Miles Rufelds
A Hall of Mirrors

In an age when every visual and informational production is put under the microscope of truth, when conspiracists and whistleblowers share the same platforms, what is the artist’s role in pursuing, accumulating and disseminating facts? Drawing on film noir tropes while deploying visual essayism as an investigatory mode, Miles Rufelds reconciles authenticatory images with deceptive illusions around a legendary figure of experimental film.

In the parafiction film It’s Not Brakhage, an investigator-researcher in the throes of doubt delves into the archives of a mysterious foundation with links to the DuPont industrial dynasty. His search reveals a network of connections in which cinematic experimentations, image technologies, the arms lobby and family fortunes intertwine. As the narrator is gradually gripped by feverish speculation, the quest for the truth becomes suspect as well.