Artists in residence, Göteborg 1 March – 31 May 2023

Paolo Davanzo is a filmmaker, educator and co-founder of the Echo Park Film Center in Los Angeles, California. He was born in Italy to an Italian father and a Canadian mother and then emigrated to North America as a child. His parents were both social justice activists who died very early in his life and their passing became the impetus for opening EPFC in 2001. He believes in the power of cinema to create change, love and harmony in the world.

Lisa Marr is an award-winning filmmaker, musician and writer whose work is grounded in community collaboration and public exchange, celebrating the extraordinary in the everyday and the inherent creativity in everybody. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Lisa spent 25 years in Los Angeles, California where she worked as an art preparator, exhibition curator, cinema programmer, and workshop facilitator at museums and media arts spaces around the city. A member of the Echo Park Film Center since 2001 and now working internationally as part of the EPFC Collective, Lisa utilizes analog tools, techniques and technologies to connect people and their stories with the magic of the moving image.

Photo: Naomi Uman

Paolo Davanzo and Lisa Marr

Paolo Davanzo and Lisa Marr’s work is a catalyst for creative collaboration and positive social change. For the past twenty years, they have facilitated experimental cinematic programming for tens of thousands of people of all ages via the Echo Park Film Center, a non-profit neighborhood media arts center with a focus on analog film education and resources. In addition to their work at their home bases in Los Angeles and Vancouver, Lisa and Paolo travel the world, sharing handmade movies and music with local communities. https://sellyourtvandcometothecinema.org/

Wild Places invites the people of Göteborg to experience and embrace the urban landscape as home to a multitude of living things “hiding in plain sight”. Based at Konstepidemin, Göteborg over a three-month period in the spring of 2023, analog eco-artists Lisa Marr and Paolo Davanzo will facilitate a series of free, all-ages public activities including collaborative mapping, dream drawings created in collaboration with water and sunshine, deep listening sound walks, pre-cinema devices of wonder, and image gathering with cameras created from recycled “trash” and developed with alchemical compounds comprised of local fruit, flowers and grasses. The results–considering the possibilities of small-scale environmental sustainability, exploring the delicate balance between indigenous and invasive species, and celebrating the power of citizen activism and collaborative art-making– will be presented at sites around the city via a pedal-powered bicycle cinema.

Paolo Davanzo studied at the University of California San Diego, Humboldt State University, and l’Universitá di Padova with a concentration on political science, international relations, and cinema. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles. Some of Paolo’s notable exhibitions, fellowships and residencies include: CEC Arts Link Fellow, Bukhara, Uzbekistan (2021), Artist Fieldhouse Residency, Vancouver, Canada (2019), Punto de Vista Film Festival, Pamplona, Spain (2018), California Community Foundation Fellow, Los Angeles, USA (2017), City of Los Angeles COLA Award Fellow, Los Angeles, USA (2016), Earth Wind & Fire, Matrushka Construction, Los Angeles, USA (2015).

Lisa Marr studied at the University of British Columbia, earning a BFA in Creative Writing. She is a Director of Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles, and the Founder of EPFC North, Vancouver, Canada. Recent notable screenings, exhibitions, residencies, and fellowships include Engauge Film Festival, Seattle, USA (2022), Antimatter Film Festival, Victoria, Canada (2022), CEC Arts Link Fellow, Bukhara, Uzbekistan (2021), Takeover, Human Resources, Los Angeles, USA (2019), Ivana Kupala, Museum of Tripolian Culture, Legedzine, Ukraine (2015), TED-X UCLA, Los Angeles USA (2014), California Community Foundation Fellow, Los Angeles, USA (2014).