Home With… March Picks

Weyes Blood selects
In The Air Tonight

In the Air Tonight, dir. Andrew Norman Wilson, 2020

In the Air Tonight saw its initial release on Reddit, only to garner a reputation of its own overtime, much like the urban legend about the origins of the Phil Collins song it portrays so succinctly. (A myth allegedly imparted to Wilson after an epic bong rip in some guy’s basement). Set over the slow build of the song, it draws us in like a true crime doc, seamlessly woven with “stolen” hypnotic footage shimmering like the Reagan era. A mythical boomer narrates–he has us on the edge of our seats. Wait, is this true? It seems true! And then it takes a turn for the mythical, less true, and just in the belly of that moment it becomes wildly personal, intrinsically true. Crescendoing into beautiful fiction and somehow reflecting more intimately the viewer, Into the Air Tonight reminds us that everything we’ve been searching for–a man in an iridescent suit, an absolutely true story–was always somewhere within ourselves; eluding us again and again.

WATCH IN THE AIR TONIGHT

Weyes Blood is the project of LA-based-singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Natalie Mering. Greatly influenced by modern and ancient myths explored in film, Mering musically probes these tales through five critically acclaimed albums, the most recent being And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow (2022).

Hannah Gross selects
Blue Black Permanent

Blue Black Permanent, dir. Margaret Tait, 2002

While we were in one of the many phases of making School of the Dead, my friend Sierra introduced me to Margaret Tait by way of Personae, Tait’s posthumously published book of memoir, poetry, and nonfiction. A doctor, a poet, a filmmaker, and now considered (they waited until after her death) one of Scotland’s national treasures, Tait is an example of keeping close to yourself and your work. Her first and only feature was made when she was 74. It is about three generations of women in Edinburgh and the Orkney Islands (Tait’s birthplace and home) and it is about the sea. The first two women drowned in maybe-accidents, though we all know the power of the sea’s pull. The claustrophobia of inherited fate is played out in present-day scenes through the third woman’s repeated attempts through conversation to reach an understanding with her friend/lover. It’s the last two minutes of the film that make the movie for me, or unmake it; the narrative ceding to shots of the impersonal impermanence of the shore, and the sound of the waves lapping against it.

WATCH BLUE BLACK PERMANENT

Hannah Gross is an actor based in New York. Her short film School of the Dead—made in collaboration with Sierra Pettengill, Hunter Zimny, Gordon Bell, Madeline Sadowski, Conner Schuurmans, and Kate Abernathy—premieres in MoMA’s Doc Fortnight on March 1.

Weyes Blood selects
Impersonator

Impersonator, dir. Andrew Norman Wilson, 2021

We all have to create an avatar to survive in this modern world. Impersonator feels sharply intuitive, with a steady voyeuristic quality, and an oppressively heavy silence. Wilson uncannily reflects societal ostracism in a very understated way. Somewhere in between a marvel movie and a Mike Leigh saga, Impersonator is a parable of modern proportions. We follow our anonymous character as his struggle to survive in Los Angeles unfurls over the course of a day, coping with the weight of conformity, the irony of homelessness in Hollywood, the land of corporate glamor, smoke and mirrors. As he slips deeper into the catacombs of cultural and literal destitution, we begin to ask, “When do we admit who we really are? Would I rather be institutionalized or jailed to get a meal and a free bed as my hopeless self versus continuously animating this awkward avatar whose equipment is failing?”

WATCH IMPERSONATOR

Weyes Blood is the project of LA-based-singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Natalie Mering. Greatly influenced by modern and ancient myths explored in film, Mering musically probes these tales through five critically acclaimed albums, the most recent being And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow (2022).