The Hidden Gesture. War and Melodrama in Hollywood’s 30s and 40s
Competition                   

The Hidden Gesture. War and Melodrama in Hollywood’s 30s and 40s

Dana Najlis

A fictional journey constructed from small movements of bodies as portrayed in melodramas and war movies of the 30s and 40s in Hollywood cinema, beginning and ending with intimate gestures of life being at once destroyed and transformed. The absence of faces records a fragmented, mutilated and reconstructed history through a body language that has been overshadowed by the prevailing photogenic of the Star System. The faceless body enlightens an anonymous side, erasing the identity of the actor/character in a continuum of daily actions, fleeting contacts, loving offerings and deathly silences in the heat of war.

Information

Country

Argentina

Year

2023

Length

5'

Category

Experimental

Origin of archival materials

Excerpts of films shot between 1930 and 1949

Editing

Dana Najlis

Sound

Dana Najlis

Production

Dana Najlis

Director’s biography

Born in 1986 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dana Najlis studied Music Composition, Film Direction and has a master’s degree in Contemporary Film and Audiovisual Studies from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. She is a film critic, essayist, and editor.