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Mauve Desert forges new directions in interactive narrative cinema in a compelling CD-ROM translation of Nicole Brassard's novel as it reconstructs the life of Melanie. a fifteen year old philosopher, from the memories of her lesbian mother. Merging the influences of feminist film theory video art and the American independent cinema Mauve Desert is one of the most substantia! cinematic and intelligent multimedia works seen to date It is produced on low end technology on a low budget scale by New York based artist Adriene Lenik. A true media hybrid shot on film and video framed by original graphics and voiced in three languages Mauve Desert finds its home in the driver s seat (of a computer) |
In the first part of Brossards novel Melanie takes the Arizona desert by storm in her mother's white Meteor. Driving through the dawn with her foot on the pedal and her eye on the horizon. Melanie temporarily escapes her mother, her mother's lover Lorna and the Mauve Motel they own and operate. In the second section Maude Laures discovers the book Mauve Desert and takes on the task of translation. Her obsession leads her in search of the motel and the truths behind fiction. The third part is coloured with danger and sensuality revealing the fears and fantasies of Laures as she rewrites the language of Mauve Desert but not the final outcome.
For Jenik s CD ROM translation the user travels the desert landscape reconstructing Melanie's struggle with words and Adriene Jenik's wrestle with meaning only to be interrupted by the (randomly appearing) Longman.
Jenik steers clear of games and gimmicks taking digital technology to new creative heights. Her non linear exploration of the novel opens up a minefield of new questions. Why is this novel suited to this form? How long is a movie? How does non linear viewing affect the way artists tell stories? Where do the boundaries between documentary and fiction fall? Its subjects include rebellious female teen psyche the desert nuclear waste disposal lesbian mothers scientific ethics the road confusion the possibility of intimacy and death.
Adriene Jenik will be a guest of the festival and will steer the viewer through a special in cinema artist's presentation of Maine Desert.