In conjunction with LaRissa Rogers’s subterranean convergence, film curator Jheanelle Brown presents an evening of experimental short films, caves are our way home. Her selections explore the politics and narratives of the “subterranean,” physical and metaphorical underground networks, as a way of thinking and relating to each other, our ancestors, descendants, and the land.

These films sit within Roger’s engagement with Zora Neale Hurston’s idea of ground thoughts, or earth knowledge, as a path to liberation. Crystal Z. Campbell charts a path for future life by creating space for ancestor and descendant exchange. Christopher Harris uses Hurston’s explanation of her methods for documenting African American folk songs to examine cultural memory. Karthik Pandian’s Anoka takes the shared space of the Dakota, Ojibwa, and Sanskrit languages as a foundation for anti-colonial solidarity.  Adam Piron’s Yaangna Plays Itself makes sure that Los Angeles’ Indigenous history and origin as Yaangna, a Gabrieleño village, isn’t forgotten. Ground thoughts and geologic memory shape Cauleen Smith’s Mines to Caves, which challenges the extraction at the heart of modern life. Michelle Sui’s Street Angel examines the past, present, and future of Los Angeles’ Chinatown with intergenerational memories at the forefront. Taken together, these films offer space to contemplate history and refusal. 

The film screening will be followed by a short conversation with Adam Piron and Cauleen Smith, moderated by Jheanelle Brown. Also accompanying the screening will be a Reading Room, also curated by Brown, and inspired by subterranean convergence.

Learn more about subterranean convergence on Clockshop's website.

subterranean convergence, by artist LaRissa Rogers, is a sculptural installation and score for performance at Los Angeles State Historic Park that draws on the geographies of the transcontinental railroad between the American South and West to investigate the ways liberation has been conceptualized—and where it might still be. Over 50 community members and institutions between Los Angeles and New Orleans were invited to contribute objects of personal or historical significance. Within a simulated railroad, chinoiserie-style tracks hold tabby-cast reproductions of these objects on the former site of the Southern Pacific River Station. This project explores collective memory and memorial by archiving the movements of people and goods across generations and geographies.

Jheanelle Brown is an educator, arts administrator, writer, and curator. Brown currently teaches at California Institute of Arts, where in addition to teaching film studies, she serves as curator for the Film at REDCAT program. Brown serves as a programmer for Los Angeles Filmforum, where she recently served as Project Director for Experimentations: Imag(in)ing Knowledge in Film for the Getty’s PST:Art initiative. At this moment, she is dreaming about cosmic marronage whilst trying to remember her terrestrial obligations.

Please note: seating is limited. Box Office opens thirty minutes prior to the listed showtime. Guests may add their name to the standby list upon arrival. Online ticket sales will be honored up until 15 minutes after the scheduled showtime; at that time, any unclaimed seats will be released for in-store purchase on a first-come, first-served basis. All Sales Final.