WISDOM GONE WILD (2022) with filmmaker Rea Tajiri

Details:

WISDOM GONE WILD (Rea Tajiri, 2022) with filmmaker in attendance

(Rea Tajiri, 2022, 84 min, DCP)

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The duty of care and witness we owe to our parents and ancestors has been a consistent theme across the oeuvre of artist and filmmaker Rea Tajiri—nowhere more so than in her 16-years-in-the-making personal documentary WISDOM GONE WILD, which patiently observes and empathetically inhabits her aging mother’s cognitive decline. Embracing the temporal leaps and stumbles that characterize dementia’s effect on memory, Tajiri’s uniquely nonlinear film proposes creativity as a form of mutual recognition that transcends generational and psychological estrangement. A film of intimacy, insight, and persistent humor, WISDOM GONE WILD is both a gift and a major cinematic achievement.

Following the screening, Rea Tajiri will appear in conversation with Kyle Henry, Associate Professor of Radio/TV/Film at Northwestern University.

Co-presented with support from the Michael and Jane Hoffman Visiting Artist Series and the MFA in Documentary Media at Northwestern.

About the Filmmaker:

REA TAJIRI is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist and educator who creates installation, documentary and experimental films. Her work situates itself in poetic, non-traditional storytelling forms to encourage dialog and reflection around buried histories. Her groundbreaking, award-winning film, digital video, and installation has been supported by numerous grants, fellowships, and artistic residencies, and has been exhibited widely in museums, on television and in international film festivals. As an advocate of emerging artists and directors, Rea co-founded The Workshop, an incubator for Asian American film directors in New York City. Tajiri has worked extensively throughout the U.S. as a visiting professor and artist-in-residence, and is currently an Associate Professor in the Film Media Arts department at Temple University. Tajiri is a winner of the 2023 Chicken & Egg Award, a 2022 JustFilms/Ford Foundation grant, and the 2021 Independence Public Media Foundation Award. Tajiri’s other awards include the Leeway Transformation Award, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, two Rockefeller Intercultural Media Fellowships, two New York Fellowship in the Arts and two NEA Visual Arts Fellowships.

Image: WISDOM GONE WILD (2022) courtesy of Rea Tajiri

Contact The Block Museum of Art for more information: (847) 491-4000 or email us at block-museum@northwestern.edu