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    On the Boards Parking Lot
    Saturday, May 01, 2021, 8:30 PM — Saturday, May 15, 2021, 10:00 PM

    Drive-In at On the Boards 

    Please note that the start time for the May 8th and May 15th programs has been shifted to 8:30 PM.

    Saturday May 1, 2021, 8:00-9:30 PM
    Saturday May 8, 2021, 8:30-10 PM
    Saturday May 15, 2021, 8:30-10 PM

    On the Boards and the Henry Art Gallery are pleased to co-present a screening series. Curated by the Henry, this multi-evening event features work by various artists who use moving images to respond to colonial mentalities and tactics, from surveillance to capitalism. Drawing from existing and imagined spaces, each of these artworks employ sound and movement to generate potential worlds and futures.
    Please join us for these unique viewing experiences. In recent years, the OtB parking lot has been a badminton court, a beer garden, and throughout May, it’s an outdoor drive-in movie theater!


    SCHEDULE

    Saturday, May 1, 2021, 8 - 9:30 PM

    Enrique Ramírez, Un hombre que camina (A man who walks) (2011-2014; 22 min)

    Un hombre que camina (A man who walks) features the world’s largest salt flat near Uyuni, Bolivia, instilling a monumental sense of timelessness. Invested in the loss of regional identity, Enrique Ramírez attempts to reconcile the historical and cultural gaps between Indigenous traditions and homogeneity driven by capitalism. Crafted by Indigenous coal miners to deter the Spanish military, the mask the modern-day shaman wears acts as a relic of colonial resistance and signifies the need to preserve intergenerational, intercultural rituals.


    Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex Gvojic, No history in a room filled with people with funny names 5 (2018; 31 min)

    Korakrit Arunanondchai and Alex Gvojic examine the relationships between humans and non-human beings, connecting ritual, fiction, and reality. In the fifth iteration of No history in a room filled with people with funny names, a fictional Thai painter communicates with a drone spirit named Chantri about the consequences of globalization in contemporary Thailand.


    Akosua Adoma Owusu, Drexciya (2010; 12 min)

    Set in an abandoned swimming pool in Accra, Ghana, Akosua Adoma Owusu's Drexciya draws on the myth from the Detroit-based electronic band to create an afrofuturist portrait of an underwater subcontinent populated by the unborn children of African women thrown overboard during the Transatlantic slave trade. The Riviera was once known as Ghana's first pleasure beach. A one-time extravagant Ambassador Hotel of post- colonial - early Kwame Nkrumah era, the Riviera Beach Club thrived until the mid-1970's. The Olympic-sized pool, now in a dilapidated state, is used for locals for things other than swimming.


    Wangechi Mutu and Santigold, The End of Eating Everything (2013; 8 min)

    The End of Eating Everything interrogates the destructive nature of overconsumption. The singer Santigold plays a post-apocalyptic creature composed of human limbs and machine parts, possessing a voracious appetite and flying in the darkened sky.


    Jacolby Satterwhite, We Are in Hell When We Hurt Each Other (2020, 24 min)

    Current social and political conditions permeate Satterwhite’s virtual quasi-utopic universe, created for the Black femme and as tribute to Breonna Taylor. The performative gestures of Satterwhite’s gender-ambiguous fembots serve as tools of resistance, effecting this space of Afrofuturist self-expression. The techno music is based on four songs by the artist’s mother; one of the songs inspired the work’s title, suggesting how inflicting pain on others deepens our collective wounds.

    Total run time: 85 min


    Saturday, May 8, 8:30 - 10 PM

    Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, The Bell, the Digger, and the Tropical Pharmacy (2014; 21 min)

    The film depicts an excavator demolishing the GlaxoSmithKline prescription drug plant in Cidra, Puerto Rico, which closed in 2009 after a former employee exposed severe contamination problems. The excavator possesses a cast-iron bell that transforms into a “sonic digger,” producing a cacophony when smashed into the building. The sound evokes the exploitation enacted by the U.S. and multinational corporations on the people and land of Puerto Rico.


