Read Our Interview Of Filmmaker Jim Longden On His Debut Short Film →

TEAC STILL AUTRA 5.jpg

The London-based artist Jim Longden has released his debut short, To Erase a Cloud. Shot on 16mm film, the twenty-minute piece is “a sort of crash-course to the introductions of filmmaking.” To Erase a Cloud delves into the harsh realities of grief, as well as the uncomfortable realities of our social media-driven culture. The poet and actor Sonny Hall, a good friend of Longden, plays the painfully tormented, reckless and broken main protagonist, John Little.

The opening scene shows Little living a depressing existence in his dirty apartment; drinking dregs of empty beer cans and lighting half smoked fags as the early morning sun seeps in. We catch Little staring at his reflection in a cracked mirror; a symbol for his fractured state of mind and the result of his self-inflicted isolation spurred on from the loss of his mother. Read more.

Lignes de vies – une exposition de légendes @ MAC VAL in Vitry-sur-Seine

Conceiving one’s life as a creative force is the vector shared by the 80 international artists featuring in the new temporary exhibition at MAC VAL. Titled “Lignes de vies – une exposition de légendes” (Lifelines – an Exhibition of Legends), this new highlight in the life of the Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne brings together work by several different generations of artists, representing every kind of practice, from photography to video via painting, installation, performance and writing. It continues a programme that, ever since the museum first opened in 2005, has worked to question modalities and instances in the construction of identity – or rather, identities. All the works shown in the extensive exhibition space deconstruct, analyse, critique or interrogate the phenomena and processes that shape and legitimise identity/identities. There are no narcissistic or self-centred gestures here; rather, the artists reconstruct and propose – more than new identities: chosen identities.

Lignes de vies – une exposition de légendes is on view through August 25 at MAC VAL Place de la Libération CS10022 94407 Vitry-sur-Seine, FR. photographs courtesy of MAC VAL

Courageous Writing For IRL Cowards: Novelist Matt Binder Chats With Novelist Clancy Martin On Making Bad Decisions and The Thin Veil of Fiction →

In 2012, shortly before I lost my mind and committed myself to writing fiction, I was sitting at a pal’s apartment in San Diego, waiting on him to shower and ready himself for a night out, when I picked up a copy of the Vice fiction issue. I flipped through the magazine’s pages looking for something of interest. A story titled “Whores I Have Loved” immediately resonated with me. I understood the sentiment completely. I read with ferocious curiosity as the writer sermonized on the dangers of falling in love with prostitutes in locations foreign and remote. Prior to reading the piece, I didn’t think it possible for a work to exist that was so honest, tender, and vulnerable about a subject so fraught with moral pitfalls. Click here to read more. 

Less Than Weirdo: Read Max Barrie's Latest Tale of Relapse and Redemption in Los Angeles →

The noise in my head is so loud some nights, only bashing my brains in or a power drill would suffice. Then this Meat Robot called Max would finally know peace. The delusional hemorrhoids of loneliness are consistently painful and at times paralyzing. I’m around clients all day at work; I pass families and doggies as I stroll through Brentwood; I have a great relationship with my therapist who I see four times a week. But at the end of the day, I always go home alone. And there’s no good way to get home. Any route I take, each step is cemented with sadness, as if I’m walking a long plank to my apartment… trying to avoid dog shit on the sidewalk. Click here to read more.