Victoria + Q&A: Open City Documentary Festival 2020

A sparsely-inhabited, half-constructed settlement located deep in the Mojave desert, California City was intended to be a major urban centre rivalling Los Angeles, had it been completed.

Lashay T. Warren has left his turbulent life in L.A. to live there, looking to make a fresh start amongst its crumbling buildings. As they work to rebuild the city, Lashay and his conservation corp companions roam the vacant streets, finding fragments of beauty and poetry amongst the ruins. His collected images and journal entries come together in Benoot, De Ceulaer, and Tollenaere’s charming film to form a lyrical, sometimes surreal filmic diary of life on a forgotten frontier.

Screening in partnership with Urban Lab Films, as part of the first block of films in the 2020 edition of the Open City Documentary Festival. A Q&A with directors Sofie Benoot and Liesbeth De Ceulaer, chaired by Jordan Rowe (UCL Urban Laboratory), will be available alongside the screening.

Screens with: Dadli
Shabier Kirchner | 2019 | Antigua and Barbuda | 14’