Part of First Look 20/21
Sunday, July 25, 2021, 4:00 p.m.
Museum of the Moving Image - Redstone Theater

Dir. Phillip Warnell. UK/U.S., 2020, 61 mins. Filmed on location in Astoria, primarily on nearby Steinway Street, the latest by Phillip Warnell (Ming of Harlem) employs rooftop and ground-level surveillance techniques to track a voluble older woman (Martha Wollner) as she encounters and engages strangers in surprisingly personal conversation. The purpose of her interrogations are unclear, as is the surreptitiousness of our gaze, and yet moments of connection and sincerity emerge. Who is she looking for? What are we looking for? Evoking Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation as well as gonzo “hidden camera” hijinks, Warnell’s aggressive interventions foster something more complex and disarming than we might expect. North American premiere.