Resident artist Christopher Givens will be sharing a 90 minute segment of his current project, a feature film titled Film B: by the time I see you in the morning. The work is the first entry into his ABC Triptych, a set of three feature films that explore themes of perception, transformation, and the intersection of the mystical and the material world.
Each film stands alone as a distinct narrative, yet they interweave formally and thematically to create a larger multi-faceted experience. The full cycle of films will exist as a multi-channel exhibition where each film plays simultaneously in adjacent screening spaces. Viewers are free to move between them and assemble their own narrative from the fragments.
The triptych is largely set in New Orleans and explores self-discovery and self-creation, synchronicity, dreams, mysticism, and how relationships shape perception and identity. They are on parallel timelines and share thematic threads as well as recurring characters who oscillate between being in the foreground and background of the primary narratives.
Duration: 90 Minutes
Christopher Givens was born in Monroe, Louisiana, and raised by choir teachers on Baptist hymns, books, and Blockbuster rentals. After studying film at the University of New Orleans, he worked in Hollywood South productions and various odd jobs that enabled long stretches of travel and reflection. In 2014, he co-founded an underground cinema inside a gutted shotgun house where during a period of four years 21 original plays and 200+ films were presented. While completing his MFA in Theatre Design at Tulane, he became a Mellon Fellow and co-founded the Beaubourg School, a tuition-free platform for public knowledge sharing. He has a book concern Uptown called Cricket Books.
During the pandemic, Givens began developing The ABC Triptych, a set of three feature films exploring synchronicity, perception, and spiritual transformation. He co-founded Cinema Sanctuary, a free film series on the sacred and existential, and recently directed a live dramatic interpretation of Beethoven’s Egmont with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, incorporating live-edited projections of his own films. He is currently in post-production for his first two features, Films A and B.