20’00” Stereo
16:9 Color
2017
A film by Maria Pecchioli
Concept Maria Pecchioli
Editing Video Clemente Bicocchi Maria Pecchioli
Sound Design Saverio Damiani
Color Correction Federico Cavallini
Executive Production The Luminary St.Louis MO
I-Ching prod.2017
Cherokee street Mutual Conquest 相勝
> english version
SYNOPSIS:
Cherokee Street is on the outskirts of St. Louis (MO). The population of Cherokee Street is mainly Black, Latino and White and it is located a few miles from Ferguson, where major conflict between the Black community and police erupted in 2014 and gave rise to the Black Lives Matter movement. The street is in a neighborhood that has started to undergo gentrification and is being revitalized by local artists whose care for the community is reflected in projects aimed at equal rights and integration that take on the contradictions of American society on issues such as racism and poverty.
The film adopts the principles of Taoist philosophy to explore Cherokee Street’s living heart.
It builds a portrait of a community and several key local figures.
Following the I-Ching Book of Changes, the ancient Chinese oracle, the film moves down the street, seen as a vibrant, rough landscape, full of music, relationships, gatherings, and long-standing conflicts.
The sequence of the conquest of the five elements — wood, fire, earth, metal, and water — determined choices about how to explore the place and how to structure the film, combining randomness and design.
PROJECT:
The idea behind “Cherokee Street Mutual Conquest 相勝” emerged from a collaboration with The Luminary, an art and community research space, located on Cherokee Street, St. Louis (MO). Expanding on my interests in social practice, Chinese medicine, and Taoist philosophy, I created an approach intended to build a portrait of the social-urban body similar to a health diagnosis in Chinese medicine. The I-Ching or Book of Changes suggested the portrait’s structure, which gives a cyclical and relationship-based perspective on the film’s sections and the film itself, which could potentially be projected/installed as a video loop.
My intention with “Cherokee Street Mutual Conquest 相勝” was to establish a method to apply to other film projects, developing a series that uses the Taoist structure of the five elements as a measure of inquiry that shapes the work.
Contributed by
Maria Pecchioli