Join us for a screening and presentation with Alexis Kyle Mitchell to discuss her films, Bugs & Beasts before the Law, Special Works School, and The Treasury of Human Inheritance (in progress)
Bugs & Beasts before the Law explores the medieval practice of putting animals on trial, an aspect of colonial law-making that forged political and sometimes profane relationships between humans and animals. Special Works School investigates the connections between artistic practice and surveillant technologies, honing in on the psychic, embodied and material dimensions of surveillance – both from the position of the surveiller and the surveilled. Mitchell will also present her current film-in-progress, The Treasury of Human Inheritance, about a rare neuromuscular genetic disease that runs in her family.
Moderated by Lana Lin, Director of the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies. Co-produced with Documentary Program Associates: Cacau Araujo (Doc Studies ’22 & Media Studies ’23), Tiffany Jiang (Doc Studies ’22 & Media Studies ’23), and Farrah Elatty (Media Studies ’24).
Alexis Kyle Mitchell is an artist and scholar based between New York and the Glasgow. Mitchell recently completed a PhD in Human Geography at the University of Toronto and was artist-in-residence at Akademie Schloss Solitude (2015-17), MacDowell (2018), and Sommerakademie Paul Klee (2017-19). She often works collaboratively alongside artist Sharlene Bamboat – the duo has recently launched a web project http://www.before-law.com. Recent screenings and exhibitions include Mercer Union, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Lille Fine Art Museum, and a solo exhibition at the Henry Art Gallery, presenting Bamboat | Mitchell’s experimental film and installation Bugs & Beasts Before the Law. Her writing can be read in Digital Lives in the Global City and Queer at Camp. Mitchell currently holds a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Center for Disability Studies at New York University.
Presented by the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies
School of Media Studies, The New School
The New School Doc Studies 