La patria, la patria!... ¿qué patria?

VELASLAVASAY PANORAMA

 

In 1926, Xavier Icaza wrote the "unperformable" play Magnavoz 1926. Its set is all of Mexico, its characters are the intellectuals Alfonso Reyes, José Vasconcelos and Diego Rivera and the audience is the Mexican public. In the play, the characters speak across each other through a loudspeaker (magnavoces) attempting in their own way to affect a mostly disinterested public. Icaza writes:

Los estudiantes se organizan. Los obreros se agremian. Los agraristas se unen. Los artistas no dejan el pincel. Los escritores, aunque nadie los atienda, perseveran yescriben. Los demás duermen.

The students are organized. The workers joined. The agraristas unite. The artists do not leave the brush. The writers, although nobody attends them, persevere and write. The others sleep.
 

For the next iteration of Voyage To The Land of Speaking Blood, we present a special 16mm screening of Jesse Lerner's films Ruins and Magnavoz with Director Jesse Lerner in attendance and projections by John Cannizzaro of Smokehouse Films.

 

 

Thursday, May 17th, 2018 - 8:00 P.M.
Voyage To The Land of Speaking Blood - part two
Tickets $15 General / $13 VPES

Magnavoz
16 mm b/w
25 min. 33 sec.
2006, Directed by Jesse Lerner
Magnavoz is an experimental adaptation of Xavier Icaza's speculative rant on the future of post-revolutionary Mexico.  Bringing together noisy broadcasts from atop the volcanoes, raucous bacchanalia at popular watering holes and a series of apocalyptic, hypernationalistic pronouncements, the meditation is timely and prescient, though it was written more than eighty years ago.
Magnavoz es una adaptación experimental de una diatriba que  especula sobre lo que fue el futuro del México de la posrevolución.  Reúne transmisiones ruidosas desde las cumbres de los volcanes; bacanales caóticas en salones populares, y una serie de pronunciamientos apocalípticos e híper nacionalistas. Una reflexión que sigue siendo relevante y que prefigura lo que se dio más de ochenta años después.

Ruins
16mm b/w
78 min.
1999, Directed by Jesse Lerner
A false documentary about the relations established by Western society with the pre-Columbian objects of Mexico. The film uses an extraordinary archive material, mixed with fake materials, both in image and sound, to subvert our ideas of history.
Un falso documental sobre las relaciones que establece la sociedad occidental con los objetos precolombinos de México. La película utiliza un extraordinario material de archivo, mezclado con materiales falsos, tanto en imagen como en sonido, para subvertir nuestras ideas de la historia.

PROJECTED IN FULL RESOLUTION 16MM
with a MILTON GOODWIN BELL & HOWELL 567
featuring a XENON GEMIN 350 LAMP and ANAMORPHIC LENS
courtesy of Audio Visual Repair West/coast.

 

Voyage To The Land of Speaking Blood is a three-part series at the Velaslavasay Panorama exploring themes of tourism, documentary, surrealism & archaeology in Mexican cinema. As part of the series, the Velaslavasay offers guests a touristic photo back drop and polaroid pictures to capture the moment along with an ephemeral program for the evening's event. Tonight's back drop will feature handpainted promotional banners for the films from Jesse Lerner's archive. 

The "Voyage to the Land of Speaking Blood" series is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and by the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
 

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This Friday we welcome back for our 13th year the Friday Night Concert of the LA Old Time Social. This year features performances by Echo Mountain (Los Angeles), Richie & Rosie (New York), Ozark Highballers (Arkansas) and the House Band – David Bragger & Susan Platz. Angelina Elisewill lead a very special moving panorama performance to the tune of Do as You Please, Just Come Back to Me by Skillet Licorice. For more information about the three-day festival, visit losangelesoldtimesocial.com
 

ADVANCE TICKETS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 
(this event is likely to sell out in advance).

Friday, May 18th, 2018 - 8:00 P.M.
13th Ever LA Old Time Social
Tickets $20 General / $18 VPES

 

Velaslavasay Panorama
1122 W. 24th Street LA, CA 90007
www.panoramaonview.org  event@panoramaonview.org