Lis RHODES
Korean Premiere
Lis Rhode's latest essay film Disquiet, made against the backdrop of the pandemic, continues her ongoing project of documenting and drawing attention to the progressive eradication of justice, equality and individual liberties as a consequence of neoliberal capitalism. Disquiet draws connections between the local, the transnational, and even the extra-terrestrial, in order to untangle the relationship between violence and profit. As Rhodes poignantly asks: ¡®can warnings warn, when violence is a profitable industry?¡¯
Disquiet is the latest and most thought-provoking work from Lis Rhodes, a master essayist and writer who has long critiqued neoliberal capitalism. Using a variety of black-and-white images, voice-overs, and texts, Rhodes creates an insightful commentary on contemporary human civilization. The film opens with images of Hiroshima in ruins. A text explains that the warning was not given until the day after the bombing, followed by a poignant question. "Can a warning be a warning when thousands of people have already lost their lives?" This question is followed by "Can a warning be a warning when violence is a lucrative industry?" Together they accuse exploitation and domination, conflict and war, of colluding with the pursuit of profit. So where can we find a true warning and stop the cycle of violence?" Lis Rhodes finds the answer in the repository of history. Because, as they say, history repeats itself, and much of the violence we are witnessing and experiencing today can be traced to precedent. It starts with listening to the voices of history and listening to the noise.
Lis RHODES
Lis Rhodes is an artist and author. She was a founding member of Circles, a distribution network in the UK for women artists working in film, video, and performance (now operating as Cinenova). A collection of her writing, Telling Invents Told, was published by the Visible Press in 2019.