and this year, it was a first an adventurous experimental work became the first festival film to be shown ina planetarium. early on a berlin sunday morning, the zeiss gross planetarium. inside, performance artist and experimentalfilm maker liz rosenfeld is doing a tech run through. the experimental film that s being shown later that day, white sands crystal foxes, is an ambitious undertaking from this american artist who settled in berlin 11! years ago. the film is a kind of exploration of desire, as well as nature and climate change at the same time. woman: a sphere in a sphere in a cube. i liz rosenfeld self identifies as a radical queer, and also as an american german jew. those factors inform the work.
rosenfeld is ultimately working on a full length feature a queer coming of age story set in the aftermath of a climate catastrophe. for rosenfeld, the planetarium was exactly the right kind of venue for white sands crystal foxes. i wanted to take an apparatus, a structure, and try to think about how to subvert it and dismantle it into something else, like a different kind of social space. black, yeah. pitch black? pitch as dark as possible. this potential of cinema as a sensual experiencej and heightening that. was something that we, as a curatorial team, i were very interested in. when i came here and sawi the work here in the space, i was sort of really - overwhelmed by this very visceral experience - and that was something that i thought we should definitely share with our audience. - when the viewers head out from the building inside. 0fficial berlin film festival
Teaching the history of inequality and injustice in America and having students âreally engage with the lived experience of people who arenât white, who arenât male, who arenât straightâ are essential, said Karine Schaeffer, Scarsdale High Schoolâs English department chair, describing the thinking behind the selection of texts and literature being taught by the SHS English department.
Schaeffer was one of several teachers and students who joined Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Edgar McIntosh during the virtual school board meeting Dec. 21 to present details of the districtâs ongoing efforts to build a more âculturally responsiveâ curriculum.