Doors 7:30p
Program 8:00p

UnionDocs
352 Onderdonk Ave
Ridgewood, NY

We’re delighted to welcome filmmaker Brent Chesanek for an evening of cinema and conversation around his powerful feature film Nomotopowell!

Nomotopowell is an experimental documentary set in a village in Florida, unraveling obscured histories through the legacies of two historical figures. One, an assassin operating under aliases for pro-slavery secessionists in 1865, contrasts with the other, an anti-colonial freedom fighter of the 1830s who resisted the U.S. government’s land theft and violence against Native people. Their stories converge posthumously in three vanished towns, now marked only by brown historical markers.

Structured as a travelogue, the film weaves landscapes, archival texts, and abstracted voiceovers to explore themes of deception, displacement, and erasure. Names and places remain shrouded, mirroring the loss of knowledge buried in village cemeteries, forgotten side roads, and moonlit swamps. Nomotopowell reflects on the fragility of memory, the violence of history, and the lingering ghosts of erased narratives.

Brent will be in attendance for a conversation following the screening. Don’t miss this incredible film, come through!

Program

Nomotopowell

70 mins, 2022, USA, Franco-Italian, English

Program Duration: 70 mins

Bios

Brent Chesanek is a filmmaker working around narrative, documentary, and experimental forms. He has screened his films at CPH:DOX, FIDMarseille, Seattle IFF, RIDM, Singapore IFF, Big Sky, DOXA, Novos Cinemas Pontevedra, FID Buenos Aires, Denver IFF, and more. Educated in the public school system, he graduated from the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. He works between New York and Central Florida, where he grew up. UnionDocs is fiscally sponsoring his next feature film, currently in production.