Sunday, September 14, 2025 at 7:30 PM to 10:00 PM
2220 Arts + Archives, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Filmforum welcomes local artist & experimental filmmaker Matt Town to screen films and videos from his latest show “Coral”, as well as select older works. Full bio & program notes at: https://www.lafilmforum.org/schedule/ ∆ Town, who frequently addresses social issues in his work, turns his attention in “Coral” to themes of chemical addiction in the US, drawing upon the experiences of and at times collaborating with his family members. His new 16mm and video works form a strikingly intense, poetic, and personal response to the opioid epidemic, alcoholism, and methods of addiction treatment. The works being screened are the result of his own process of grieving and healing following the sudden death in 2018 of his older step-sister from opioids. Los Angeles Filmforum will screen “Coral”, a structuralist 16mm film, referencing both the marine organisms and the first name of Town’s sister, who was in her thirties when she died in her home on the Florida Gulf, where the artist is also from. For the film, which is shot underwater, Town spent over a year learning about, training for, and getting certified in open water scuba diving. The purpose was to create a living, ocean memorial by planting a “gravestone” sculpture within a coral reef, the act of which appears in the film. The circular stone — with the letters CORAL in capital letters on its surface— now rests at an undisclosed location off the coast of California and is made with environmentally friendly concrete into which Town mixed his sister’s ashes. “Bleached coral can regain its health and can return to life after bleaching, which the film proposes by placing the concrete tombstone I made with my sister’s ashes on a reef in the ocean, to enable new growth and new life.” — MT The artist’s use of black and white film stock connects the dangers of the unfriendly Pacific waters he dives in, the condition of the coral reefs — which experienced their worst global bleaching event in the years just prior to his sister’s death — and the solemness of his actions. While, at times, the unsettling figure of Town in his scuba gear reminds us of the precariousness of life and breath.