Virtual Screening: Marathon Screenings, Maura Brewer & Paul Pescador

Virtual Screening and Conversation: Sunday, April 26 2020
11:00am PST  | 2:00pm EST | 7:00pm GMT | 8:00pm CET

Online conversation with the artists Maura Brewer and Paul Pescador moderated by researcher and filmmaker Raquel Schefer followed by a group meal.

JOAN Los Angeles is pleased to host Marathon Screenings this Sunday, April 26.  Originally planned to happen at our gallery, this program has been moved online and will follow the screening series’ unique format of video screening, in-depth conversation with the artist, followed by a group meal and more conversation.

Los Angeles based artists Maura Brewer and Paul Pescador will present Alone Too, 2020, which examines the 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New Yorkand what it means to be “home alone” in an era of self-isolation. Alone Too follows on Brewer and Pescador’s previous film Alone, 2019, marking its US debut. Both films will be screened together, followed by a communal conversation moderated by Paris-based filmmaker and researcher Raquel Schefer.

Alone, 2019, explores the construction of holiday myths, including Santa Claus, Jesus and the happy nuclear family as portrayed in the 1990 film Home Alone. Alone Too, 2020 is a meditation on sequels and product placement, and reintroduces Kevin, Brewer, and Pescador after we last saw them struggling to adapt to the loneliness of adult life – going to work, to the grocery store, and coming home to an empty house.

Maura Brewer and Paul Pescador are artists who collaborate on holidays. Together, they make videos and performances at the intersection of politics and pop culture. These investigations have been presented at Biquini Wax in Mexico City and 2601- 2603, Elevator Mondays, Garden, Human Resources, Machine Project, NAVEL, Roger’s Office, and Women’s Center for Creative Work in Los Angeles.

Alone, 2019, takes up the 1990 film Home Alone. A reflection on the Christmas season, the video explores the construction of holiday myths, including Santa Claus, Jesus and the happy nuclear family. The many continuity errors that famously characterize Home Alone are analyzed and compared to a child’s game of hide and seek, in which concepts of loss and absence are dramatized. Alone is a reflection on masculinity, violence and the longing to return to the mother’s body.

Alone Too, 2020, is a reexamination of the 1992 film Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. This video is a meditation on sequels, product placement and what it means to be “home alone” in an era of self-isolation. When we last saw Kevin, Paul and Maura, they were struggling to adapt to the loneliness of adult life – going to work, to the grocery store, and coming home to an empty house. What will happen next? Mischief in Manhattan? Holiday cheer? Or just more drinking alone?

Raquel Schefer is a researcher, filmmaker, film curator, and lecturer at Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3 University. She holds a PhD in Film and Audiovisual Studies from Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3 University, a Master in Documentary Cinema from the University of Cinema of Buenos Aires, and a degree in Communication Sciences from the New University of Lisbon. She published the book “Self-Portrait in Documentary” in 2008, in Argentina, as well as several book chapters and articles. She has taught at Grenoble Alpes University, Paris Est University, Rennes 2 University, the University of Cinema of Buenos Aires, and the University of Communication in Mexico City. She was a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is currently a postdoctoral FCT fellow at the CEC/University of Lisbon and the University of the Western Cape, and a co-editor of the quarterly of theory and history of cinema “La Furia Umana”.