“Nuclear Family,” 16 mm film, 22 minutes (2001)
Directed by Dana Plays

Juried Film Festival Screenings 

• Athens International Film and Video Festival, Athens, Ohio, April 25, 2002.
   

• 40^th Annual Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Mich., March 15, 2002 (Festival tour included 25 screenings in 14 states).
   

• Women in the Director’s Chair Film Festival, Chicago, Ill., March 15, 2002.
   

• Big Muddy Film Festival, Carbondale, Ill., March 3, 2002.
   

• Black Maria Film and Video Festival, Jersey City, NJ, Feb. 25, 2002 (Festival tour included six screenings in five states).
   

• Empire State Film Festival, Saratoga Springs, NY, Jan. 14, 2002.
   

• Deep Ellum Film Festival, Dallas, Texas, Nov. 17, 2001.
   

• Savannah Film and Video Festival, Savannah, Georgia, Oct. 30, 2001.
   

• Euro Underground Film Festival, Moribar, Slovenia, Sept. 24, 2001.

Presentations

• Invited speaker, Temple University, Film and Media Arts Department, Nov. 2003. 
  
  

• Invited speaker, Museum of Art and Culture, Oct. 23, 2002.
   

• Invited speaker, Eastern Washington University, Oct. 22, 2002.
   

• Faculty Exhibition, Weingart Galleries, Occidental College, September 2002.
   

• Solo show and presentation, San Francisco Cinematheque, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, Calif., June 13, 2002.
   

• Visiting artist presentation, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, Calif., Dec. 10, 2001.
   

• Cultural Trauma/Cultural Memory Series, Alumni Auditorium, Occidental College, Sept. 20, 2001.

Honors

• First Prize, Jurors’ Choice Award, Black Maria Film and Video Festival, Jersey City, NJ, Feb. 25, 2002.
   

• Honorable Mention, 40^th Annual Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Mich., March 17, 2002.
   

• First Prize Experimental Film Award, Empire State Film Festival, Saratoga Springs, NY, Jan. 14, 2002.

PRESS RELEASE  - OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE MARCH 5, 2002 Contact: Andy Faught (323) 259-2534 afaught@oxy.edu

OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE PROFESSOR DANA PLAYS WINS FILM FESTIVAL PRIZE FOR “NUCLEAR FAMILY” 

“Nuclear Family,” a film by Dana Plays, associate professor of film and new media at Occidental College, has been awarded first prize at the Black Maria Film and Video Festival in Jersey City, N.J. Plays earned the Jurors’ Choice Award on Jan. 25 for her experimental exploration of institutional and personal representations of memory and behavior as exhibited through scientific documentation, animal behavior experiments, and vintage pre-school footage.

“Nuclear Family,” released in 2001, will tour nationwide and is eligible for screenings at 50 festival host sites across the country. The 22-minute production features a series of non-human subjects – ranging from mannequins used in 1950s nuclear blast experiments to doves playing Ping-Pong. The notion of family is experienced as iconic, nostalgic and a recollected remnant of the nuclear age. 

Plays’ film was one of just nine Jurors’ Choice recipients from a field of more than 700 entries. The Academy of Motion Picture Sciences has ruled that documentary short films that have received the award at Black Maria are eligible for Oscar competition without the normally required theater run.           

Plays’ filmography includes 14 short films that have screened at numerous festivals and avant-garde film showcases, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Pacific Film Archive, Montreal Nouveau Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, and Leipzig Doc Festival. Recent films include “Love Stories My Grandmother Tells,” “Zero Hour,” and “River Madness.”

 

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Dana Plays, dir. NUCLEAR FAMILY Director's Bio: Dana Plays is an experimental filmmaker and Associate Professor of Film and New Media at Occidental College. Her filmography includes 14 short films which have screened at numerous film festivals and avant garde film showcases including Whitney Museum of American Art, Pacific Film Archive, Montreal Nouveau Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival and Leipzig Doc Festival. Recent films include Love Stories My Grandmother Tells, Zero Hour, and River Madness. Film synopsis: NUCLEAR FAMILY is an experimental film that explores institutional and personal representations of memory and behavior through a complex interweaving of scientific documentation, animal behavior experiments and vintage pre-school footage. The approach is formalistic and optically printed material is used throughout. The drama of the nuclear family is played by a series of non-human subjects - ranging from mannequins used in 1950s nuclear blast experiments, to doves playing ping pong. The notion of family is experienced as iconic, nostalgic and a recollected remnant of the nuclear age. Film synopsis (shorter version): NULCEAR FAMILY interweaves optically printed scientific documentation, animal behavior experiments and vintage pre-school footage to explore institutional and personal representations of memory and behavior. Credits: Director: Dana Plays Producer: Dana Plays Editor: Dana Plays Contact information: Dana Plays. dplays@oxy.edu  more about Dana Plays