59

Created by artist Leslie Foster in 2017 during the inaugural Level Ground residency, 59 is an anthology of 11 unique films created through artistic collaboration and steeped in the controversial space of faith, gender, and sexuality.

In creating this set of short films, Leslie Foster—our very first Level Ground resident—established several rules for himself.

1. Leslie had to create one film every month between May 2016 and April 2017.
2. Every film had to be exactly 59 seconds and created with a different collaborator, preferably from a different artistic discipline.
3. Leslie could not be the sole originator of any part of a film; from brainstorming to the final cut, every part of each film had to be created in collaboration with the respective artist.
4. Leslie could not collaborate with any artist who was a cisgender man.

The completed 59 anthology was displayed as an installation at The Aerial House in East Los Angeles from May 26 to 28, 2017 and at the Iron Triangle Brewery from May 29 to June 2. VICE's Creators series featured the show in the piece, "This Short Film Series Isn't For You."

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