Talena Sanders

Talena Sanders

História

"I am an artist and filmmaker who creates experimental documentary films that reflect the wild complexity and strange poetry of lived experience. Expanding and challenging mainstream documentary conventions is at the center of my work. I like gaps and mystery and opening up more questions than giving easy answers. Sometimes my work is about my own experiences, sometimes it’s about artists and people I admire—trailblazing women and queer people. My work is collage-like, weaving together materials from many different sources and angles. I record on 16mm most often, in part for the way that material destabilizes a viewer’s sense of time, blurring the line between found footage and what is contemporary. I am proud to be a film educator, serving as Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Sonoma State University." -T.S.

Perfil

Talena Sanders

Filmes

The Coronation
Director
Short by Talena Sanders from 2021.
Eastern State
Director
Stemming from a found archive of decades of footage documenting the lives of the patients and employees of one of the oldest mental health institutions in the US, Eastern State seeks the moments when the source materials start communicating something outside their intended purpose. *flicker warning
Rehearsal
Director
Preparations for performances.
Between My Flesh and the World's Fingers
Director
Reconstructed through Super 8 as if it was actual found footage, with documents, newspapers and readings superimposed, this is the fascinating story of lesbian poet, film pioneer and provocateur Mary MacLane, who in the early 1900s was dubbed the Wild Woman of Butte, Montana. She resisted the categorisation and prejudice of the day through the creation of multiple versions of herself.
Reasonable Watchfulness
Director
A diary film; transitions and longing for other people and places like a fox on the run.
Prospector
Director
A short by Talena Sanders.
Liahona
Director
Liahona is an experimental documentary examining the culture, history, and lived experience of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, often referred to as the Mormon faith. The film creates a portrait of Mormonism through documentation of LDS cultural dominance in Utah, the suppressed history of folk magic in the early church, landmark Mormon life experiences, and my personal history and connection to the church. Found media with the voices of outsiders and insiders illuminate a religion that intrigues many, but is seen as mysterious or inaccessible. Liahona shifts through perspectives on the faith – from reverence to questioning, presenting the complexities of the vast institution of Mormonism contrasted with the tenuity of individual faith.
REACH
Director
SD transferred to VHS