Friday, February 17 at 8:00 p.m. ($8 general, $6 students/seniors, $5 members)
Saturday, February 18 at 2:00 p.m. ($7 general, $5 students/seniors, $4 members)

(2011, 94 min.)

Set in the Welsh farming community Trefeurig, this portrait captures both the rural landscape and way of life for inhabitants of the village where the filmmaker's parents, refugees from Nazi Germany, settled. With a soundtrack by Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin), the film document stands as an elegy to the pre-mechanised world that it remains in the heart of Wales, where people do not own the land but belong to it. "Images of wistful sadness are interlaced with humour and moments of skin-prickling beauty that leave the audience undone…profoundly and unexpectedly moving." (Wendy Ide, The Times of London)

For her residency project, Buffalo ex-pat Sarah Baker is producing a multi-media "Soap Opera" project set in the Queen City. The artist, who graduated from Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts in 1995, is visiting from the United Kingdom. Based on her research into figures from local history and popular culture, Baker's vignettes will re-imagine these individuals and their relationship to Western New York. The region's many resources–from its talented acting community to its architectural landmarks–will be features of this highly-stylized, “revisionist” history. Though day-time soaps may be considered antiquated in today's media market, and are certainly disappearing from broadcast television, Baker will use the genre's nonlinear structure to experiment with repetition and interweaving story lines to reveal connections among characters regardless of time and space.

In conjunction with the Soap Opera video project, elements of which will be both broadcast on Cable Access and exhibited at Hallwalls gallery, Baker will produce a printed soap opera digest such as those found at the supermarket check-out. Along with essays, images, and written content related to the project, this magazine/catalog will include advertisements from Western New York businesses. Expanding Buffalo's presence beyond the narrative to include the local business community through advertising is in keeping with the soap opera genre. Essentially entertainment that occurred between the commercials, the early dramatic serials broadcast on the radio were effective vehicles for sponsoring companies such as Palmolive and Procter & Gamble (Ivory Soap). Within both the printed publication and video production, these advertisements will both serve as literal promotions as well as artistic gestures that function within the larger project ... continue reading >>

Opening Reception: Saturday, March 10, 8-11 p.m.
Artist's Talks in the Cinema at 8:00 p.m.

For her residency project, Buffalo ex-pat Sarah Baker is producing a multi-media "Soap Opera" project set in the Queen City. The artist, who graduated from Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts in 1995, is visiting from the United Kingdom. Based on her research into figures from local history and popular culture, Baker's vignettes will re-imagine these individuals and their relationship to Western New York. The region's many resources—from its talented acting community to its architectural landmarks—will be features of this highly-stylized, "revisionist" history. Though day-time soaps may be considered antiquated in today's media market, and are certainly disappearing from broadcast television, Baker will use the genre's nonlinear structure to experiment with repetition and interweaving story lines to reveal connections among characters regardless of time and space. Read more…