Alessia Cecchet
Directing
Biography
Alessia Lupo Cecchet is a maker of moving images, interdisciplinary artist, and writer who grew up in the Dolomite Mountains of Northern Italy and is now based in Los Angeles, CA. Her practice is situated at the intersection of studio and media arts; Alessia constructs sculptural objects that she then activates through animation, film, and video. Grounded in historical and archival research, her work is invested in human and non-human histories of displacement, loss, and suffering. In June 2022, Alessia completed her Ph.D. in Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, defending her dissertation “Eating and Resurrecting the Goats: Animal Bodies, Death, and Western Culture.” Alessia also holds an MFA in Film from Syracuse University as well as a MA in Film Studies from the University of Bologna, Italy. Her thesis about American Propaganda Animation during WWII won the Franco La Polla prize (Future Film Festival) which awarded its publication as a book. In 2023 Alessia Lupo was awarded a residency at the John Michael Kohler Art Center in Kohler, WI, and her film balaena won Best Experimental Film at the 2023 New Jersey International Film Festival. Her work has been exhibited internationally at numerous film festivals and art venues, including Uppsala Short Film Festival (Sweden), Slamdance Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, Encounters Film Festival (UK), Seattle International Film Festival, Cork International Film Festival (Ireland), Athens International Film and Video Festival, and Torino Film Festival (Italy).
Known For
Onikuma is Japanese yokai, a demon bear known for chasing horses. Surrounded by a foreign landscape, two women will understand that demons can come in different forms.
Onikuma
Two brothers must deal with the sudden loss of their parents. As one falls into the darkness of a troubled marriage, the other must find an escape from the evil that is devouring his family.
Black Dog
A whale lies stranded on the beach, and a woman seeks closure through a simulacrum while human interlopers observe, collect, dissect and take selfies.
Balaena
An ambitious actress finds her way, and herself, on the road to building a character.
The Callback
WWW {the whale who wasn’t} is a tale of conquest and destruction. Utilizing fragments of early educational films and animation, the piece develops a sci-fi counter-narrative of subjugation and annihilation told from a non-human perspective.
WWW {The Whale Who Wasn't}
A forest, a hunter, a groan.