Filmforum continues local filmmaker Diego Robles’ series The Wyvernwood Chronicles:
Part 2, an eclectic collection of short films ranging from resident-made PSA’s (Public Service Announcements), to meditative experimental documentary pieces, to youth workshop animations. The films center around a group of residents and community homes located just east of the Los Angeles River, in Boyle Heights between the years 2007-2015, where many attempts by the city to displace the residents were challenged by its residents.
The films begin to be made around the beginning of the Great Recession, as LA Co-Media (Los Angeles Collective Media) collaborated with Comite de la Esperanza & neighborhood residents from Wyvernwood to make documentary videos, spread awareness, lead youth workshops and aid in the preservation of their housing and the archiving of their histories. The films made from LA Co-Media range from being didactic, to being calls-to-action, to also being playful and meditative cinematic forms. To complement these films, the documentary short GUMARO, made from cut material of Robles’ feature film Wyvernwood: The Garden City, follows resident Gumaro Oviedo Flores in one of his Los Angeles Quinceñera videography jobs, showing the relationship between representation and a coming-of-age ritual.
Part 2 focuses on an even broader and more horizontal approach to representation, where the films aren’t simply made about community but are birthed from within community building efforts. The screening will be followed by a Q&A panel with a number of the filmmakers and residents of Wyvernwood.
Program (~70 minutes):
-Que Hermoso es Wyvernwood (2010) by Gumaro Oviedo Flores – 1 min
-Doña Carmen (working title) (2015) by Manuel Huerta – 5 min
-Cut-Out Animation made by Wyvernwood Children (working title) (2013) by Bertha Alicia Aguilar Garcia – 4 min
-Nosotros Somos Wyvernwood (2009/2010) by El Comité de la Esperanza, LA Co-Media, Gumaro Oviedo Flores – 10 min
-Wyvernwood (made around 2009/2010) by El Comité de la Esperanza, LA Co-Media, Gumaro Oviedo Flores – 3 min
-Yo Soy Wyvernwood/Yo Soy Comité de la Esperanza (made around 2009/2010) by Gumaro Oviedo Flores – 30 sec
-Short video made of still photographs and napkins from Comité member Doña Avangelina, (2013) by Diego Robles – 4 min
-Nuestros Videos Culturales para la Preservación de Wyvernwood ( 2009/2010) by Erasto Arena, El Comité de la Esperanza, LA Co-Media & Diego Robles – 4 min
-El Futuro Wyvernwood (2009/2010) by Abraham Osuna, LA Co-Media, Comité de la Esperanza/Wyvernwood Resident’s Ricardo Mojica & Salvador Vergara – 3 min
-GUMARO (2021) by Diego Robles – 36 min
And other films to be announced
