THE MAGIC HEDGE

By fmoffe on January 1, 2016

THE MAGIC HEDGE 9:00 | video | 2016

The Magic Hedge explores a bird sanctuary located on a former Cold War Nike missile site on the north side of Chicago. Left to wander and observe, the viewer becomes aware of the park’s open secret: men looking for fleeting sexual contacts within the trees and shrubberies. The video highlights the many contradictions of a site historically devoted to military surveillance and now designed to preserve and control the “wildlife”.

The Magic Hedge had its world premiere at the Hot Docs in May 2016. It was also presented at Now and After 16: Ecology Without Borders at State Darwin Museum in Moscow, Phi Center in Montréal, Antimatter Media Art in Victoria, Les Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois in Montreal, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival, Cheap Cuts Documentary Festival at the Cinema Museum, London, Loud and Proud Festival in Paris, Perth International Film Festival, Korea Queer Film Festival in Seoul, Euganea Film Festival in Padua, Italy, Les Percéides in Gaspésie, L’Alternativa Festival of Independent Cinema of Barcelona, Modular + Space in Berlin and the European Media Art Festival in Osnabruck, Germany.

The Magic Hedge is part of Chicagoland Shorts Vol.4, a touring program organized by Full Feature Spectrum. The series premiere at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and has also been presented in many institutions such as Spectacle Theater in New York, Block Museum, The Nightingale, Beverly Arts Center in Chicago, Northwest Film Forum in Seattle and Echo Park Film Center in Los Angeles.

The Magic Hedge was also part of the Living Architecture exhibition at 6018North in 2018. It was also part of the exhibition In Flux: Chicago Artists and Immigration at the Chicago Cultural Center.

The video is distributed by Video Data Bank and Vidéographe