Presented at AIFF 2019
63 min | USA | 2019 | NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE // BEST OF FESTIVAl & Academy Award Nominee
Co-presented by India International Film Festival of Boston
Synopsis: AMERICAN MIRROR subtlety focuses on a social issue that has global reach: how we perceive and judge ourselves and others in a world dominated by social media, which demands perfect beauty and instant gratification. As Armenian artist Tigran Tsitoghdzyan paints the portrait of actress Susan Sarandon in his New York City studio, the two discuss the concepts of beauty and aging in our modern society dominated by social media. While they talk, director Arthur Balder takes us on a visually spectacular journey that expands our ordinary perception of time. His artistic vision, opening with a dream within a dream, challenges the canons of nowadays 'conscious' and 'mainstream' documentary filmmaking.
‘Intimations of Immortality’ is a reference taken from British Romantic poet William Wordsworth’s ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood’. For Wordsworth poetry was all about the memories we keep from our most deeply felt living hours. This has become a revelation to Balder’s craft as an essential part of his filmmaking: the reconstruction of deep thought-processes, which we can call memories but also omens and other sort of visions, imagery occurring in the internal eye of the subject, entirely subjective.
Director's Arthur Balder statement:
"My dream is to fuse the power of word and image into compelling cinematic art with a potentiality to make us reflect on who we are and ultimately, ideally, to change our lives and to build a better society and world."
Awards: Parajanov-Vartanov Awards (US) for Best Innovative Film, Best Cinematography and Best Composer; Fabrique du Cinema Award (Italy) for Best International - Lady Of the Victory of the Critics Circle of Mexico (2015) - Michel Foucre Award for Best Director (6th Ierapetra International Film Festival, 2019) - Documentary; Melbourne Documentary Film Festival nominated for Best Art, Best Director and Supreme Jury Award; Ierapetra Documentary Film Festival (Greece) Audience Award and Best Director; European Cinematography Awards (Netherlands) nominated for Golden Eagle Award for Best Film of 2019, Best Cinematography, Best Lead Actor and Best Original Score. The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors of New York (HOLA Awards 2016) as honored him with the Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking Award (2016). In his documentary films he has sought from the set-out to defy the boundaries between documentary and fiction. Arthur Balder has been honored with two consecutive Best Documentary of the Year awards by the Association of Latin Entertainment Critics of New York (2015 and 2016)