Tabula Rasa2004

Tabula Rasa was “one of the absolute stand out of Views From The Avant Garde (NY Film Festival) 04’.” Also on 2004 Top Ten Films List – Michael Sicinski, Online Journal “The Academic Hack”

Filmed in a South Bronx high-school, Tabula Rasa attempts through sound image juxtapositions, digital manipulation and layering to deal at once with the propensity to mislead and eloquence of the recorded image. The ambiguous qualities of appearances, so assiduously cultivated by institutions, the motivations found in the clues that tells the history of objects, colors, textures, architecture and ultimately, psychological states of mind are but some of the players in this poetic and cultural happening.

All the material for this digital video was initially shot on16 mm film, in June of 1993. thanks to a grant from the Canada Council. We hear the voices of mediation counselor Victor Hall and student John Cruz. The filming would not have been possible without the help of an extraordinary teacher Dan Sheehan.

Curated screenings & Awards:
• 2nd Prize, Media City 11, Windsor, Ontario
• Jury’s Citation (2nd Prizes), Black Maria Film & Video Festival, & tour Jersey City, NJ
• Views from the Avant-Garde, NewYork Film Festival, 2004, Lincoln Center, NYC
• 2004 Onion City Experimental Film & Video Festival, Chicago
• Images Festival, Toronto, Ontario
• San Francisco International Film Festival, PFA
• Athens Int’l Film & Video festival, Ohio
• Oberhausen Film  & Video Festival, May 2006 Germany.
• Best Avant-Garde Films & Videos of the Decade, "Century Limited", Confidential Program, Walter Read Theater, NYC, 9:30 PM July 27, 2010.