Death in Arizona is a futuristic documentary of lost love and a tale of a dying civilization. It is an autobiographical portrayal of a filmmaker who returns to his lost love’s empty apartment in pursuit of answers. The changing life outside as seen through the windows confront the man and his loss. Distant voices of a tribe in Arizona that survive a meteorite make their way into this third story apartment in an obscure Bolivian city.
Death in Arizona will screen with director Tin Dirdamal in attendance for discussion following the film with programmer and former CoLAB fellow Sebastian Diaz. This program is co-presented with Cinema Tropical.
Tin Dirdamal is a director and producer. Born in the North of Mexico, his films seek to find contradiction in contemporary virtue. Self taught filmmaker with studies in physics his work includes: DeNadie (2005), Rivers of Men (2011), and Death in Arizona (2014). His films have been booed and applauded in IDFA, Visions du Reel, BAFICI… They have received awards at Sundance and Documenta Madrid. He has received grants from the Sundance Institute and a Rockefeller Media Artists Fellowship through the Tribeca Film Institute. He is a documentary film teacher in the Yucatan.
Sebastian Diaz is a Mexican filmmaker and film programmer based in New York. He was a fellow at UnionDocs Collaborative Studio, Brooklyn 2013, where he directed ‘Toñita’s’ (MoMA Documentary Fortnight 2014). He co-directed ‘Brilliant Soil’ (Material Culture & Archeology Film Prize at 13th RAI International Fest of Ethnographic Film, Edinburgh 2011). Sebastian photographed and edited the documentary ‘Tijuaneados Anonymous’ (Ambulante Festival 2010; Best local film at San Diego Latino Film Festival). He cofounded ‘Bulbo Art Collective’, which produced a documentary series broadcast in US and Mexico about Tijuana/San Diego border culture (Channels 22 & Univision). His work has been exhibited at ARCO (Madrid), The MAK Museum (Vienna), InSite_05 (Tijuana San Diego), among others. He curates contemporary Mexican films at several venues in New York City.
