Artists' Television Access

In his first solo show, Javier Briones will screen The Color of Time and El Soñador, two short optically-printed experimental documentaries about San Francisco.  One mid-length documentary, The Earth Did Not Speak,  exploring human rights and Indigenous people’s resilience in Guatemala and a preview of a work-in-progress, Yo Soy Fidel, a two-channel film that follows Fidel Castro’s ashes through Cuba during the 9 days of mourning following his death in 2016.

Javier Briones is a Guatemalan-born filmmaker and curator primarily working in non-fiction cinema. Motivated by social and personal concerns, he makes documentaries that are complex, layered explorations of history, memory and subjectivity.  His films focus on people from Latin America and the places, spaces and moments where social, political and cultural structures take on visible and tangible forms. His practice is grounded and bearing witness rather intervening, bringing forth what is hidden and untold through a lyrical, non-conventional documentary style.  His works include El Soñador, The Color of Time, and The Earth Did Not Speak, which was nominated for a 2016 International Documentary Association Award. In 2018 Javier was an Artist in Residence at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. Some of his most notable recognitions include the JustFilms Princess Grace Award, The President’s Award at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, and the Delphic Art Movie Award. He is the co-founder of 32K Productions, a full-scale film production company based in San Francisco that has made films for SFMOMA, The Asian Art Museum, and The San Francisco Ballet among others.