Past event

About

Los Angeles Premiere

Jeanne C. Finley’s Journeys Beyond the Cosmodrome (2019, 53 min.) is a riveting portrait of a remote Eurasian culture as revealed through the fantasies and fears of its adolescents. On the vast Kazakhstan steppes, nine 16-year- olds prepare to graduate from the Akkol orphanage. Rockets launched from the nearby Cosmodrome inspire their dreams as they write about and perform imagined future-selves. Guided by the nomadic spirit and natural beauty of the steppes, each explores questions of time and truth in relation to the challenging reality of their lives. Finley, a highly accomplished narrative and documentary video artist, seamlessly interweaves traditional Kazakh culture, global popular iconography, space travel, and individual performances to create a compelling vision of the teens’ journeys into an uncertain adulthood.

In person: Jeanne C. Finley

“From the majestic Kazakh steppes, the young artists use a mixture of words, pictures, and music to craft mesmerizing prophecies of what adulthood and independence will mean to them.”

Brendan Peterson, Pacific Film Archive Calendar

Funded in part by the Ostrovsky Family Fund, with special support provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Curated by Steve Anker and Bérénice Reynaud, as part of the Jack H. Skirball Series.

Jeanne C. Finley was the 1998 recipient of The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts in Film/Video.