Event

Suitcase of Love and Shame

Hybrid Documentary Program
Supported in part by Community Foundation Sonoma County and Leff Construction

Suitcase of Love and Shame
USA, 2013, 70 minutes
Director: Jane Gillooly
This 1960's love story is reconstructed from 60 hours of audiotape discovered in a suitcase purchased on eBay. The recordings, equally tender, erotic, and pathetic, chronicle the details of an adulterous affair. Part historical documentary and part experimental narrative, the film uses these audio letters to examine a time in the United States when it was rare to listen to the words of those who secretly lived a lie while publicly constraining their passion. The recorder is confidant, witness, and participant that the lovers depend on, forming a welcome ménage-à-trois.

Preceded By

A Story for the Modlins
Spain, 2012, 26 minutes
Director: Sergio Oksman

After appearing in the film Rosemary's Baby, by Roman Polanski, Elmer Modlin ran away with his wife Margaret and his son Nelson to a distant land. They shut themselves inside a dark apartment, where Margaret devoted herself to painting the coming Apocalypse, using Nelson and Elmer as models. Thirty years later, hundreds of the family's intimate photographs and documents appeared on the sidewalk like a jigsaw puzzle, waiting for someone to come along and piece together "a story for the Modlins".