Mariona Lloreta
Photos courtesy of the artist
Project Description
Mariona Lloreta's short experimental film“Altars” will highlight the Black and brown men in her neighborhood. The film negotiates a space between darkness - dehumanization, erasure, violence and trauma - and light - life, truth, empowerment, love. Amidst the unforgiving streets, these Black bodies are presented as sacred sanctuaries. Pulling from her own culture's “Día de Todos los Santos,” participants will stand on reimagined, colorful altars, adorned in regal softness - blurring the line between flesh and the indestructible essence that remains. A narration in several languages by the mothers, daughters, wives and companions to the men will serve as a reminder of the communities that are left behind. As gentrification is quickly taking over East Boston and as an immigrant engaged to a Black man and who has witnessed countless unpleasant and uncalled for encounters with the local police, Mariona aims for this piece to evoke, in a poetic and visually compelling manner, the urgency and need to act now.
Artist Bio
Mariona Lloreta (she/her) is a Spanish-American interdisciplinary artist working internationally in film, painting and dance. Mariona’s work celebrates the universal thread that binds our human experience as it examines the fine line between presence and absence, wholesomeness and brokenness, past, present and future. Her work dives into themes of identity, empowerment, justice, spirituality and collective memory, while reflecting upon the beauty and vulnerability of human existence. Mariona's narrative films have won Best Experimental Film, Best International Film and Best Cinematography awards at Oscar-Qualifying festivals, and have been selected at a wealth of Oscar-Qualifying and acclaimed film festivals around the world. She has directed and produced several documentary films, including "ReSignifications", commissioned by New York University and "Living Together" commissioned by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) in Boston. Mariona currently serves as Affiliate Professor of Screenwriting at Emerson College.