May 3: Previewing Frank Mosley’s ‘Her Wilderness’

As the cornucopia of repertory cinema screenings continues at the Cinematheque this weekend, including the Jerry Garcia favorite and final epic in the Scorsese-curated “Polish Masterpieces,” The Saragossa Manuscript (1964), and a special DCP presentation of Richard Lester’s revolutionary rock ‘n’ roll musical A Hard Day’s Night (1964), the micro-budget feature showcase, Micro-Wave Cinema Series, winds down in the same venue, 4070 Vilas Hall, with Frank Mosley’s Her Wilderness (2014) on Sunday, May 3, at 7:00p. Flying in from Dallas, TX, the director himself will be in attendance for the spring send-off.

Don’t miss the rare opportunity to greet Mosley in-person and participate in Micro-Wave’s standard post-screening Q&A session with programmer Brandon Colvin, who will present this inquisitive adult fairy tale, a minimalist narrative portrait of four females’ uniquely introspective journeys. Indie Outlook critic Matt Fagerholm speaks personally of Her Wilderness as a “cinematic meditation” that “burrows deep into [the] subconscious like a vivid fever dream, tempting you to venture deeper and deeper into its wilderness of abstractions at once alien and achingly resonant.”

At just over sixty minutes, Mosley’s elliptical design encourages audience interpretation in the way he spiritually connects women both young and old: a self-destructive young woman (Lauren McCune), an independence-seeking pregnant wife (Crystal Pate), a middle-aged mom (Morgana Shaw) engaged in a precarious cell phone conversation, and a child (Riley Templeton), the soul of the poetic film, wandering into the heart of a verdant forest. Michael McWay of Hammer to Nail attributes Ron Gonzalez’s patient, gliding camera to the development of nature itself as a character that becomes conflated with a collective inner life of not only the women but the work itself.

Mosley describes his sophomore effort as more than a mere film; assuredly, he will elucidate its “multi-platform” status as a feature installation and interactive online experience, facilitating the enticing mysteries of Her Wilderness that extend beyond its literal and figurative borders.

  • Her Wilderness screens at 7:00p Sunday in 4070 Vilas Hall. For more information on the Micro-Wave Cinema Series that’s FREE and open to the public, please visit the Facebook community page. You can watch the two-minute trailer on Vimeo.