'THROUGH THE REPELLENT FENCE' Land Art Film to Debut at MoMA

Through the Repellent Fence: A Land Art Film from director Sam Wainwright Douglas will have its World premiere at The Museum of Modern Art's 16th annual Doc Fortnight film festival.

Through the Repellent Fence follows art collective Postcommodity as they bring together a community to construct Repellent Fence, a two-mile long ephemeral monument "stitching" together the United States and Mexico. Postcommodity consists of three Native American artists who "put land art in a tribal context."

Aided by the communities on both sides of the border in 2015 the artists installed a series of 28 huge inflatable spheres emblazoned with an insignia known as the "open eye" that has existed in Indigenous cultures from South America to Canada for thousands of years. The spheres were evenly spaced apart and extended north and south of the border a mile in each direction, "a metaphorical suture stitching together cultures that have inhabited these lands long before borders were drawn."

The film provides an intimate glimpse into the arduous process behind creating an ambitious artwork that will give voice to the shared history and enduring culture of Indigenous societies that have made the region their home for thousands of years before a border ever divided it. In this challenging political climate where the debate over a "wall" between Mexico and the United States as well as immigration has been the hot topic of the last year, Through the Repellent Fence is remarkably prescient.

Intercut with this thread are lush scenes using stunning cinematography to absorb viewers into striking land art environments that have preceded Post Commodity's work and A HAUNTING original score by Alex Maas of The Black Angels.

Through The Repellent Fence is an adventure in the artistic process blended with a road trip of discovery visiting sites and diverse perspectives to explore how land art can generate community interaction and perceptual shifts in how we interpret, engage and draw inspiration from our natural world. Scenes with other artists and intellectuals working in the land art realm provide context and insight as well. These include Chris Taylor of Texas Tech University's Land Arts of the American West program, writer Lucy Lippard and Matt Coolidge of the Center for Land Use Interpretation.

"I wanted to make this film to dispel the misconceptions about the U.S.- Mexico border and to add nuance to the narrative," said Douglas. "Life in the borderlands is so much more complex and richer than the mainstream media and most of our politicians seem to understand. This is a border story that has not been told: Indigenous artists giving voice to the shared history of Indigenous people who have traveled back and forth for thousands of years, reminding the world that being Indigenous does not stop at a border. And, the art they created is beautiful, participatory and brings people together. It's an art project at its finest: invigorating the public, finding common ground and reinforcing the bond between people and place."

Douglas is a director and editor working in Austin, TX who most recently directed and edited Honky Tonk Heaven, which premiered and won an audience award at South by Southwest 2016. He also edited and co-produced No No: A Dockumentary, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, and edited and produced the PBS documentary Ladonna Harris: Indian 101, which was executive produced by Johnny Depp and broadcast on PBS in 2014. Douglas also directed Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee And The Spirit Of The Rural Studio, which was broadcast nationwide on PBS in 2010.

Through the Repellent Fence: A Land Art Film was produced by Jeffrey Brown, No No: A Dockumentary; David Hartstein, Where Soldiers Come From; and Julianna Brannum, Ladonna Harris: Indian 101.

Postcommodity is an interdisciplinary arts collective comprised of Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martínez and Kade L. Twist. Postcommodity's art functions as a shared Indigenous lens and voice to engage the assaultive manifestations of the global market and its supporting institutions, public perceptions, beliefs, and individual actions that comprise the ever-expanding, multinational, multiracial and multiethnic colonizing force that is defining the 21st Century through ever increasing velocities and complex forms of violence. Postcommodity have been selected for the 2017 Whitney Biennial.

Screenings at MoMA's Doc Fortnight 2017:

Saturday, February 18, 4:30 pm - T1, Theater 1

Post-screening discussion with filmmakers and Postcommodity

Sunday, February 19, 2:30 pm - T1, Theater 1

Ticket information: www.moma.org/calendar/events/2824

Interviews with the filmmakers and Postcommodity are available upon request.

For more information, visit www.landartfilm.com, or find the film on Facebook: www.facebook.com/Through-the-Repellent-Fence-A-Land-Art-Film-354930708196455, Twitter: @landartmovie (twitter.com/LandArtMovie?lang=en) and Instagram: @landartmovie (www.instagram.com/landartmovie).