Author: Spectacle

ISIAH MEDINA: FILMS 2010-2020

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Seven years after his WITHOUT A FUTURE presentation (in conjunction with the New York Film Festival premiere of his debut feature 88:88), Spectacle is thrilled to invite multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker ISIAH MEDINA back for a retrospective of works made between 2010 and 2020, under the banner of Isiah’s production company Quantity Cinema (QTY). This series will include the New York City premiere of INVENTING THE FUTURE, Medina’s adaptation of the 2015 book by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams. Isiah Medina will be in person at Spectacle on July 29 + 30; encore screenings of the films will continue in August.

88:88
dir. Isiah Medina, 2015
65 mins. Canada.
In English.

FRIDAY, JULY 29 – 7:30 PM with Isiah Medina in person for Q+A
(This event is $10.)
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 6 – 5 PM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, AUGUST 16 – 7:30 PM

ONLINE TICKETS

You’re unable to pay your bills. Your light, heat, and water are cut. Once you’re able to pay again, the digital appliances flash 88:88, –:–, -.


INVENTING THE FUTURE
dir. Isiah Medina, 2020
98 mins. Canada/USA/UK/France.
In English.

SATURDAY, JULY 30 – 7:30 PM with Isiah Medina in person for Q+A
(This event is $10.)
SUNDAY, AUGUST 7 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, AUGUST 11 – 10 PM
MONDAY, AUGUST 15 – 10 PM

ONLINE TICKETS

Take back control over our future and foster the ambition for a world more modern than capitalism. Demand full automation, demand a reduced work week, demand universal basic income, destroy the work ethic.

FROM PAINT TUBE TO YOUTUBE: SHORT FILMS BY ISIAH MEDINA
dir. Isiah Medina, 2010-2020
62 mins. Canada/Philippines/USA/France.

SATURDAY, JULY 30 – 5 PM with Isiah Medina in person for Q+A
(This event is $10.)
TUESDAY, AUGUST 2 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, AUGUST 15 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, AUGUST 21 – 5 PM

ONLINE TICKETS

Directed between the ages of 18 and 28, the short films of Isiah Medina start in the West End of Winnipeg with SEMI-AUTO COLOURS (2010), then conclude in San Nicolas, Batangas in the Philippines with LOG 2 (2020). Over the course of a decade one witnesses the transition from childhood to adulthood, from curiosity to mastery, that takes place in the life of an artist.

ISIAH MEDINA (b. 1991) was born in Winnipeg, lives in Toronto and produces films through his company Quantity Cinema.

LAWRENCE OF BELGRAVIA

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LAWRENCE OF BELGRAVIA
dir. Paul Kelly, 2011
90 mins. United Kingdom.
In English.

SATURDAY, JUNE 18 – 5 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Interviewer: “Is it right that you once said that your ideal way to die would be to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge weighed down by your first edition Kerouacs?”

Lawrence: “I did. The thing is, when I thought about it, I thought, ‘They wouldn’t weigh enough to actually sink you. It would have to be a whole Beat library.'”

Felt, the band Lawrence founded in 1979, released ten singles and ten albums in ten years. Their titles include Dismantled King Is Off The Throne, All The People I Like Are Those That Are Dead, and Let The Snakes Crinkle Their Heads To Death. Wrote Jon Wilde, “They make music that is heavy-hearted, brimming with tears … gibberish and baffled brilliance rolled into one woolly ball … Unutterably awkward, preposterously flawed.”

Denim, Lawrence’s next band, had a song called The New Potatoes that Black Mirror creator Charlie Booker claims is his Desert Island Disc.

Mozart’s Mini-Estate, the most recent LP by Lawrence’s current band Go-Kart Mozart, was described in The Wire as being “as oddsome as dress-wearing era Kevin Rowland, as socially astute as Sleaford Mods, as mythomaniacal as Kanye West.”

To celebrate the release of LAWRENCE OF BELGRAVIA on UK Blu-ray, the Colloquium for Unpopular Culture is staging a very rare U.S. screening of Paul Kelly’s celebrated film of the musician whose credo is “To remain true to one’s aims – pure and untainted – divorced from reality.”

PAUL KELLY is a musician (East Village/ Birdie), a graphic designer, and a filmmaker. His films include Finisterre (with Kieran Evans), What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day? (2005), This Is Tomorrow (2007), Lawrence of Belgravia (2011), and How We Used To Live (2013). In 2013, the Colloquium published Nothing’s Too Good For The Common People: The Films of Paul Kelly containing essays by the likes of Dan Fox, Stephin Merritt, Jude Rogers and Peter Terzian.

Special thanks to Paul Kelly and S.S. Sandhu (Colloquium for Unpopular Culture).

CECELIA CONDIT SHORT FILMS

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ONLINE TICKETS

FRIDAY, JUNE 03 – 7:00 PM (Q&A)
MONDAY, JUNE 13 – 10:00 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 25 – 10:00 PM
TUESDAY, JUNE 28 – 7:30 PM

Beneath the Skin
dir. Cecelia Condit, 1981.
12 min.

This film is about a strange, shocking, and gruesome discovery a girl makes about her boyfriend’s past, and what she ultimately ends up uncovering.

Possibly in Michigan
dir. Cecelia Condit, 1983.
11 min.

The film takes place in a what now seems like a nostalgic shopping mall and elsewhere in suburbia. Its opening scene, features a beautiful woman walking from the mall’s elevator while robotic, female vocals and minimal-synthwave music plays. You think it is just another day shopping, but you’re in for a rude awakening.

Not a Jealous Bone
dir. Cecelia Condit, 1987.
10 min.

This film tells the story of an old woman grappling with her age as she searches for her mother in this magical adventure that includes musical narratives and Freudian undertones.

