Author: spectacletheater

MICROCINEMA SOLIDARITY: VIDEO REVELATIONS FROM VISUAL STUDIES WORKSHOP

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MICROCINEMA SOLIDARITY: Video Revelations from Visual Studies Workshop
dir. Various, 1971-1975
United States, 75 min
In English

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22 – 5 PM

TICKETS (this event is $10)

Presented by Tara Merenda Nelson, VSW Curator.

Visual Studies Workshop (VSW) is a nonprofit artist space, audiovisual archive, and microcinema founded in 1969 in Rochester, NY with a mission to support the makers and interpreters of images. Critically interested in the role images play in society, VSW became a repository for discarded media deemed unusable or obsolete by larger institutions and has provided unrestricted access to artists interested in the creative reuse of archives.

Most tapes in the collection originate from artists, activists, citizen journalists, and public access programming from Central and Western New York, as well as significant early experimental artists’ video productions. VSW has worked to preserve the most unique—and endangered—tapes in this library.

This screening will present recently preserved tapes highlighting the vibrant, largely unseen history of video art and activism in New York State. Pulling from the archive of video collective Portable Channel, which operated between 1971-1986, the selections include homemade experiments with the electronic image by artists Steina and Woody Vasulkas, a Videofreex party (where everyone is using PortaPacks), and coverage of the 1971 Attica uprising.

BOTH AT ONCE: VIDEO BY PEER BODE

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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22nd – 7:30 PM 

TICKETS (this event is $10)

Co-presented with Visual Studies Workshop

“This both at once, this being caught inside the illusion and this looking on nonetheless from without…”
—Rosalind Krauss, The Optical Unconscious

Over a career spanning more than four decades, video artist Peer Bode has extensively investigated electronic media events, active perception systems, and culture. He made his earliest works at the Experimental Television Center in collaboration with engineer David Jones, whose “Jones Frame Buffer” became a signature processor within his oeuvre.

This event will feature a selection of Bode’s “Process Tapes,” made at the ETC during 1977-83. Video switchers, test signals, and synthetic colors run amok. Video works that have been exhibited and are currently in distribution will be exhibited alongside recently digitized videotapes from the artist’s archive that have never been shown publicly. Moderated by  Tara Nelson (curator at the Visual Studies Workshop, where Bode’s tapes have been preserved), this event will be presented as a live dialogue between the artist, his archive, and the audience.

Works include:

Front Hand Back Hand (1977)
Cup Mix (2 Channels) (1977)
Camel with Window Memory (1983)
Vibratory Sweep (1978)
Video Locomotion (1978)
Music on Triggering Surfaces (1978) 

ANTI-VALENTINES: NO SEX LAST NIGHT (DOUBLE BLIND)

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NO SEX LAST NIGHT (DOUBLE BLIND)
dir. Sophie Calle and Greg Shephard, 1992
United States, 76 mins
In English and French

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8 – 5 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27 – 10 PM

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“Both road movie and diary of a hopelessly neurotic romance between two passive-aggressives, No Sex Last Night is compelling viewing.”
—Amy Taubin, The Village Voice

French artist Sophie Calle turns her typically voyeuristic impulses inward, dragging her former lover, American photographer Greg Shephard, along for the ride in this fraught and daring auto-ethnographic documentation of romance on the rocks.

NO SEX LAST NIGHT begins with Calle “burying” her friend, the gay autofictional novelist Hervé Guibert, before embarking on a road trip from New York to California with Shephard in an untrustworthy Cadillac. The lovers, who have not lived together long, have their camcorders ablaze the whole way. Meant to be Calle’s first video project, the two photographers found themselves primarily interested in still images, and frozen excerpts from the camcorder footage make up most of the runtime.

Special thanks to Electronic Arts Intermix and Micah Gottlieb.

