Join us Thursday, April 13, at 6 pm, for a screening of Remote (2022, US, 92 min.), Mika Rottenberg and Mahyad Tousi’s new feature, which screens as part of the series Whole Grain: Experiments in Film & Video.

About the film

Set in a near future, Remote follows Unoaku, an expat architect living in a solar-punk apartment in Kuala Lumpur, and four other women living on their own in Iran, Argentina, Puerto Rico, and South Africa. While watching a popular South Korean dog grooming show, the five women discover they are connected through mysterious portals hidden in their homes. Embarking on a quest for answers, they use the portals to bridge the distance between them, uncovering a phenomenon with universe-altering consequences.

Remote was filmed in 2021 at Rottenberg’s studio in upstate New York and in various locations across the Hudson Valley and New York City that double as apartments across the globe, with a cast of multinational actors and performers, including MacArthur Fellow and Kravis Studio artist-in-residence at MoMA Okwui Okpokwasili and featuring South Korean actress and model Joony Kim. Produced during the COVID pandemic, Remote explores what it means to connect in a hyperconnected future populated by isolated users who are mostly unable to form and maintain unmediated human relationships.

About the Artists

Argentina-born, New York-based artist Mika Rottenberg is devoted to a rigorous practice that combines film, architectural installation, and sculpture to explore ideas of labor and the production of value in our contemporary hyper-capitalist world. Rottenberg connects seemingly disparate places and things to create elaborate and subversive visual narratives. By weaving fact and fiction together, she highlights the inherent beauty and absurdity of our contemporary existence.

Mahyad Tousi is an Iranian-American multidisciplinary writer, producer, cinematographer, and director working across story formats, genres, and platforms; his projects span primetime television, independent films, virtual reality, and the visual arts. He is currently writing and producing 1001, a sci-fi adaptation of The Tales from a Thousand and One Nights. Most recently he was the executive producer of the CBS comedy United States of Al, for which he received an MPAC Media Award for ‘reaffirm[ing] the importance of on-screen representation and narrative building.’

About Whole Grain

The Tang Teaching Museum’s series Whole Grain explores classic and contemporary work in experimental film and video. Whole Grain is programmed by Assistant Director for Engagement Tom Yoshikami. All events are free and open to the public.