M.A.I.L. is a feature length documentary about a family working together to preserve their archive of Mail Art.
Returning to her successful collaboration with Lauryn Welch on ‘The Body is a House of Familiar Rooms’, Eloise and her co-director have set out to tell the story of Mail Art – the DIY, proudly counter-cultural international analogue social network of thousands of artists who have been sending art to each other from across the planet for over five decades.
Founded in the 1950’s, many of these friendships have lasted for generations. Each artist has hundreds, if not thousands of works of art stashed in their garages, basements and bedrooms. Unfortunately, because these archives don’t have monetary value, most of them end up in the trash once the artists pass away– and because the movement has been active for so long, many of the artists who relied on this network for anti-establishment connection and subverting political censorship are passing away.
With every artist who dies, their history is forgotten alongside their legacies. We are building a platform for mail artists to tell their stories in their own words before it’s too late.