Mad Ladders
2015 | 00:10:00 | United States | English | Color | Stereo | 16:9 | HD video
Collection: Single Titles
Tags: Media Analysis, Mental Landscape, Music, Myth, Nature, Television
In the film Mad Ladders, the prophetic ramblings of an unseen narrator recount fantastical dreams of the coming Rapture, as crystalline imagery of rolling clouds gives way to heavily-processed video of moving stage sets from The American Music Awards telecasts of the 1980s and early 1990s. Blooming and pulsing in and out of geometric abstraction, this swirling storm of rising curtains, spinning set pieces, and unveiled pop idols forms an occult spectacle, driven by its impassioned narrator and an 8-bit leitmotif. Like a half-remembered dream of mythology, television, and religion, the film strikes a hypnotic balance between storytelling and free-falling.
—Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago 2015
Prizes + Awards
2016 Third Prize, Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, Chicago, IL
2016 Honorable Mention, Milwaukee Underground Film Festival 2016, Milwaukee, WI
Premiere
New York Film Festival - ProjectionsNew York City, NY
2015
Exhibitions + Festivals
2015 Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL
2015 Sight Unseen at MICA, Baltimore, MD
2016 Portland International Film Festival, Portland, OR
2016 Hong Kong International Film Festival, Hong Kong, China (International Premiere)
2016 Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, Chicago, IL
2016 Big Ears Festival, Knoxville, TN
2016 Crossroads Film Festival, San Francisco, CA
2016 IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival, Lisbon, Portugal
2016 Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, Milwaukee, WI
2016 Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Hamburg, Germany
2016 Outfest at REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, Winnipeg, Canada
2016 Oak Cliff Film Festival, Dallas, TX
2016 QFest: The Houston International LGBTQ Film Festival, Houston, TX
2016 EXiS Experimental Film and Video Festival, Seoul, South Korea
2016 MIEFF: Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, Moscow, Russia
2016 EXPO VIDEO at EXPO CHICAGO, Chicago, IL
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