…in darkness, there is light

  • Director

    Daniel Maldonado

  • Country, Year, Length

    United States, 2023, 13:00

  • Category

    Stories of Healing

  • Format

    Super8, 16 & 35mm

  • Festival Year

    2024

Film Screening & Ticket Information

When & Where to See this Film!

QUEENS CORNER: 6 films as diverse as our Borough.

April 28, 2024 @ 4:30PM • MoMI Redstone

Synopsis

An handmade interpretive portrait of an elevated subway burial in the immigrant communities of Queens (NY), an epicenter during the Covid-19 outbreak. A meditation on presence in absence told through an American haiku structure. Celluloid and subway tracks merge through emotional color abstractions for which “hungry ghosts” find transcendence.

In arriving there is no gain
In departing there is no loss
Diamond net reaches everywhere
– past, present & future

Credits

Daniel Maldonado, Director, LALO, H.O.M.E., STOLEN DREAMS
Daniel Maldonado-Editor
Mike Vernusky, Composer, H.O.M.E.

Director Statement

This lyrical elegy on presence in absence and transcendence, depicts the #7 train and its passengers as the hungry ghosts, bathed in shadow, light-scapes and silhouettes. Incorporating pinhole cinematography and Geophone recordings to capture vibrations, the series of images slowly become a simulacrum of the early days of the pandemic. These then transform into emotionally hypnotic color abstractions. Shot entirely on film in Queens, NY, it is dedicated to the victims and to the surviving community, healing from their loss.

Director Biography

Creative team

Daniel Maldonado:
Featured in the New York Times, Remezcla and on NBC News, Daniel is a multi award winning Ecuadorian-American filmmaker who’s work has been featured at over 100 international festivals, galleries and museums. This includes LALO, which was awarded Best Short Film at the HBO/NY Latino International Film Festival.
In 2016, he debuted his narrative feature, H.O.M.E. at the Museum Of Moving Image (for the 8th QWFF) followed by screenings at the American Cinematheque and worldwide. It was nominated for Best U.S. Latino Film at the Cinema Tropical Awards and won several others for Best Feature & Best Director.

Currently Daniel has completed 3 new shorts and is also part of the creative team on the 2023 Sundance Grand Jury winner A Thousand And One.

Mike Vernusky:
Mike Vernusky works with found sound objects and antiquated technologies, creating electronic music & sound art that disintegrates boundaries of era, space, and culture.

Vernusky’s music has been described as “brash” (New York Times), “isolationist” (The Wire), “especially otherworldly” (New Music USA), “strange & intriguing” (Exclaim), and “étonnante” (EtherReal France).