Suburbs of Eden
dir. Cecelia Condit, 1992.
15 min.

This film is a twist on the Biblical tale of Adam and Eve, woven into a family drama.

Pulling Up Roots
dir. Cecelia Condit, 2015.
7 min.

This is a film about a woman gaining insight about her past and future while living in an isolated Irish village.

JANE: AN ABORTION SERVICE

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JANE: AN ABORTION SERVICE
dirs. Kate Kirtz and Nell Lundy, 1996
58 mins. United States.
In English.

ONLINE TICKETS

TUESDAY, JUNE 7 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 20 – 7:30 PM

100% of ticket sales will go to Access Reproductive Care – Southeast, an Atlanta-based service providing financial and logistical support for those in need of abortions in six southeastern states.

This fascinating political look at a little-known chapter in women’s history tells the story of “Jane,” the Chicago-based women’s health group who performed nearly 12,000 safe illegal abortions between 1969 and 1973 with no formal medical training.

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WITH A VENGEANCE: THE FIGHT FOR REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
dir. Lori Hiris, 1989
40 min, United States.
In English.

This urgent and timely film is a history of the struggle for reproductive freedom since the 1960s, reflecting the wider history of the contemporary women’s movement. WITH A VENGEANCE is an empowering look at the strength and breadth of the current women’s movement which asks why current battles resemble those of the 60s. Rare archival footage and interviews with early abortion rights activists, including members of Redstockings and the JANE Collective, are intercut with young women who testify to the need for multi-racial grassroots coalitions. Flo Kennedy and Byllye Avery exemplify African American women’s roles as leaders, making connections between racism, reproductive freedom and healthcare for the poor.

Special thanks to Women Make Movies.

AROUND SPACE: WORKS BY THERESA HAK KYUNG CHA, SUJIN LEE, AND JESSE CHUN

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ONLINE TICKETS

SUNDAY, JUNE 19 – 5 PM & 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

“Her movements are already punctuated by the movement of the camera, her pace, her time, her rhythm. You move from the same distance as the visitor, with the same awe, same reticence, the same anticipation. […] All along, you see her without actually seeing, actually having seen her. You do not see her. For the moment, you see only her traces.” – Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictee

Wendy’s Subway and Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) are pleased to collaborate with Spectacle on a one-night-only screening of film and video works by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, alongside works by Sujin Lee and Jesse Chun, artists influenced by her practice.

This program is a part of Wendy’s Subway’s The Quick and the Dead, a yearlong, multi-phase project that bridges the life, work, and legacy of a deceased writer to those of contemporary practitioners. In its third year, the program focuses on Korean American artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (1951–1982), and considers her profound interventions in film and video, historiography, language and translation, and autobiographical writing. Cha’s exploration of the porousness between artistic mediums leaves indelible marks on contemporary art, especially film and video.

Program:

THERESA HAK KYUNG CHA PROJECT
dir. Sujin Lee, 2015
24:28 mins. South Korea.

술래 SULLAE
dir. Jesse Chun, 2020
6:25 mins. United States.

MOUTH TO MOUTH
dir. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, 1975
8 mins. United States.

PERMUTATIONS
dir. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, 1976
10 mins. United States.

RE DIS APPEARING
dir. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, 1977
2:30 mins. United States.

SECRET SPILL
dir. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, 1974
27 mins. United States.

VIDÉOÈME
dir. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, 1976
4:42 mins. United States.

Total runtime 83 minutes.

SUJIN LEE is an artist currently living and working in Seoul, South Korea. She works with language in text, moving image, and performance. Lee’s work has been presented at Arko Art Center, Kumho Art Museum, Cake Gallery, Wumin Art Center in South Korea, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Queens Museum, A.I.R. Gallery, Mandeville Gallery at Union College, NURTUREart, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Small Editions in New York, US, and the Sergey Kuryokhin Modern Art Center in Saint Petersburg, Russia, among others. She participated in artist residencies, including the Millay Colony for the Arts, Blue Mountain Center, I-Park, Newark Museum, Zarya Center for Contemporary Art, and Artkommunalka. She is a recipient of the A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship (2012-2013), SeMA Emerging Artist & Curators Program grant (2016), and Wumin Art Award (2018).

JESSE CHUN is an artist working and living in New York. Chun’s work has been presented internationally at the Nam June Paik Art Center (South Korea); SculptureCenter, New York; the Drawing Center, New York; BAM, New York; Queens Museum, New York; the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, New York (United States); and the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (Canada), among others. Recent awards and fellowships include Art by Translation (Paris, 2022); Ballroom Marfa (Texas, 2021), and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant (US, 2020).

From the mid-1970s until her death at age 31 in 1982, Korean-born artist THERESA HAK KYUNG CHA created a rich body of conceptual art that explored displacement and loss. Her works included artists’ books, mail art, performance, audio, video, film, and installation. Although grounded in French psychoanalytic film theory, her art is also informed by far-ranging cultural and symbolic references, from shamanism to Confucianism and Catholicism. Her collage-like book Dictée, which was published posthumously in 1982, is recognized as an influential investigation of identity in the context of history, ethnicity and gender.

Wendy’s Subway is a reading room, writing space, and independent publisher in Bushwick, Brooklyn. They support emerging artists and writers in making experimental, urgent work and create alternative modes for learning and thinking in community.

Founded in 1971, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) is a nonprofit arts organization that is a leading international resource for video and media art. A pioneering advocate for media art and artists, EAI’s core program is the distribution and preservation of a major collection of over 4,000 new and historical video works by artists. For 50 years, EAI has fostered the creation, exhibition, distribution and preservation of video art, and more recently, digital art projects.