A Terrible Beauty
Jan. 25, 2025
CAMP Studio
by Iram Ghufran
50 mins, 2023
7:00 pm
Introduction and post-screening discussion with Iram Ghufran.
A science-fiction fable set in the "miracle city" of Yiwu, in one of the world's largest wholesale markets for small commodities.
When I was young and yet to begin a life of travel and adventure, Ibn Battuta the famous explorer told me that travelling will first leave you speechless and then turn you into a storyteller. The main events of my story take place in Miracle City in the 21st century. At this time, the city is a prominent metropolis on the New Silk Road. […] And if you listen carefully, you can actually hear everything speak. Locals claim that what is in Miracle City may be found elsewhere. But what is not here will not be found anywhere else.
Thus begins "A Terrible Beauty". Time is plastic as we travel into the near future, in the company of an unusual pair of guides, a mannequin and a person. They encounter a universe of “Forever” goods - that simultaneously entice and repel in their promises. The film immerses us in anthropomorphic objects-- dolls, mannequins, and androids, and the dread and excitement through which we encounter “companion copies” of the human. Its documentary observations makes us join a future that is already here, in which we have to rethink technology, mortality and what it means to be human.
See you there!
RSVP required: https://studio.camp/contact
