"A dreamlike travelogue that transforms a mundane world into something strange and new." The Village Voice

In this provocative mix of documentary and fiction, the Alpert Award-winning filmmaker lays out beautifully composed images shot throughout the United States, Europe and Australia, and links them through two loose narratives: A Japanese executive, Tamiko (Miho Nikaido), travels to America on business while a runaway, Amanda (Mira Billotte), haunts a shopping mall, looking for work and a place to crash. Cohen’s collage of spaces cut off from their original (sub)urban surroundings produces an uncanny repetition: two nearly affectless women trapped in the generic byproducts of globalization.

In person: Jem Cohen

Cohen is a New York based film and video maker. Often shooting in hundreds of locations with little or no additional crew, he collects street footage, portraits, and sounds. The films and videos built from these archives defy easy categorization, thriving on the collision between documentary, narrative, and experimental approaches. Some of the works are personal/political city portraits made on travels around the globe. Many center on daily life and ephemeral moments - things seen out of the corner of the eye and pulled into the center.

Cohen's work has been broadcast by PBS, the BBC, Planete, the Sundance Channel, and shown in many international film festivals. Awards include first prizes at Locarno International Film Festival, Bonn Videonale, Festival Dei Popoli, Doubletake Documentary Festival, San Francisco Film Festival, Film + Arc, Graz, and the Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award 2000. In addition to the Herb Alpert Award, Cohen has also been a Rockefeller Fellow and a recipient of the Guggenheim Award.

Selected Video/Filmography: This is a History of New York (1988), Buried in Light (Central and Eastern Europe in Passing) (1994), Lost Book Found (1996), Instrument (1999 – a feature-length documentary with and about the band Fugazi), Blood Orange Sky (1999), Amber City (1999), Little Flags (2000), and Benjamin Smoke (2001 – a feature-length documentary about the underground musician Benjamin, co-directed with Peter Sillen).

The Jack H. Skirball Screening Series is curated by Steve Anker and Bérénice Reynaud

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