Filmforum welcomes local filmmaker Diego Robles with two of the films he has made with the residents of the Wyvernwood Garden Apartment Complex in East Los Angeles. The Wyvernwood Chronicles is a series of short films and one feature-length film that engage in provoking both agency and patience. 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.
If We Are Wyvernwood acts as a plea to those outside of the community to save their neighborhood, Wyvernwood: The Garden City acts as a self-contained reflection on passing time with a living community in their everyday lives, blossoming into a profound rumination about what it means to participate in and be part of a community. Robles quietly but firmly asks the viewer if they can “show up” to the discomfort of the colloquial, creating a portal into the very real experiences of people in Los Angeles living outside of the culture of individualism.
This is the first screening in a two-part series of films about Wyvernwood. The second screening will feature a collection of shorts from Diego and other collaborators, with a focus on members within the Wyvernwood Community.
Guests:
Diego Robles, Filmmaker
Diego Robles is an artist and educator. Diego grew up in the Houston metropolitan area, where growing up in extremely diverse environments instilled in him a-life long interest for engaging oral histories, the mechanisms of thinking, and the way futures are designed. He has now lived most of his life in Southern California, residing in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles for more than half of it. He has been inspired by independent film, video stores, public libraries, comics, and a lot of live and recorded music. As a young person, he lived a year in Tijuana, Baja California and a year in Mexico City, Mexico where his interests in Meso-American, Mexican, and Latin-American cultures greatly grew from first-hand experiences with friends, family, and second-hand book stores. He’s a Film School graduate of the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, as well as an MFA graduate of CalArts’s School of Film/Video & the School of Critical Studies. As a native to the US-Mexico border, he continually re-explores various ways the presence and absence of dualities is expressed and disciplined into boundaries and cliches. With more than 20 years of Teaching-Artist experience, Diego has led various Art Laboratories, Book Discussions/Group Readings, and participated in research Projects at CalArts, UCLA and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. Diego currently lectures on Visual Studies, Chicanx Art, and various topics in Art Pedagogy at CSU San Bernardino & San Diego State University.
Roberto Mojica, Resident of Wyvernwood and member of Comité de la Esperanza
Roberto Mojica was born in Mexico City 1978, and has been living in Wyvernwood since 1990. Soon after moving to Wyverwood, when he was eleven years old, he began to be involved in Comité de la Esperanza’s sports teams. It was there that he became acquainted with the many organizing activities Comité de la Esperanza does in the Wyvernwood community. As Roberto grew up he was shaped by the leadership of various members of Comité de la Esperanza. For example, the soccer coaches of Comité de la Esperanza were residents from the community who volunteered their time to contribute to young people’s lives. In turn, these soccer coaches would see young people come of age and mature into adulthood while absorbing the values the Comité de la Esperanza would foster. Roberto has now also raised his son and daughter in Wyvernwood, and now they too have learned and absorbed values found in the community. Roberto and his wife have continued to be involved in various projects in Wyvernwood and Comité de la Esperanza, many times also involving the participation of their son and daughter, as well as other members of their extended family and friends.
