Watch LANDFALL, a prismatic portrait of collective trauma and resistance in Puerto Rico, and join a discussion with the filmmaker
Film Streaming: April 26th (9AM) – April 28th (7PM)
Discussion: April 28th | 7-9PM
RSVP
The Department of Film and Media studies welcomes you to a discussion of the film LANDFALL with the filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo. The film will be available to watch after Monday, April 26 at 9:00 am. Please RSVP using the Register button. Both the screening link and Zoom link will be sent to you on Monday morning, April 26th.
If you have any questions, contact Michael Gitlin at mgitlin@mindspring.com.
About the film:
Through shard-like glimpses of everyday life in post-Hurricane María Puerto Rico, LANDFALL (2020, 93 minutes) is a cautionary tale for our times. Set against the backdrop of protests that toppled the US colony’s governor in 2019, the film offers a prismatic portrait of collective trauma and resistance. While the devastation of María attracted a great deal of media coverage, the world has paid far less attention to the storm that preceded it: a 72-billion-dollar debt crisis crippling Puerto Rico well before the winds and waters hit. LANDFALL examines the kinship of these two storms—one environmental, the other economic—juxtaposing competing utopian visions of recovery. Featuring intimate encounters with Puerto Ricans as well as the newcomers flooding the island, LANDFALL reflects on a question of contemporary global relevance: when the world falls apart, who do we become?
Mediante destellos fragmentados del diario vivir en Puerto Rico pos-Huracán María, LANDFALL es un relato aleccionador para nuestros tiempos. Con las protestas que derrocaron al gobernador de la colonia Estadounidense en el 2019 como telón de fondo, el documental ofrece un retrato prismático de trauma colectivo y resistencia. Aunque la devastación de María atrajo mucha cobertura mediática, el mundo ha puesto muy poca atención a la tormenta que le precedió: una deuda y crisis fiscal de 72 mil millones de dólares acribillando a Puerto Rico mucho antes que el golpe de los vientos y las aguas. LANDFALL examina el parentesco entre ambas tormentas—una ambiental, la otra económica—yuxtaponiendo visiones rivales utópicas de recuperación. Presentando encuentros íntimos con Puertorriqueñxs y con recién arribadxs a la isla, LANDFALL reflexiona sobre una pregunta de relevancia global contemporánea: cuándo el mundo se desmorona, en quiénes nos convertimos?
About the filmmaker:
Cecilia Aldarondo is a documentary director-producer from the Puerto Rican diaspora who makes films at the intersection of poetics and politics. Her latest film, LANDFALL, offers a prismatic portrait of collective trauma and resistance in post-Hurricane María Puerto Rico. Her earlier documentary MEMORIES OF A PENITENT HEART (Tribeca 2016) had its World Premiere at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on POV in 2017. She is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2017 Women at Sundance Fellow, two-time MacDowell Colony Fellow, and recipient of a 2019 Bogliasco Foundation Residency. In 2019 she was named to DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 list and is one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film for 2015. She teaches at Williams College.