Born in the Ponta Grossa region of Brazil, iara lee has made a name for herself as one of the most prolific activist documentarians of our time. She began her film career as a producer for the Sao Paulo International Film Festival in the 1980s and eventually moved to New York City to develop her own mixed-media company. What began as an experiment to seek the intersection between cinema, music, architecture, and poetry would grow into something far more mission-driven. By the late 2000s, her self-run Caipirinha Productions would evolve into the Cultures of Resistance Network, a global outreach publication dedicated to promoting artistic demonstrations of social justice.
A participant in the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla, iara lee is a true example of utilizing filmmaking for the greater good. After her debut tech-doc SYNTHETIC PLEASURES (1995) screened in NYC earlier this year, Spectacle is proud to present two more of her documentaries showcasing our global utopic potential: MODULATIONS and CULTURES OF RESISTANCE
MODULATIONS
dir. iara lee, 1998
United States. 75 min.
MONDAY, MAY 19 – 10 PM
With the alluring tagline “cinema for the ear,” MODULATIONS is the definitive world travelogue of the rave culture that thrived through the ’90s. Packed with revelatory interviews with music vanguards like Genesis P-Orridge and interspersed with uproarious live sets from the likes of Squarepusher and the Future Sound of London, MODULATIONS presents itself less like a documentary and more like a kaleidoscopic deep dive into one of the more singular subcultures of our age. It’s “Peace Love Unity Respect” distilled onto film.
CULTURES OF RESISTANCE
dir. iara lee, 2010
United States. 73 min.
SATURDAY, MAY 3 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 9 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, MAY 13 – 10 PM
MONDAY, MAY 19 – 7:30 PM
Beginning as a gut reaction to the start of the Iraq War, iara lee felt inspired again to travel the world and film it in a new light. From graffiti artists in Iran to grassroots guitar technicians in Brazil to the creative dreams of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, CULTURES OF RESISTANCE is a universal, beautiful tribute to Indigenous art, offering a path to communal healing in an authoritarian world.
Special thanks to Carlos Pina and the Cultures of Resistance Network