A haunting new video by Belgian-born, Mexico City-based contemporary artist Francis Alÿs precedes Dominican filmmaker Nelson de los Santos Arias’ ambitious extrapolation of Roberto Bolaño’s unfinished, posthumous novel 2666.

Paradox of Praxis 5, 8 minutes:

One of Francis Alÿs’ series of performative videos that politicize absurd or seemingly futile gestures, Paradox of Praxis 5 documents the artist’s nocturnal perambulations through Juárez as he kicks a ball of fire along the city’s desolate streets. Transcending metaphor, the eerie mobile conflagration traces out an imaginary map of a devastated city.

Santa Teresa and Other Stories, 65 minutes:

Dominican filmmaker Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias radically extrapolates from Roberto Bolaño’s unfinished, posthumous novel 2666, to produce a baroque fictionalized account of Ciudad Juárez. This noir-tinged tale soon begins to dovetail and intersect with a host of other stories recounted by a chorus of disembodied voices, creating a narrative palimpsest that blurs the line between factual documentation, lyrical observation, and fictional imagination.