Vision of Paradise
Director: Leonardo Pirondi
WINNER: Best Experimental
Cast:David OReilly, Douglas Goodwin, Jackson Fletcher, George Tramell, Dan Dixon
Crew:Sound Mix: Andrew Kim; Animation: David OReilly, Leonardo Pirondi
Email:leonardopirondi@alum.calarts.edu
Synopsis
The great voyages to the "New World" were seen as expanding the frontiers of the visible and displacing those of the invisible. Therefore maps from that time render the real and imaginary. The film follows a voyage of the Brazilian Military in search of an imaginary island with the same name as their country. In the myth from 1483 Brazil, or Hy-Brazil, is known to exist to the west of Ireland and above the Fortunate Islands. ‘Visão do Paraíso’ is an examination of the capacity of the human imagination and computer simulations to construct environments. Amidst the fine threshold of the real, simulated, and imagined, the film analyzes the contemporary ideas of virtual reality and their ambition to expand the frontiers of the physical world into a "New World.”
Trailer
About the director
Leonardo Pirondi is a filmmaker from São Paulo, Brazil, based in Los Angeles, Porto, and São Paulo. His films explore the infinite abyss between the multiple derived versions of reality through documentary, experimental, and narrative modes. Much of his work uses analog and digital manipulations on celluloid to examine the sociopolitical unfoldings of the intersections between imagination, science, myth, and technology.His films have been screened and discussed at film festivals, institutions, and venues internationally, such as the International Film Festival Rotterdam, BFI London, True/False, Edinburgh, Ambulante, Wexner Center for the Arts, Chicago International, REDCAT, Athens International Film/Video, Vienna Shorts, Centro Cultural São Paulo, CalArts, University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Some of his work exists in the collection of Cinematheque of the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro and The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York. He holds a Film/Video degree from the California Institute of the Arts and is a recipient of the Tim Disney Prize for Excellence in the Storytelling Arts.