Nitehawk Cinema’s series on New York filmmakers LOCAL COLOR and Tribeca Film Festival present a special preview screening of MA. Q&A with director CELIA ROWLSON HALL. 

In this modern-day vision of Mother Mary’s pilgrimage, a woman crosses the scorched landscape of the American Southwest. Reinvented and told entirely through movement, the film playfully deconstructs the role of this woman, who encounters a world full of bold characters that are alternately terrifying and sublime. MA is a journey into the visceral and the surreal, interweaving ritual, performance, and the body as sculpture. The absence of dialogue stirs the senses, and leads us to imagine a new ending to this familiar journey. The virgin mother gives birth to our savior, but is also challenged to save herself.

Celia Rowlson Hall is a New York based Director, Choreographer and Bessie award winning performer. Celia has choreographed for film and television, working with directors such as Gaspar Noe and Lena Dunham as well as VMA award winning music videos for bands such as MGMT, Chromeo, and Sleigh Bells and for fashion publications Vogue, Vanity Fair and Glamour. She has written and directed over fifty short films and videos that have garnered several awards including an Emmy nomination and have been screened at festivals such as SXSW, SFIFF, MFF, Rooftop Films, Glasgow, Dance on Camera at Lincoln Center, and art fairs such as the Armory Show, Performa, and the New Museum. She was named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine, 2015. MA is her debut feature.