Shadow of the House: Photographer Abelardo Morrell

Unfamiliarizing the most familiar

SHADOW OF THE HOUSE: Themes of home and homeland.

Abelardo Morrell makes photographs in which the outside is brought inside — using the camera obscura technique, he exposes bedroom walls with inverted projections of the world outside the window. He unfamiliarizes the most familiar: coins fall like liquid; a book, swollen and warped with water, resembles wood or stone. Allie Humenuk’s quiet documentary follows Morrell, who’s a professor at MassArt, over seven years in an examination of his process. Themes of home figure heavily: Morrell explains how the birth of his son changed his artistic direction, shifting him toward the interior. And during the course of the film, he returns for the first time to Cuba, his birthplace, despite objections from his parents who fled Castro more than 40 years ago. “There is actually a lot more of the world coming into your space than you think,” he says, regardless of where you are in the world — your house or your homeland.