…the thing itself

Shot in the Guatemalan Highlands, Meta Mayan II is a keenly observed, poetic video essay on the indigenous culture of the Mayans. Velez's vision is intensely personal; avoiding overt editorializing or ethnographic analysis, he depicts the landscapes, gestures, textures and rhythms of their culture in powerful, evocative images. The political and internecine conflicts confronting the Mayans are conveyed through the sound of American news broadcasts. Through subtle video effects — rapid, almost liquid pans, magnified close-ups, and slow motion — Velez expresses their strength and dignity. His highly charged, slow-motion image of a Mayan woman, gazing with curiosity and suspicion at the camera, becomes an eloquent metaphor for a culture in transition.

The dark sensibilities and cultural resonances of Butoh, the radical Japanese dance movement, are explored in this multilayered work. Profoundly rooted in both traditional and contemporary Japanese culture, Butoh arose in a spirit of revolt in the early 1960s. Characterized by frank sexuality and bodily distortions, Butoh transforms traditional dance movements into new forms, stripping away the taboos of contemporary Japanese culture to reveal a secret world of darkness and irrationality.

Meaning of the Interval is an evocative, subjective essay that explores the inherent contradictions of contemporary Japan, from the rituals of Shinto religion to the nation's fascination with Western pop culture. Constructing a densely layered, nonlinear weave of the mythical and the everyday, Velez probes beneath the surface to unearth ancient, often anarchic tensions. In Velez's rich, transequential collage of imagery, emblems of contemporary Japan — the Bullet train, businessmen and McDonald's — collide with traditional ritual, from Kabuki and Sumo to Shinto. Defying documentary expectations of a narrative voice, Velez redefines the content through a carefully structured progression of visual and aural metaphors. The "interval" of the title relates to the Japanese concept of "ma" — the space between things, a source of energy, tension and balance.

This cine-portrait of New York City uses digital effects to turn the countless riders of the subway system into living, breathing paintings.

Oblique Strategist Too is a multilayered, tangential portrait of composer Brian Eno, and an evocative essay on the creative process. Eno's perspectives on his music and working methods surface elliptically, through interviews and footage of him in the studio and in lectures. Eno emerges as a meticulous musician, articulate critic, and, ultimately, an inscrutable personality. The tape's title is taken from a set of cards bearing aphorisms, which Eno uses as a random element of advice in his working process. Velez uses intricate audio and video effects to heighten the elusive nature of Eno's music and character. He begins the tape with a quote from Heraclitus: "The nature of things is in the habit of concealing itself" a paradox that eminently suits his subject matter.