Angelo Madsen Minax
Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown following the death of his infant niece and his brother-in-law’s false incarceration for her murder. Through first-person cinema vérité and the traditions of essay and experimental filmmaking, Minax navigates a town steeped in opioid addiction, economic depression, and religious fervor, while using the act of filmmaking to reimagine familial bonds.
Posing empathy as a tool for creating a more just world, North By Current creates a relentless portrait of an enduring pastoral family, poised to reframe and reimagine narratives about incarceration, addiction, trans embodiment, and ruralness. Through the intersectional, political, and deeply personal natures of this work Minax hopes to extend beyond the art and film worlds to bridge queer, political, and rural communities. The project does not explain, but demonstrates the ways in which collaborative making becomes a healing container: a way to interpret, assess, and transform human experiences.