Shirin Neshat / Vignettes of Life

Summer augurs the arrival of the high season for movies of all varieties. Looking for art-house titles? Why not go to the biggest, baddest art house around? The Walker’s healthy film and video commitments come into full flower in June, and this year is no different. As if to both elucidate and erase the line between “time arts”(i.e. video and filmic images) and “moviemaking” (more traditional narrative cinema), our clever friends on Vineland Place are turning three galleries into six screening rooms, where the works of Shirin Neshat will be installed. This Iranian-born artist explores the tensions between her Islamic past and her American present on numerous simultaneous screenings and sound recordings. If this nonlinear, artsy approach to “moving pictures” bugs, stay tuned. The Walker’s film department is also launching a brief documentary series from three French filmmakers. “Vignettes of Life” is a nice slice of contemporary verite, three films each set in a microcosmic community—a Yiddish neighborhood in Paris, family farms in rural France, and schoolchildren on recess at a prep school. (Beware that, in this case, film is the more fleeting medium: “Vignettes’” three films will screen once each on June 5, 6, and 7). Both the exhibit and the series offer refreshing evidence that not every rule has yet been broken, and not every boundary has yet been pushed, when it comes to the cinematic arts. Walker Art Center, (612) 375-7622