THE STILL LIFE OF HARLEY PROSPER
La vida suspendida de Harley Prosper
Mexico, Canada, 2018 | 67 min
Director: Juan Manuel Sepúlveda
Friday, August, 24
7:15pm @ The Cinematheque
As a child, Harley Prosper was appointed to become the traditional healer of his community, a Cree village in the plains of central Canada. When he grew up, Harley rejected his responsibility and ran away to Vancouver where he sunk into an abyss of alcoholism, defying the Spirit who had chosen him. Now in his early 30s and confined in a hospice for the terminally ill, the film follows Harley’s daily ritual as he confronts the inner voices that constantly remind him that it is impossible to escape his destiny. And even less so, his history.
Juan Manuel Sepúlveda pushes the interview device to the extreme, questioning all the voices and all the men who live in Harley Prosper’s spirit, exploring each centimetre of his skin, sharing the delirium of his confinement. In this film, he is not a talking head, he is a multiple body, overflowing. Half-man, half-spirit, Harley Prosper awaits only death. Sharing his fatal journey, we reach his state of trance.– Elena López Riera, Visions du Réel
Best Film in Burning Lights – Visions du Réel
Special Mention – FICUNAM
Best Director (Documentary) – Málaga International Film Festival
Siendo niño, Harley Prosper fue escogido y entrenado para ser el Chamán de su pueblo, una comunidad Cree en las planicies de Canadá. Al crecer, Harley rechaza esta responsabilidad y huye hasta Vancouver para beber hasta matarse, desafiando al Espíritu que lo había elegido. Confinado en un albergue para enfermos terminales, la película sigue la diaria ritualidad de un hombre que está dispuesto a profanar su sagrada misión hasta el último momento.
Filmography: La balada del Oppenheimer Park (2016), Lecciones para una guerra (2012), La frontera infinita (2007)
Juan Manuel Sepúlveda (b. Mexico, 1980) is a director and cinematographer, and a recent graduate of the MFA in film program at Simon Fraser University. His first feature film, The Infinite Border (2007), premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and he was the director of cinematography of Leap Year (2010), which was awarded the Camera d’Or at Cannes.