monolithic tenderness

Kyle Petty / United States / 2024 / European Premiere / 7 min.

synopsis

Shots of oppressive steel and glass facades are initially permeated by almost imperceptible flashes of organic shapes – bare branches, rippling water, dew, leaves. These gradually thicken, pushing out the image of buildings and breaking through into the outline of an unborn child, which remains latently present even upon returning to the urban space. The pulsating images are accompanied by a collage of unsolicited phone calls and associative noises of the city and home.

“A tessellating flicker film that seeks to undo the cold, impersonal architecture of the city by dousing it in organic and domestic forms.” — Kyle Joseph Petty

Source: Kyle Joseph Petty.

biography

Kyle Joseph Petty (born 1988) is an American artist and filmmaker based in Boston. He is a member of the film collective AgX and teaches film production at Tufts University. His films include the short Lampoko (2016), a contemplative portrait of a volunteer in a Burkinabe village, and the structural travelogue The News From Over Here (2020), which captures the anxieties of an American watching events in his native country from afar.