Balagan and Magic Lantern Cinema Present:
Ship to Shore
Experimental land- and seascape documentaries by Peter Hutton and James Benning
Two outdoor film events:
Friday, August 24th, 20h
Norman B. Leventhal Park, Post Office Square, Downtown Boston
Saturday, August 25th, 20h
Grant’s Block, 260 Westminster St., Downtown Providence
Balagan and Magic Lantern Cinema have collaborated to present a pair of outdoor film events on consecutive nights in Boston and Providence under the banner “Ship to Shore,” evoking the seafaring histories of their respective cities. Each screening will present one feature film and one short film by acclaimed experimental filmmakers Peter Hutton and James Benning – two artists who share a similarly contemplative approach to place-based documentary film practice while still retaining strikingly original styles of filmic analysis and expression. A former merchant seaman, Hutton has documented four decades of voyages through such places as the Yangtze River, the coastline of northern Iceland, and the Hudson River Valley in his majestically photographed films, which merge observational and diaristic modes of narration, and whose reverent depictions of landscape have been compared to the work of Thomas Cole and the nineteenth-century Luminist painters. Benning has been producing meditative portraits of the American landscape for as many years, creating works that blend rigorous formal concerns with a deep investment in national politics, local histories, and the environment. Along with receiving a host of awards and critical accolades, Hutton’s and Benning’s films have screened at highly prestigious festivals and institutions throughout the world, such as the Vienna International Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Tate Modern in London.