Meso-American Memory

SAT. 11/5: HISTORIES OF YANQUI WALKER + JESSE LERNER’S MAYA +
Here’s the Cali premiere of Kathryn Ramey’s Yanqui Walker and the Optical Revolution, a revelatory experimental doc on the infamous imperialist adventurer who seized Nicaragua. A hand-processed COLOR 16mm work, Ramey’s lyrical essay is preceded by (in person) Martha Wallner and Jeff Skoller’s updating of their Xchange TV project−−bi-national Nicaraguan history lessons that also address the Walker episode. An excerpt from Alex Cox’ legendary Clash-cast Walker completes the triptych. Opening the show, our globe-trotting compadre Jesse Lerner initiates the Central American theme with the book-launch of his Maya of Modernism, on Mayan indigenous design in 20thCentury art and architecture, with copious cultural-anthropological clips and scenes from Eisenstein’s ¡Que Viva México!.