Professor Screens Three Visually Dynamic Films

Brown-Orso's Award-Winning Films Dazzle

Irresistable: Professor Rian Brown-Orso's films explore landscapes and her family. (photo courtesy Rian Brown-Orso )

Last Thursday, Assistant Professor of art Rian Brown-Orso screened three of her works: Saca Una Foto, Presence of Water and The Settler to a standing-room-only audience in the Hallock Auditorium of the Adam Joseph Lewis Environmental Studies Center.

Brown-Orso, who was hired in July to teach digital-video production and sound design, opened the evening with a brief introduction of her films. Brown-Orso explained that a common thread throughout the evening's films would be that of landscape - images she gathered from the different settings of the three films: Chiapas, Mexico; northern Italy and southern California.

Orso's speech was promptly followed by the showing of the evening's first film, Saca Una Foto, which was shot in the early '90s in Chiapas. The film's title means "Take my picture" in Spanish, a phrase stated by Mexican children who sold their images to tourists wanting to take their picture.

The sound of a child's voice saying "Saca Una Foto" recurred throughout the film, as this along with other sounds played an important role in depicting the film's focus. Saca Una Foto, which was screened as part of the Harvard Archives' 1994 "Wild Women: Assessing Edges in Film/Video/Performance Arts" series, saw Brown-Orso filter images of empty Mayan ruins and native Chiapans with the noises and scenes of the city, illustrating the clash between the past and present in modern-day Mexico.

Saca Una Foto, with its blending of images, was the evening's best example of Brown-Orso's self-professed role as a "time-based image maker." In an Oberlin Online article, Brown-Orso stated, "Being a 'time-sculptor,' film and digital video tools are the tools I use to record fragments of life, real or imaginary."

Saca Una Foto was followed by Presence of Water, the strongest of the evening's three films.

Presence of Water, Brown-Orso's "experimental film as autobiographical essay," traced her time in northern Italy, the home of her husband and the birthplace of her son. The film focused on Brown-Orso's experience as a "stranger in a strange land" and her time during pregnancy. Presence of Water featured incredible cinematography, as it captured the beauty of the Italian landscape along with the joy and miracle of life: giving, living and receiving it, all rolled into one.

A memorable example of this came as Brown-Orso filmed her husband prancing nude on a beach while she reflected on how deprived men must feel, unable to experience pregnancy. As Brown-Orso's husband plunged into the water, the words, sounds and images converged into a poignant portrayal of life's beauty, lighting smiles on the faces of the audience.

The wit, charm and emotion emitted by Presence of Water makes it truly exceptional. It received the jury award at the New York Film Expo at the New School and was named best documentary film at the Media One Digital Film Festival. Presence of Water was also a finalist in the Independent Film Channel 2000 competition.

The evening was rounded out by The Settler, Brown-Orso's science-fiction story "that parallels the development of the West, with the terra-forming of Mars as 'the next frontier.'" Brown-Orso's desire to make such a film stemmed from her move to Southern California, a place where many things exist - such as an abundant water supply - that really shouldn't. The Settler placed Mars in the role of Los Angeles as a landscape being made fit for habitation by artificial means. While the lack of dialogue and abstract cinematography may have left a few shifting in their seats and several heads nodding south, Brown-Orso's creativity and skill as a filmmaker made The Settler a fine ending to the evening.

All three of Brown-Orso's films fortified the fact that filmmaking is an art, a form of self-expression just like writing, painting or sculpting, only Orso's art requires digital equipment.

"She's only 29, so she's just getting started," was one comment overhead as the last film ended. Brown-Orso's accomplishment of producing such fine work at a very young age is a testament to the talent and energy she stands to bring to the Oberlin College community.