When I was 13 years old, I turned my life over to Goth. Dad gave me his old darkroom equipment and I transformed the attic into a photography studio where I processed and printed a constant stream of pictures taken in the cemetery behind my house. Picture after picture, I covered myself in dark scarves and ankh necklaces and draped myself beside the tombstones, looking wistfully off into the cloudy sky with Egyptian eyes. My best friend Jenny was there too, holding my hand, head in my lap, glaring at the camera with her pretty pale face. We were brilliant, brave and beautiful, like the films of Tracey Maccullion.
Maccullion lives in Boston and made many of the films that will be screened this Wednesday night while studying Film at MassArt in the late 1990’s. Her films are powerful portraits of psycho-dynamic conflicts involving a triangle of complicated relationships, linked together with a chaotic cacophony of noise (Maccullion herself produced most of the soundtracks). Aesthetically, her films are as thorny as her characters – high contrast, out of focus, scratched and underexposed. She tells stories the way they really happen inside of memory, and, like the landscape of a dream (or a photograph), each scene materializes with its own authority, leaving you to make the connections between characters, locations, situations, and what the hell is going on. Courageous, mysterious and undeniably memorable, Maccullion’s films are painful reminders of the suffering we endure for the beauty of our lives.
– Tara Nelson
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
8 pm
$4/FREE for MassArt Students
Massachusetts College of Art
Film Department in Screening Room 1.
621 Huntington Ave. Boston MA 02115
Entrance to MASSART after 7pm is through South Building on Huntington Ave. same entrance as Admissions office.
Preview of films by Tracey Maccullion
ALTER (1996) Super 8, 6 min
The inner world and lucid dream state of someone unraveling. The process of ego fracturing. The invocation of a different self (ego)and/or selves. Strange forms of psychic communication. Invasion, Possession.
TUNNEL VISION (1997) Super 8, 6 min
A relationship between three people takes a dark turn as they meet each other within a dream where communication is psychic not spoken.
GASH (1998) 16mm, 26 min
Two young sisters ingest and regurgitate the sickness that is present within their abusive home and surrounding social environment and through acts of desperation, depravity and rage become part of what seems like a terrifying plague.
An inner universe(mind)of multiple selves(doppelgangers)which mirror an outer universe(physical/societal). An Identity(ego)crisis. A disease or plague of negative emotions and physical violence. A bleeding wound(vagina). Fear and oppression of the female and of femininity. Psychic communication/the inner language of sub-conscious. Ingesting and purging lies and bullshit. A curse of repetitive cycles.
MULLROY (2002) 16mm, 28 min
(shorter edited version)
The battle between a family/cult and a mysterious member of that family over a young woman’s mind, body and soul.
EXILE (2003) 16mm 1997 20 min
A woman is cast out and vows revenge against those who tried to shut her up and take advantage of her. A fall which includes an internal and external struggle. The prejudice of others concerning female sexuality which is sometimes feared and suppressed through domination, violence and ridicule. Learning to fetishise violence. Embracing the inner outcast.
NEVER BACK DOWN (2010) Super 8
