I DON'T WANT TO SLEEP ALONE
2006. Taiwan. 115 min. Directed by Ming-liang Tsai. 35mm!

Director Tsai Ming-liang (The River), one of the most celebrated Second New Wave film directors of Taiwanese cinema, returned to his birthplace in Malaysia to make I DON’T WANT TO SLEEP ALONE, a romantic drama about a young man who nurses an injured homeless man back to health after being brutally beaten. For tonight’s presenter, visual artist, filmmaker, and curator—Tiona Nekkia McClodden—the film “rocked me to my core with the way it presented desire and loneliness”. McClodden’s work explores and critiques issues at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and social commentary. McClodden writes, “As a queer filmmaker I'm always looking for a way to bend the narrative of my work in a way that challenges the form and structure of film… Ming-liang has taught me how to enter a narrative by leaving what comes before and after up to your imagination.”

As always, our screening will be followed by drinks and discussion at Julius Bar (159 West 10th St. at Waverly), the oldest gay bar in New York City!

TIONA NEKKIA MCCLODDEN

Tiona Nekkia McClodden is a visual artist, filmmaker, and curator whose work explores, and critiques issues at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and social commentary. McClodden’s interdisciplinary approach traverses documentary film, experimental video, sculpture, and sound installations. Themes explored in McClodden's films and works have been re-memory and more recently narrative biomythography.