Standing Forward Full: Experimental Shorts by Alee Peoples (Filmmaker In-Person!)

Close-up of a person’s lower legs and feet. One foot is wearing a high-heeled shoe, while the other foot is bare and stepping on a piece of clothing or fabric on the floor. The lighting has a reddish-purple hue, adding a dramatic effect to the scene. — "Standing Full Forward" (2020) Courtesy of the filmmaker.

Cornell Cinema is delighted to welcome experimental filmmaker Alee Peoples to present a dynamic selection of her short films.

Alee Peoples maintains a varied artistic practice that involves screenprinting, sewing, sculpture and film. Currently living in Los Angeles, she has taught youth classes at Echo Park Film Center and shown her sculpture and film work at GAIT, 4th Wall and elephant. Peoples has shown her films at numerous festivals including Edinburgh, Images (Toronto) and New York Film Festival, and at museums and spaces including SFMoMA, Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Pompidou Center, Dirt Palace (Providence) and The Nightingale (Chicago). Started in 2022, Arroyo Seco Cine Club is a thematically programmed film series she co-curates with Mike Stoltz. She is inspired by pedestrian histories, pop song lyrics and invested in the hand-made.

The program will include:

Crowning Glory (2008, 5 min, Super-8mm-to-digital)

Crowning Glory highlights parallel feelings of pride and ownership versus skepticism and rebellion. A collection of American symbols that adorn the head, this film resuscitates them with psychic-punk aesthetics.

Them Oracles (2012, 7.5 min, 16mm)

Them Oracles is a skeptic investigation of what an oracle can be and what it would sound like. Human desire and blind faith allow, and maybe even will, these mystic soothsayers to exist.

Non-Stop Beautiful Ladies (2015, 9 min, 16mm)

Non-Stop Beautiful Ladies is a Los Angeles street film starring empty signs, radio from passing cars and human sign spinners, some with a pulse and some without.

Spotlight on a Brickwall (2016, 8 min, 16mm. Made in collaboration with Mike Stoltz.)

A performance film that navigates expectations of both the audience and the makers. A series of false starts. Dub treatment on the laugh track.

Decoy (2017, 10.5 min, 16mm)

Decoy sees bridges and walls as binary opposites and relates them to impostors in this world. Humans strive for accuracy. You don't always get what you wish for.

Standing Forward Full (2020, 5.5 min, 16mm)

A helter-skelter is an amusement ride with a spiral slide built around a tower. Like this film, an exorcism attempt of an unrequited desire, itʼs either moving too fast or at a complete standstill. Disorienting but exciting.

Hey Sweet Pea (2023, 11 min, 16mm)

Parental aging and an existential wave collide together in funny ways. Hey Sweet Pea borrows scenes from the 1984 children’s sci-fi movie The Neverending Story to process our collective grief.

Following the screening, Alee Peoples will participate in a post-screening conversation with cinema director Molly Ryan.

excerpts from Standing Forward Full from Alee Peoples on Vimeo.