rhythm and (p)leisure 2019 Directed by Francis Almendárez
The work retraces the artist’s familial paths of migration in Central America; from El Salvador to Honduras and Nicaragua, and eventually the United States. This work examines the notion of "productivity" and how the meaning of that word changes depending on how the body is racialized or gendered, and what task that body is performing. Numerous video portraits of both family and community members performing various tasks of labor are placed side by side, prompting the questions: what bodies are afforded leisure?, and is it possible to reclaim ownership of one's own body? There is no dialogue but instead a visual and aural tour of working-class labor that speeds up to follow a transition from the countryside to the city.
