Special screening tonight of 8 experimental and animated films

ND Human Rights takes the historic Fargo Theatre

7:00 – 9:30 PM on Thursday, February 20

The film is free and open to the public. Reserve your tickets on Eventbrite.

Eight films from around the world will screen, each approaching human rights, civil rights, or social justice issues through their unique technical perspective.

Here’s your chance to take in a experimental and animated films from Hong Kong, France, India, Andorra, Tanzania, Canada and you guessed it, Fargo, North Dakota.

Join Director Oscar de Leon for a screening of his 10-minute film called “Eviction” (2019). After the screening, he will be present to answer some questions about the film.

About the film

A mysterious knocking inside the apartment haunts an already world-weary young man as he starts to lose grip on reality. Chamber Six Media co-founders Kevin Ackley (left) and Oscar De Leon explore the dark side of the subconscious mind in “Eviction.”

“It’s experimental just because of the way that it’s shot and doesn’t give clear answers to any of the questions in the film,” says De Leon.

“I had the idea for a long time and didn’t get around to making it until the spring of 2017,” he explains. “There was a pretty clear idea of the style I wanted to do, and where I was at that point in my artistic expression, I wanted to do something that was stark, heavy and wordless, a reflection of pure cinema.”

I wanted to do something that was stark, heavy and wordless, a reflection of pure cinema.

“It’s influenced by a lot of my favorite directors in particular, Ingmar Bergman’s “Hour of the Wolf” (1968), also a black and white film,” says De Leon about the Swedish psychological horror film.

In a blog on his website oscardeleonjr.com, he explains his journey as a filmmaker in a blog about his influences, and past ten plus years working independently.

“Along the way, I became more and more aware of film mostly through my dad’s rental tastes. I distinctly remember stumbling upon him watching Leon: The Professional, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, The Shawshank Redemption, The French Connection, and Escape From Alcatraz all of which (disparate as they may be) painted my sensibilities with a sense of weight because they all tell stories about humans, something that I obsess with to this day. It wasn’t until I watched Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Amores Perros that I realized I could make movies that were personal and speak to deeper cultural truths. That film changed my life.”

Read the full blog from January 15, 2020 on his website.

‘Anxiety of modern life’ at heart of Fargo filmmakers’ psychological thriller

Read more about the film project in the Fargo Forum article written by Chelsey Ewen in 2018.

Viewer discretion is advised.

About the special screening

In celebration of World Social Justice Day, the screening is free to the public. Good-will donations in support of the Human Family will be accepted.

This project is supported in part by a grant from the Arts Partnership, with support from the Cities of Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo, and in part by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Poster design by Glendon Henry, Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Watch the rest of the trailers for the films online at human-family.org.