TWO FILMS FROM THE STRUGGLE TO STOP COP CITY

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ONE NIGHT ONLY!
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2nd – 7:30 PM
Post-screening discussion with filmmaker Sasha Tycko and n+1 editor Mark Krotov

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Since 2021, people have been engaged in a struggle to block construction of the largest police training center in the US in a 500-acre forest in southeast Atlanta. The project was branded “Cop City” to highlight a signal feature of its plans, a “mock city” for military-style training exercises. Between 2021-2023, hundreds of people occupied and lived in the forest, successfully delaying construction for two years. The movement to “Defend the Atlanta Forest” aimed to hold the city council to its earlier promise to formally incorporate the forest, previously the site of a city prison farm, as a public park. Instead, the occupation was forcibly evicted in a series of violent police raids that culminated in the killing of Manual “Tortuguita” Esteban Paez Teran by a Georgia State Patrol officer on January 18, 2023.

Join us on Sunday, February 2nd at 7:30pm as we present two films from the struggle to Stop Cop City by filmmaker and researcher Sasha Tycko, who spent two years living and working at the activist site.

After the films, Sasha and n+1 editor Mark Krotov will lead a discussion. For more information on the experience at Stop Cop City, check out Not One Tree, an experiential, long-form piece co-written by Sasha from the Fall 2023 edition of n+1.

Film descriptions are below.

DWELLING: A MEASURE OF LIFE IN THE ATLANTA FOREST
Dir. Sasha Tycko. 2023.
United States. 40 min.
In English.

DWELLING: A MEASURE OF LIFE IN THE ATLANTA FOREST follows one Atlanta forest defender’s quixotic attempt to build a hut by hand in the forest occupation at the center of the fight against Cop City. By patiently following the building process, this observational film explores how the utopian visions of the movement meet the practical challenges of living in the forest. As a militant struggle unfolds offscreen, the film contemplates the nature of work, technology, and making a home.

— preceded by —

ATLANTA FOREST GARDEN: FOUR DAYS OF WORK
Dir. Marion Lary & Sasha Tycko. 2023.
United States. 12 min.
In English.

In March 2023, at the height of the movement to Defend the Atlanta Forest/Stop Cop City, ATLANTA FOREST GARDEN: FOUR DAYS OF WORK follows the guerilla gardeners of the Weelaunee Food Autonomy Festival as they plant a food forest on disturbed land, just days after the notorious police raid on the music festival threatened to cancel everything.

ANTI-VALENTINES: OZON LOVERS X 3

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Few contemporary filmmakers have been so adept at depicting the myriad ways love hurts as François Ozon, who delights in placing his tortured lovers in a variety of dynamics, stepping back, and watching the psychological and sexual sparks fly. Alternately tender and cruel, and always very queer, his prolific run at the end of the millennium offers no shortage of Ant-Valentines fodder, presented here in new restorations by distributor Altered Innocence.

SITCOM
dir. François Ozon, 1998
France, 80 min
In French with English subtitles

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14 – 10 PM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18 – 10 PM
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24 – 7:30 PM

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An upper-middle-class family experiences upheaval when they adopt a laboratory mouse as a pet. As each member interacts with the new addition to the household, the animal exerts a strange power that prompts them to explore their repressed psychosexual desires. A satire of bourgeois values—something of a cross between John Waters and Luis Buñuel—Ozon offers surreal delights and a rollercoaster of perversion.

CRIMINAL LOVERS
dir. François Ozon, 1999
France, 97 min
In French with English subtitles

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7 – 10 PM
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26 – 10 PM

TICKETS

After debuting as part of Anthology Film Archives’ Narrow Rooms series last year, the restoration of CRIMINAL LOVERS returns to New York. An audacious queer take on Hansel and Gretel, the film starts with a thrill kill that sends protagonists Alice and Luc down the rabbit hole. Like a wannabe Bonnie and Clyde, the couple flee their safe suburban lives before getting lost in a forest, only to find themselves trapped by a psychotic woodsman. What awaits in his cellar—from sexual enlightenment to karmic retribution—must be seen to be believed.

WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS
dir. François Ozon, 2000
France, 86 mins
In French with English subtitles

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27 – 7:30 PM

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WATER DROPS ON BURNING ROCKS adapts an unproduced play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Ozon’s favorite filmmaker. Franz, a naïve 19-year-old, is seduced by smug yet alluring 50-year-old businessman Leopold and quickly moves into his apartment. Domestic bliss is short-lived as a sadomasochistic relationship takes root, and the power dynamics continue to shift upon the arrival of both men’s ex-girlfriends: the spry Anna and mysterious Véra. This ménage à quatre leads to sex, despair, and of course, a musical number.

