A body to worship
A film poem made with misloaded 16mm film, manipulated piano improvisations and an incantation.
I want a body to worship
To examine closely
Locating moments of ecstasy
and grief
Feeling the surface,
going inward.
I want a body to hold
Gently, tightly
A vessel of eternal warmth
The scent of skin
Marked with memory.
I want a body to worship
Sending me to the altar
With offerings to the divine
Carrying me forward
Into the temple.
I want a body to share
These connections
Sinews of fate and destiny
Devouring them slowly
The taste of sweat
A sweet timeline of intimacy.
A body to worship.
A turning point
Unlocking hearts
Barbs unfurl into blooms
As the flowers and songs and ripe fruits adorn the altar
The body awaits
For its devoted follower.
-Written August 2022; Film poem made August 2023.
Collapsed Timelines In Felicitous Space
March 4-26,2022
The McAllen Creative Incubator
601 N Main St. McAllen, TX 78501
Collapsed Timelines In Felicitous Space focuses on California landscapes and geographical memory. The exhibition opened on March 4, 2022 and featured new film and video works including Sacred Landscapes: The Arroyo Seco, a filmic ode to the Arroyo Seco, Compressed Time, a four-channel video installation of film diary entries from C.’s time living in California (2014-2020), and Body Landscapes No. 1, a painted exploration of physical and emotional bodies merging and summoning an ephemeral landscape. These varied forms of landscape meditations comment on the physical and psychic impressions left in our bodies and memory.
Show notes: English & Spanish
Closing out the show on March 26, soundscape artist Jon Almaraz joined C. in a dialogue on collaboration, healing, and the intuitive pull to create, which was followed by a deep listening and activation session in the gallery. This interactive experience created vibrational energy through sound and psychic intention to guide the audience through an exploration of their inner landscapes. The artists asked for participants to enter into the space with an open mind and open heart, and bring with them a small object they wish to activate with the vibrations of sound and energy.
Jon Almaraz is a self-taught artist and musician born in East L.A. His work is inspired by nature, space and the music of all things. He has performed, recorded and written for groups such as San Cha, Vibration Group, Sister Mantos and Bulbs. He currently resides in Santa Fe, NM.
ÉCHALE SÁVILA
Sávila’s music video and mini documentary, Échale Sávila, promotes inter-generational healing through the relationship with their mothers as they speak on themes of Mexican-American identity, resilience, and healing shot through the lens of a Super-8 camera by filmmaker C. Díaz.
The Vision: Fabiola Reyna (guitarist), Brisa Gonzalez (singer) y Papi Fimbres (drums) reunite with their mothers in their current location of Portland, Oregon to honor the histories of their lives and those who came before them. Sávila reunite with their mothers to bring awareness to the experience, responsibilities, and trauma that women/mothers/care-takers face and how that transfers onto the generations that follow. Through this video Sávila seeks to answer questions such as, “How do we break this cycle of repeated suffering?” How do we honor and acknowledge the trauma of our history and use it to heal and empower our future?”
︎WATCH HERE︎
Director...C. Díaz
Concept and Art Direction...Sávila
Producer...Joop Joop Creative
Camera...C. Díaz
Las Mamis...Martha Reyna, Mercedes Gonzalez, Berta Fimbres
Hair, MakeUp, Styling...Noelle Sosaya
Set Design... Maria Joan Dixon
Photographer...Evan James Benally Atwood
Editor, Colorist...C. Díaz
Sound Mix...Alejandra Leon
Title Design, Poster Design...Trinh Huynh
Original Score...Fabiola Reyna
Production Assistants...Shana Fimbres, Megan Watson
Special Thanks...Northwest Film Center,
Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Ei Toshinari
Shot on location at the Painted Hills & Blue Basin Ridge in Oregon. Traditional Lands of the ancient Umatilla, Wasco, Warm Springs, Northern Paiute, and Shoshone People
2019
QUIEN BIEN AMA NUNCA OLVIDA
A love letter to the Rio Grande Valley, Texas. By weaving archival footage from their family's archive alongside present-day vignettes, abstract animation and text, the filmmaker investigates an evolving fascination with the region. As humans we analyze and romanticize memory and experience, and as time goes on, we lose track of the facts.
¿Qué verdad ocultamos a los demás o, quizás lo más importante, nos negamos a nosotros mismos?
︎WATCH HERE︎
dirección..............................C. Díaz
guión..................................C. Díaz
traducción y narración......Emma Perez-Trevino
camera.................Lauren Pruitt y C. Díaz
sonido........................Jon Almaraz
edición y color........................C. Díaz
presentando Araceli Casares
grabado en el Rio Grande Valley, TX
muchísimas gracias a
Kodak,
Panavision,
the Echo Park Film Center y
todxs los que apoyaron esta película.
2018
FRENTE A FRENTE
As humans, we constantly build barriers around our vulnerable selves, creating layers of trapped moments and emotions. It’s important to constantly dismantle these layers.
Frente a Frente is an expanded cinema piece created during my residency at the Echo Park Film Center (February-March 2016). I spent two months dissecting a collection of perspectives, desires, choices, and manipulations.
The first film (left) is a mixture of mis-loaded film, double exposures and optical printing. The second film (right) is a replication of the first, reprinted onto new stock via an optical printer. Manipulations in size, speed and exposure were created during the printing process.
All film shot, processed, optically printed,
cut, digitally scanned & color graded
by C. Díaz.
Sound by Jon Almaraz.
Additional camerawork by Joseph Bennett.
2016