Garden Against the Machine
Ja’Tovia Gary’s filmmaking is all to some extent grappling with the question of identity, particularly its precariousness in an often hostile world. Early films such as Cakes Da Killa: No Homo (2013) and An Ecstatic Experience (2015) explore the complex histories of African-American life, in particular the role of art and storytelling in establishing stable identities across time. But her latest film is itself possessed of a somewhat mutable, even uncertain identity. The official title of the film is The Giverny Document (Single Channel), which seems to imply that at some future point, The Giverny Document may be reconfigured for a multi-channel gallery installation. This has not happened yet, and I’d be curious to see what such a reorganization of the material might add to the fundamental power of the Giverny material.
After all, has, at its core, a re-edited, expanded version of the material from Gary’s previous film, (2017). In fact, much of that original film appears in its original order within , with one significant new element added into the mix. In light of this, an additional remix of the project, with additional monitors and sequencing, could very well allow Gary to introduce new threads of inquiry into becoming a long-term, multimedia project for Gary, along the lines of Apichatpong’s series, which also contained short films, features, and museum installations.
