June 5-7: Following its success at the STIFF film festival in Seattle in May, The Beautiful Strange Land (Án Tír Álainn Aisteach) is featured in a special edition curated by Interstitial Theatre at LxWxH Gallery in Seattle, WA.
A languid meditation on the loss of language and its rootedness in land/place. Never seeing the speakers, we listen in as a younger female voice with a U.S. accent, and an older male voice with a strong Irish brogue work together to decipher a written Irish text. Alternately humorous and poignant, the conversation between the two matches the rhythm of the never-ceasing waves which pull seaweed back and forth in swirling eddies amidst constantly shifting light. The language that has been largely lost to the contemporary Irish is mirrored in the sublimation of its audio record to the mesmerizing beauty presented on the screen.
Filmed in Ballinskelligs, Co. Kerry, Ireland.