FRESH K*ll w/ filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang

Dir. Shulea Cheang / 1996 / 80 min

Fresh K*ll is a highly stylised and satirical attack on neo-liberal reality. The child of a young lesbian couple living on Staten Island mysteriously vanishes after consuming radiated fish. The battle to find the missing child and the culprits responsible for the disappearance is joined by a group of cyber-warriors. Everyone finds themselves ensnared in a vast conspiracy involving a ghost ship of nuclear refuse, ominous media messages, and deadly cat food!

Accompanied by two young filmmakers - Jean-Paul Jones (Los Angeles based) and Jazz Franklin (New Orleans based), Cheang travels with the 35mm film print in 5 reels and 2 cans on this 20 city tour across the heartlands of America connecting to a demographically, racially, and gender diverse audience. For a new generation, the film is a provocative and timely challenge given a unique vision which hasn’t lost any of its satiric, poetic, or political edge.

Shu Lea Cheang is an artist and filmmaker who engages in genre bending, gendehacking art practices. Cheang is acclaimed internationally as a net art pioneer. Her project BRANDON (1998-1999) was the first web art commissioned and collected by the Guggenheim Museum, NYC. Cheang represented Taiwan with the mixed media installation ‘3x3x6’ at the Venice Biennale in 2019. Her recent film UKI (2023) premiered at Filmfest München followed by screenings at the Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Museum of Modern Art, NYC among other cinemas. In 2024, she received the LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Award. http://mauvaiscontact.info

Jean-Paul Jones is a recent filmmaking graduate from CalArts, Los Angeles. His creative focus explores the intricate intersection of religion and queerness. Passionate about challenging norms, Jean-Paul is particularly intrigued by the male gaze within the context of LGBTQ+ representation. His deep love for musicals serves as a driving force to reinvent the genre, using it as a powerful medium to delve into universal human themes.

Jazz Franklin Is based in New Orleans and has a filmmaking praxis which plays with power and possibility. She has been working with ‘Gallery of the Streets’ which gathers a global network of artists, activists, and organizers to transform public and private spaces into temporary sites of resistance and “phantastical subversive imaginaries.” Since 2016, she has been a member of the programming team of the PATOIS, The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival. https://www.jazzfranklin.com/

Host or Publisher Stray Cat Film Center