A miscellany of shorts ranging from obscure internet musings to institutional cartoons to experimental documentary to musical numbers, this program offers a meditation on the probationary and pending, acting and reflecting on the comedy of the “appeal”—a qualification to prove a bona fide existence to an authority. The “document” (the paper, the written word, evidence) has inextricable links to the formation of the nation state, the formation of visibility within bureaucratic law, and the idea of the “right to exist.”  An appeal for what? To humanity, to comedy, to basic existence within our own bodies, within country lines. An appeal to whom? To our real community: to those who see us and know us, to those who don’t, to those who put us in danger.

In person: Gavin Mottram, Jorge Ravelo, Alan S. Tofighi