It is a long way from here to Angola. And, apparently, it takes even longer to make a film about going there.
Dancer and filmmaker Jeremy Xido focuses his work on the intersection between narrative fiction and reality. His latest group of works, “the Angola Project,” is a fusion of filmmaking and live performance that looks at the five-year process he went through in making a film in the south-west African country, including what happened behind the scenes and what got thrown out from the final product.
“I want to underscore the fiction of reality and the fiction of real spaces,” said Xido.
“Angola” is comprised of three parts, which will be performed across four nights at Cobble Hill’s Invisible Dog as part of Performance Space 122’s annual winter performance festival, COIL.
In the first part, Xido works out plans for a film about his trip to Angola, but the movie’s narrative falls apart. In the second part, Xido makes a pitch to the audience to get the film made. In the third part, he engages the audience in an interactive telling of stories related to travel, identity, colonialism, and biographies.
“It’s almost as if you’re in the editing studio with me,” said Xido, who started his career in Detroit before moving to New York City. “You see a film made out of bits and pieces of material. You see it being constructed and crumbling before your eyes.”
Xido has performed parts one and two several times, but this is the first time that he will perform all three parts together.
“They all refer to each other, but it is kind of dizzying in the twists and turns that the narrative takes,” said Xido. “It’s entertaining and it is extraordinarily intimate.”
“The Angola Project” at the Invisible Dog [51 Bergen St. between Boerum Place and Smith Street in Cobble Hill, (212) 352–3101, www.ps122.org/coil]. Parts 1 and 2, Jan. 14 and 16 at 7 pm; part 3, Jan 15 at 7 pm and 9 pm; full trilogy, Jan. 17 at 7 pm. $20–$25.
