In Person: Travis Wilkerson
A father and his two sons sit at a table discussing the older man’s experiences as a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War—these simple visuals, intercut with footage shot by soldiers, comprise the majority of the new film by Travis Wilkerson (An Injury to One). It is a talking film, a step towards a cure of our cultural amnesia regarding the war. For Wilkerson, the film “asks a simple question, also quite complex: what is a good man to do in a war that is clearly wrong?”
(62 mins, Color, Digibeta, From the artist)
Preceded by: Fragments of Dissolution (Travis Wilkerson, U.S., 2011). The testimonies of four women reveal the high costs of U.S. poverty and wars, in this poetic, anguished essay film. (25 mins, B&W, Blu-ray, From the artist)
Total running time: 87 mins
Documentary Voices is presented in conjunction with the UC Berkeley course History of Documentary Film, taught by Jeffrey Skoller during the spring semester. The series begins with a screening of PFA’s recent preservation of the legendary cinema verité-style fiction film David Holzman’s Diary. We also present three programs of animated documentaries: The Green Wave, which uses animation and a range of new technologies to document the 2009 Iranian "Green Revolution"; Kongo, which combines animation and historical footage to trace the history of Congo; and a program of documentary animation shorts. These latter works commemorate the publication of Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, guest edited by Jeffrey Skoller, who will introduce two of the programs. The special issue Making it (Un)real: Contemporary Theories and Practices in Documentary Animation features essays and reflections by a range of contemporary scholars and filmmakers on, in Skoller’s words, “this hybrid form that mixes fact and fiction, analysis and speculation, and the high seriousness of documentary nonfiction with the playfulness of animation.” It features articles by Karen Beckman, Steve Fore, Annabelle Honness-Roe, Laura U. Marks, and Tess Takahashi and artworks by filmmakers including Lewis Klahr, Abraham Ravett, and Jacqueline Goss. This series continues in March and April with more programs that explore new directions in documentary film.
Theater Admission Prices
Single Feature
$5.50 BAM/PFA Members, UC Berkeley Students
$9.50 Adults (18-64)
$6.50 UC Berkeley faculty, staff, and retirees
Non-UC Berkeley students
Senior citizens (65 & over)
Disabled persons
Youth (17 & under
Additional Feature $4.00 All Patrons
PFA General:
2575 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA 92027
(510) 642-1412
