HOME > CINEMATIC VIDEO VIDEO FROM LA CONCHITA MON AMOUR PROJECT LA CONCHITA PARADISE 2007 VIDEO DOCUMENTATION | 1:20 | 4.9Mb Moving from ocean shore to the base of the coastal rincon, La Conchita Paradise is a psychogeographic walk at the edge of spontaneous vernacular shrines built on a mudslide. In January 2005, a devastating debris flow took ten lives at La Conchita, a surfers' paradise,  built on a fault line beneath unstable ridges, themselves a remnant of an ancient landslide, north of Los Angeles.  The soundscape enfolds ambient incidents--from motorcycle traffic to the Doppler effect of the passing Union Pacific trains--to shouts from footage shot at the time of the mudslide.  The montage superimposes a stream of animated fragments through a continuous shoot of the shrine site under the full illumination of an August sun. The film explores the loss and recovery of place and home within conditions of constant environmental risk. La Conchita's shrines are like a hallucination of time as an integrated whole, over the site of loss, a hole in the world. To stop time is to enter heaven. Photography, sound design and image montage : Christina McPhee Special thanks to the Experimental Television Center, New York, for generous support of a production residency in November-December 2005;  Terry Hargrave and Lawrence Mahadoo for additional footage. ©naxsmash group productions 2006-2007 “Bare Life” and the Traumatic Landscape, a conversation/interview with Christina McPhee and Amy Wiley, Documenta 12 Magazines Online Journal, 2007. Screenings: Santa Cruz Film Festival, official selection, United States premiere, Santa Cruz, California, May 9-17, 2008 Read More on La Conchita Paradise

Original Duration: SD video NTSC 16' 51"