Saturday, March 23 (7:00pm)
KITÂB AL-ISFÂR: BOOK OF THE JOURNEY  
With filmmaker Baba Hillman in attendance  
Co-presented by Aurora Picture Show and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Presented in association with the French Cultures Festival  
Location: MFAH Lynn Wyatt Theater in the Kinder Building (5500 Main Street)
$10 general admission / $6 for Aurora members - email for member discount code 

Aurora Picture Show and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston co-present the US premiere of Baba Hillman’s lyrical essay film Kitâb al-Isfâr: Book of the Journey, followed by an in-person conversation and Q&A with the filmmaker. Drawing upon the writings of Sufi mystic, poet, and philosopher Ibn ‘Arabi, the film is a poetic exploration of a near-death and mystical experience in the mountains north of Malaga, Spain. Hillman's seven-year journey of return to Spain, Norway, and Scotland is guided by teachers and fellow travelers met along the way, including German avant-garde artist Mary Bauermeister and author Denis Gril, a leading scholar on the work of Ibn 'Arabi. Hailed as a masterpiece by French film critic Raphaël Bassan, Kitâb al-Isfâr: Book of the Journey is a kaleidoscopic travelog of overlapping languages and geographies, with their landscapes evoked in luminous fragments filmed on 8mm and 16mm film.

Baba Hillman grew up in Japan, Venezuela, and Panama, and works between France and the U.S.. She received a B.A. from Duke University and an M.F.A. from University of California, San Diego where she studied with Jean-Pierre Gorin. Her films and performance works explore perception, transience and history and the poetics and politics of place, language, and the body. Her films have screened widely at festivals and museums including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, FIDMarseille, Edinburgh Film Festival, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Ann Arbor Film Festival, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Anthology Film Archives, ICAIC Havana, Africa World Documentary Festival, Yaounde, MIX Brazil, and European Media Art Festival, Osnabruck, among others. She was director of Teatro Movimento, a multi-media performance group based in Florence and has worked as a performer and choreographer with Etienne Decroux, Eleanor Antin and Sledgehammer Theatre. She has received awards and grants from the French Ministry of Culture, the Whiting Foundation, the California Arts Council, and the Italian city governments of Florence, Lecce and Certaldo. She is Professor Emerita of Film at Hampshire College and teaches the Hampshire Super 8 Filmmaking course in Paris. Hillman’s film Kitâb al-Isfâr: Book of the Journey premiered at the FIDMarseille film festival.