Special thanks to Altered Innocence.

GAZA IS OUR HOME

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GAZA IS OUR HOME
dir. Monear Shaer, 2024
United States, Palestine, 67 min
In English and Arabic with English subtitles

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7 – 7:30 PM (w/Q&A)
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10 – 7:30 PM (w/Q&A)
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18 – 7:30 PM (w/Q&A)
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 – 10 PM

TICKETS
Q&A TICKETS

Monear Shaer’s profoundly personal documentary peels back the layers of devastation within the Gaza Strip, created out of agony as a timely, impactful, and tragic response to the collective anguish of all who call it home. What began as an auto-generated iPhone slideshow of Monear’s trip to see his family in 2021 has transformed into a feature film.

Through a tapestry of intimate interviews, unfiltered personal footage, and raw storytelling, GAZA IS OUR HOME transcends political rhetoric and confronts audiences with the ongoing cruelty thrust upon the area. It’s a testament to the humanity of the thousands massacred since October 2023, laying bare their raw emotions, shattered dreams, and incomprehensible strength. Each frame represents a defiant declaration of Palestinians’ right to exist, be seen, and be heard in a world that has long ignored their cries.

The three Q&As incorporate a live-streamed call-in from Monear’s family members in Gaza. All proceeds from these screenings will be donated to Monear’s fundraising campaign. The money goes directly to his family, who are engaged in mutual aid networks distributing food and resources in Gaza.

O ABISMO

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O ABISMO
(THE ABYSS)
dir. Rogério Sganzerla, 1977
80 mins, Brazil
In Portuguese with English subtitles

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20 – 7:30 PM

TICKETS

“Jimi Hendrix is a thinker, and to him I dedicate all my tracking shots, my pans, and my tableaux. With him, I discovered the need to say everything at once, no matter what.”
—Rogério Sganzerla

What I wanted was to destroy my ego…

O ABISIMO is a sensory trip that forges a dialogue between the music of Jimi Hendrix, the land of Fusang, the power of MU, and the story of an Egyptologist (José Mojica Marins) searching for an ancient emblem while pursued by one Madame Zero (Norma Bengell). The film also features Ze Bonitinho as some sort of deconstructive archetype, Bossa Nova legend Edison Machado as a drummer who plays loud and intermittently, and Wilson Gray, who shoots a gun in the middle of nowhere while referencing Edgar Allen Poe. O ABISIMO is possibly Sganzerla’s freest film.

DEAD PIXEL

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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8 – 7:30 PM

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Exposing the apocalypse as our current reality, DEAD PIXEL is a spell for coping with inhospitable conditions. These experimental works use film and video as tools for charting underground networks wherein technology, surveillance, labor, and desire intersect, creating dynamic conversations around queer ecologies, alchemy, transmutation, and haunting. Each of these works takes place on the fringes of a hostile society, forming worlds in the breakdown of what came before. They evolve, linger, amuse, distort, persist, and reconfigure themselves under the pressure of dystopia.

For one night only, Spectacle will present four short films, along with a Q&A with filmmakers Alima Lee, Cherry Nin, and Clare Kinkaid.

VIRUS BECOMING
Dir. Shu Lea Cheang, 2022
France, 6 min

A prelude to Cheang’s feature UKI (2023), this is a 3D sketch of the birth of UKI the virus. VIRUS BECOMING follows the trajectory of the defunct humanoid Reiko, who’s been dumped in E-Trashville by GENOM Corp. As Reiko attempts to reboot themselves back into existence, they encounter E-Trashville’s community of trans-mutants, hackers, coders, migrants, refugees, and native laborers, going through a series of transformations.

