history as hypnosis (Cinema Cut)
Film
About the work
A speculative road film that unfolds through cultural memory of the US war in Vietnam, history as hypnosis follows three women, recently reprogrammed by an artificial intelligence that has wiped all traces of their previous lives, as they journey through an uncanny desert landscape to a nearby metropolis. In director Alison Nguyen’s hands, these figures without memory or history become a cinematic use case for themes of alienation, assimilation, and refusal. Freely combining genre, fact, and fiction, the film draws on its Southern California locations’ postmodern glass facades, mimetic architecture, and roadside infrastructure—markers of car culture’s entanglement with American expansionism and cinema history alike—to uncover the more ineffable links between collective consciousness and the Cold War military-industrial complex.
-Sophie Cavuloucos, Assistant Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art
Medium
Film
Materials / Elements
Video, Color, Sound
29 minutes
Venue / Context
Year
Museum of Modern Art
2023
Credits
Director
Alison Nguyen
Executive Producers
Rug and Vase
Writer
Alison Nguyen
Co-Producer & Co-Writer
Zans Brady Krohn
Cinematographer
Sebastian Mylnarski
Production Designer
Heather Yancey
Score
Scott Kiernan
Sound Design
Jon Flores
A
Alison Nguyen
B
Andrea Clinton
C
Moriah Sittner
Field Producers
Nabil Elbehri — NY
Bren Haragan — LA
Hair & Makeup
Caroline Mills — NY
Jeong-Hwa Fonkalsrud — LA
Gaffer
Vince Jefferds — NY
Sound Mixer
Amelia Palmer — NY
Adrian Alielo — LA
Vocal Sound Design
Alana Devito
Additional Cinematography
Mustafa Rony Zeno
Wardrobe Assistants
Soha Sabhouri
Anna Coffey
Production Stills
Mustafa Rony Zeno
Scott Kiernan
Rachael Guma
Gabriel Guma
Produced with support from
New York Foundation for the Arts’ 2021 Artist Fellowship in Film/Video
NYSCA’s Wave Farm MAAF Grant
MIT List Visual Arts Center
Rug & Vase
Special Thanks
New York Foundation for the Arts
MIT List Arts
Rug and Vase
Matthew Nguyen
Justine Kurland
Sable Elyse-Smith
Adelia Shiffraw
Conor Dowdle
Anna Ting Moller