SOME TROPICS OF CANCER: A Review by Sofia Migaly
In honor of Pride Month, this is the fourth and final installment of our weekly Reeling Pride Month Film Showcase presented by MUBI. We are also celebrating the upcoming 41st edition of Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival.
Thanks to MUBI we are excited to present MATTHIAS & MAXIME, accompanied by the short film SOME TROPICS OF CANCER by Midwest-based filmmaker T.J. Blanco.
Don’t forget to take advantage of MUBI’s exclusive 30-day free-trial offer at www.mubi.com/reeling
From SOME TROPICS OF CANCER by T.J. Blanco.
Trailer for SOME TROPICS OF CANCER edited by Mariam Atallah.
SOME TROPICS OF CANCER (2022) is an experimental short film that focuses on director and narrator T.J. Blanco’s meditation on their father’s death, caused by lung cancer. Reminiscing on their father’s life and the void of his absence, Blanco examines the larger forces out of their own control.
Blanco combines elements of conventional documentary language, using interview and archival footage, with more experimental imagery and poetic narration. Blanco’s cinematography, use of mixed media, and their manipulation of light and shadow express the desire to create physical and intellectual connection with the material representation of a loved one, no longer here but there - in an archive; we are reminded of the despair of time’s passing and how, in despair, it often separates us from love, leaving physical absence amidst the achingly present throes of loss. Blanco’s experimentation with light through multiple media nonetheless conveys, with care, the relatable state of evolving grief. Blanco expertly critiques our practice of “capturing space” and how fleeting our attempts are at capturing life, best represented by the nadir (the void of the virtual reality sky used as backdrop for the film’s title.)
SOME TROPICS OF CANCER expands its view from the autobiographical, looking at death through the lens of late-stage capitalism and settler-colonialism, encouraging viewers to reflect on their own experiences with loss while contemplating our shared space and time within a necropolitical framework of neglect.
Visit Chicago Filmmakers, Friday June 30th at 7PM, for the continuation of the MUBI-presentation of The Reeling Pride Film Showcase, featuring this special encore screening of T.J. Blanco’s SOME TROPICS OF CANCER, an honorable mention at the 33rd Onion City Experimental Film Festival.
For tickets: www.chicagofilmmakers.org/upcoming-screenings-and-events/
A review by Sofia Migaly
