Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement 2018 — The Sound of Screens Imploding — Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève

This Action Lies

(USA/Switzerland · 2018 · 32 min · English, French subtitles)
This Action Lies is a movie about the limits of observation, about staring very hard at something while listening to something else. It is a paranoid polyphonic apology of a simple act: offering three perspectives of an object that may not exist in a room that cannot exist, while at the mercy of a mistrustful monologue. In other words, a defense of cinema. This project expands ideas introduced in one of Kienitz Wilkins’ previous films, Indefinite Pitch (2016), and is similarly voice-driven, using an extended monologue to analyze a common and underappreciated commercial product, elevating it to the status of an almost Platonic form.

James N. Kienitz Wilkins’ dynamic works are distinctive in their investigation of language, their unconventional approach to performance, and their exploration of conversation as a potent transmitter of ideas. Most of his films are the result of some conceptual procedure, a decision either to treat his original footage according to some abstract system or to apply his own logic to found material.