From: Jeff Silva (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Feb 20 2008 - 18:11:42 PST
Dear Frameworkers,
My latest experimental documentary, Balkan Rhapsodies, will be having
it's New York premiere at the Museum of Modern Art tomorrow at 6PM. I
am honored that it has been selected for inclusion in MoMA's 2008
Documentary Fortnight program.
Please join me on Thursday February 21st at 6PM for this special
screening. This project was a long time in the works and I am
absolutely thrilled that it is getting a chance to be seen by larger
audiences. I hope to see you there!
Warmly,
Jeff
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Jeff Daniel Silva
http://www.jeffdanielsilva.com
Balkan Rhapsodies by Jeff Daniel Silva
Run time: 55 minutes (2007)
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Time: 6PM
Location: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) 11 West 53 St, NY
Balkan Rhapsodies is an experimental documentary poem made up of 78
visual and sound episodes that weave together a mosaic of encounters,
observations and reflections from Jeff Silva’s travels through war-
torn Serbia and Kosovo. Jeff was the first American allowed into
Serbia after the NATO bombings in June of 1999, and the filming he
did while there makes up the heart of the project. Jeff returned
back to the Balkans later again in 2000 and a final time in 2005 to
complete the project.
The seventy-eight part episodic structure of the film was inspired by
the musical rhapsodies of the 19th century that featured a series of
short, free-form, and emotionally infused compositions with high
ranging and contrasted moods, colours and tonalities. This
fragmented rhapsodic structure captures the essence of the video
material that Jeff has gleaned over the years, from his documentary
travels to his various cultural appropriations and re-enactments he
uses in Balkan Rhapsodies.
Using the 78 days of NATO bombings of Yugoslavia (March 24 – June 10,
1999) as a structural reference point to explore the post-trauma of
innocent people caught in a web between the politics of then
president Slobodan Milosovic, the Albanian separatist movement, and
the United States led NATO coalition, Balkan Rhapsodies looks beyond
the moment it captures and seems to become more relevant everyday.
As old wounds fail to heal and new conflicts arise around the globe
from the ashes and residue of past traumas, the shards of memories,
evidence, and experiences in Balkan Rhapsodies creates a melodic echo
that resonates with the absurdity of the situation and reflects a
political and social imperative beyond the conflicts in Yugoslavia
into of our present day crises.
Jeff Daniel Silva
http://www.jeffdanielsilva.com
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.