Kate Haug is an artist living in San Francisco, California. In her work, she investigates history – its presentation and consumption. Her practice explores the circulation of information through ephemera, popular culture and historical documents, re-contextualizing and refiguring archival material to examine contemporary issues. She enjoys making her own ephemera and its anonymous distribution into public spaces. Her short films have screened internationally and include “Pass,” New Directors/New Films 1997, and “Deep Creep,” London International Film Festival 1999.
Director Statement
“Post-Election Works” is a very personal project for me. It is hard to know oneself when assumptions about your government become upended and irrelevant. When I first conceived of the film, it was much more about Walter Benjamin; I felt a parallel to his experience. He was an intellectual and a chronicler of modern culture, writing about history as a non-linear, unstable form. In his book, “Moscow Diary,” Benjamin’s journal entries describe the rise of Stalin from a unique vantage point; he was a foreigner, hosted by actors, leftists and academics, privy to their political debates about Stalin and the changing communist party. Twenty-four years later, pursued by Nazis, Benjamin committed suicide. Throughout his lifetime, Benjamin witnessed the rise of Western dictators, continuing his work as a philosopher and critic. The question of how intellectuals and artists function within a context of political turmoil is compelling to me and structures much of this piece.
Production Notes:
Post-Election Works is an essay film constructed of digital fragments, narrated by the artist as she examines her identity after the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. The use of photographs and video culled from the internet mixed with the artist’s artwork and personal experience create a fragmented, prismatic history where the individual becomes the witness, the activist and the subject.
Political Feedback Festival 