Monday February 8 – Tuesday February 16, 10:30pm PT
Holly Fisher: Deafening Silence
In collaboration with Re:Voir / The Film Gallery
Microscope is pleased to present, in consideration of this week’s events in Myanmar (formerly Burma), a special online screening of “Deafening Silence,” a 2012 documentary film by New York-based artist Holly Fisher. The event is taking place in collaboration with Re:Voir / The Film Gallery in Paris, France.
In addition to a live chat with Fisher that will follow the initial screening on Monday February 8th at 9:15 pm ET, there will also be a live conversation via Zoom with the filmmaker, several individuals interviewed in the documentary, and Pip Chodorov (Re:Voir/The Film Gallery) on Saturday February 13th at 11am ET. The discussion will be live streamed on this page. The documentary by Fisher will remain on view until Saturday February 13, 10:30pm PT.
Deafening Silence presents the reality of daily life of citizens living under brutal, military-led dictator rule in Myanmar through original footage of and interviews during two separate trips by Fisher to the country in 1996/97 and 2003. The first was a legal visit in which Fisher posed as a “fake tour guide,” while for the second she entered the country on foot and connected with two people from her earlier trip as well as with ethnic minority guerillas in order to film in a free-fire war zone.
Glimpses of bucolic life in rural parts of the country are intercut with archival colonial footage or segments from YouTube videos presenting the actual state of political terror, persecution at all levels of everyday life, and ethnic genocide. Scenes of rejection of the results of democratic elections and the military overtaking power, as well as the liberation from house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi on November 13 2010 are especially poignant in the context of last week’s dark events including the new military coup and the jailing of Suu Kyi and other democratically elected officials.
TO WATCH:
A “Watch Now” link will appear on this page on Monday February 8th at 6:30pm ET. Passes for viewing give full access to the video program and live chat.
General admission $8 (Valid through Saturday February 13, 10:30pm PT)Member admission $6 (Valid through Saturday February 13, 10:30pm PT)
Deafening Silence
By Holly Fisher, video, color, sound, 2012, 118 minutes
Music: Mun Awng (Dennis Dawes), among others
With: Zarni, Naw May Oo, Saw Mg Hla, Moethee Zun, Min Zin, Dr. Vum Son Suantak, Vicki Armour-Hileman, others from Burmese, Chin, Karen, Mon, Shan, Rohingya ethnic communities
“Deafening Silence is a fusion of beauty and terror, observation and anger, roving visuals and intimate stories that are funny, contemplative, or horrific – a subjective, layered depiction of Burma under brutal military dictatorship. My first trip was legal, shooting video as a fake tour guide doing research. The next was on foot, under-cover with ethnic Karen guerrillas, to film internal exiles surviving in a free-fire jungle war zone. Colonial archival imagery and clips from YouTube are woven within this tapestry of fragments, often in ironic counterpoint, and always to pierce the chokehold of censorship. This is a living history of a country arrested in time, a hybrid documentary focusing on ethnic genocide but with constant poetic resonance and a rich multiplicity of references to history and popular culture.” – Hank Heifetz and Holly Fisher
… she crafts a nonfiction tone poem that feels more like Apocalypse Now than any doc I can think of. …There are frequent moments of joy and grace, both small and large, captured in Deafening Silence. It’s those small heartbeats, the candle in the wind of love against hate, right against might, that holds the truly unshakeable hope for the future. – Dan Schindel, film critic
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Holly Fisher is a filmmaker and artist active since the mid-sixties. Her experimental short works and long-form essay films –– explorations in time, memory, trauma, and perception –– have been screened in museums and film festivals worldwide including Whitney Museum Biennials; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Film Forum, Japan; and the Berlin Film Festival, Berlin, Germany. She has had solo retrospectives at The Museum of Modern Art (1995) and Anthology Film Archives (2019) and has received multiple grants from The Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, CAPS, and The American Film Institute, among others. She was the editor of Christine Choy and Renee Tajima-Peña’s feature documentary Who Killed Vincent Chin?, which was nominated for an Oscar in 1989.
In the past few years, Fisher has made works from amateur film and video sources including 8mm film, iPhone and Kindle, for screening and for installation settings. Fisher lives and works in New York.
Live discussion w/ Holly Fisher, Maung Zarni, and Pip Chodorov
