasingly threatened by the ongoing process of displacement due to gentrification. We discuss Thessaloniki, music, the future and the resistance that can be born.
Our environment shapes our ideas, our dreams, and even our happiness, an unknown emotion without its eternal companions: expectations, pressure, and limitations. But how do we rediscover it? Or more importantly, how do we rediscover ourselves to uncover happiness without its companions? Perhaps it is time to meet the elephant.
Sana, obsessed with boys with handsome faces, suddenly encounters her idol, Kanato. He has been skipping school and is on the verge of being expelled, and he has a request for Sana.
Nina and Fermín spend the night in the neighborhood where their father is a security guard. Between lights and shadows, they walk, play, eat. Nina observes others in silence, as though she were looking at herself in a mirror that is about to break. The night moves stealthily on, while other children watch them from their windows.
Six chapters of the film oscillate between what is lost and what is found across the same ancestral plane. There is everything to see yet nothing there, but briefly in transit you might have already experienced all of it, all at once.
Wesley, an awkward, plant-enthused community radio host has his daily life and radio show documented by a youth film group. We watch as his simple, lonely life unfolds over the course of this mocumentary, with some appearances from family and friends (questionable) sprinkled throughout. However, beyond the laughs and heart-wrenching moments, a somewhat darker truth of Wesley's life reveals itself in the film's final act.
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