    Jumana Manna, A Magical Substance Flows Into Me (2016; 66 min)

    In her film, Jumana Manna draws inspiration from Dr. Robert Lachmann, a Jewish-German ethnomusicologist who emigrated to Palestine in 1935. Lachmann founded a radio program for the Palestine Broadcasting Service entitled “Oriental Music” in which he would invite community members to perform their vernacular music. Following in Lachmann’s footsteps, Manna encounters Kurdish, Moroccan and Yeminite Jews, Samaritans, Beduoins, and Coptic Christians, and engages them in conversation around their music and life in Palestine.

    Total run time: 87 min


    Saturday May 15, 2021, 8:30 - 10 PM

    Akosua Adoma Owusu, Drexciya (2010; 12 min)

    Set in an abandoned swimming pool in Accra, Ghana, Akosua Adoma Owusu's Drexciya draws on the myth from the Detroit-based electronic band to create an afrofuturist portrait of an underwater subcontinent populated by the unborn children of African women thrown overboard during the Transatlantic slave trade. The Riviera was once known as Ghana's first pleasure beach. A one-time extravagant Ambassador Hotel of post- colonial - early Kwame Nkrumah era, the Riviera Beach Club thrived until the mid-1970's. The Olympic-sized pool, now in a dilapidated state, is used for locals for things other than swimming.


    Rodney McMillian, A Migration Tale (2014-2015; 10 min)

    A Migration Tale blurs temporal boundaries to tell the story of cyclical racism through its references to the Great Migration, Afrofuturism, and notions of landscape. Adorned with a black cloak and silver mask, Rodney McMillian’s protagonist—a superhero or time traveler—wanders from a veranda in South Carolina to the streets of Harlem.


    Martine Syms, Incense, Sweaters and Ice (2017; 69 min)

    Incense, Sweaters and Ice is an adaptation of Martine Syms’s performance Misdirected Kiss (2016), which examines Black femininity. Syms shot the work in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Clarksdale, alluding to the routes of the Great Migration. The film explores how the subjects—Girl, Mrs. Queen Esther Bernetta White, and WB (“whiteboy")—move between watching, being watched, and remaining unseen. The camera performs different central roles, raising questions about the neutrality of its gaze and the influence of surveillance on perception and identity.

    Total run time: 91 min


    View artist bios here!
    CREDITS

    This program is held in conjunction with Murmurations, a Seattle-wide arts collaboration featuring a series of exhibitions, performances, screenings, community conversations, artist talks, and other programs co-developed between cultural organizations. Taking its name from the flight patterns of starling birds, whose survival depends on collective movement, Murmurations emerged in 2020 from a shared need to find new structures for engaging and presenting creative practices to the public. The presentations, unfolding throughout 2021, are organized by the Frye Art Museum, Henry Art Gallery, Jacob Lawrence Gallery, On the Boards, Northwest Film Forum, and Velocity Dance Center. Learn more about Murmurations and upcoming events at facebook.com/murmurationsseattle.

    ADMISSION

    Space is limited and advance registration through On the Boards is required. Tickets are priced per car. Attendees can "name a price that makes you happy".

    If you need to change and/or cancel your reservation, please contact On the Boards at boxoffice@ontheboards.org.

    tickets

    WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU VISIT

    Audio - Bring Your FM Radio All audio will be broadcast through an FM transmitter. Viewers are required to tune in via car radio or cell phone. Please note: not all cell phones have FM capabilities, so make sure to double-check before arriving.

    Safety and Guidelines

    - All screenings will be experienced from inside your vehicle.

    - There will be no ticket sales on site. Tickets are sold online in advance only.

    - The health and safety of our attendees and staff is our absolute priority. Guests MUST stay in their vehicle. - Bathrooms will be available in the On the Boards theater, however guests are strongly encouraged to not leave their cars unless absolutely necessary.

    - Our staff has been updated and trained on all safety precautions as laid out by Washington's Safe Start plan. All staff are required to wear a face mask or face cover.

    - Attendees traveling in one vehicle, or sitting together in the "outside audience" area must reside in the same household.

    - Attendees must be seated in a passenger seat equipped with a seatbelt.

    - No alcohol can be consumed on premises.

    PROGRAM PARTNERS

    ON THE BOARDS

    ACCESS
    This event is public.
    ACCESSIBILITY
    We strive to provide services and accommodations for anyone who needs assistance. Please email contact-programs@henryart.org with particular accessibility needs or concerns you may have.