Born in Taiwan in 1954, Shu Lea Cheang has lived and worked in the United States as well as Japan, Holland, the United Kingdom, and France. She has been a member of the alternative media collective Paper Tiger Television since 1982 and produced public-access programs for the group addressing racism in the media. Her career as a multimedia and new media artist began in the 1980s. In her work, she engages in genre-bending, gender-hacking practices. Brandon (1999) established her as a net art pioneer, the first web art commissioned and collected by the Guggenheim. Her filmography includes HOW HISTORY WAS WOUNDED (1990), FRESH KILL (1994), I.K.U. (2000), LOVE ME 2030 (2000), WONDERS WANDER (2017), 3X3X6 10 CASES 10 FILMS (2019), and UKI (2023).

REVOLVER MAGIC WAND
Dir. Cherry Nin, 2024
United States, 24 min

Sex worker Haunted is troubled by the murder of her girlfriend, moving through the world like a ghost. Meanwhile, her client John, growing increasingly paranoid that he is being spied upon, digs deep into a hole in his backyard.

Cherry Nin is a New York City-based artist primarily making films. Driven by an ongoing investigation of the potential of video to transmute violence and a devout commitment to art-making as a spiritual endeavor, Nin’s projects situate the hyperreal, the underground, the unseen, and the in-between as sites of play, possibility, and refuge for gendered and sexualized people. Nin is a recipient of the Leeway Foundation’s Art & Change Grant (2020) and the Philadelphia Independent Media Fund (2021). Past residencies include KAJE, the Wexner Center for the Arts, and Outpost Artist Resources. Their work has recently been presented at Time & Space Limited, re:assemblage collective’s Diffusion Film Festival, The Kitchen’s online streaming room, Millennium Film Workshop, and Vox Populi. Nin is the founder of Krissy Talking Pictures, a video art collective creating opportunities for queer artists. Nin holds an MFA in moving images from Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts.

THE SIREN’S LAMENT
Dir. Alima Lee, 2024
United States, 18 min

A siren emerges from the Atlantic, a product of Black wrath, and haunts the thirteen colonies.

Alima Lee is a transdisciplinary artist of afrodiasporic origin both from and currently based in New York City. Their work explores themes of identity and intersectionality. They are a recent Frieze LA x Ghetto Film School Fellow and cohost of the radio show Rave Reparations on NTS. Working in an uninhibited range of mediums from video installation and photography to printmaking and sculpture, Alima is on an ever-constant freefall from structure. Their video work is currently on view at HVW8 Gallery in Berlin and has been presented at the Tate Modern, MOCA, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, and ICA Boston, among other global entities.

2 *CURIOUS* GIRLS PLAY IN 1 **MUD**
Dir. Clare Kinkaid, 2022
United States, 7 min

Two girls are lured into a mud pit and play until exhaustion.

Clare Kinkaid is an intuitive filmmaker and amateur detective with a practice that spans video, photo, installation, and live storytelling. She is the founder of Mary’s Underground, a DIY art space in Iowa City, as well as Iowa City Video Zine at Public Space One. She is a member of Krissy Talking Pictures, a video art collective.

SITTING IN LIMBO

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SITTING IN LIMBO
Dir. John N. Smith, 1986
Canada, 96 min
In English

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2 – 5 PM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11 – 10 PM 
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 – 7:30 PM

TICKETS

During the second half of the 20th century, Canada’s National Film Board cultivated documentary filmmakers, helping to define both the cinéma vérité and direct cinema movements. In the 1980s, the NFB began producing “alternative dramas” — films that straddled the line between reality and fiction. Employing non-actors, on-location shooting, improvised dialogue, and documentary-style storytelling, these works were ahead of their time, demonstrating an acute awareness of the moving image’s power to reflect and manipulate reality.

One of the filmmakers who championed this approach was John N. Smith, and you can see it in action in SITTING IN LIMBO, a heartfelt kitchen sink drama about young parents struggling to make ends meet in Montreal’s West Indian community. Set primarily to the reggae tunes of Jimmy Cliff, the film is an empathetic look at the highs and lows of family, a capsule of 1980s Montreal, and a timeless portrait of the human condition.

I’LL BE AROUND

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I’LL BE AROUND
dir. Mike Cuenca, 2020
United States, 127 min
In English

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9 – 7 PM (w/Q&A)
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19 – 10 PM
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24 – 10 PM

TICKETS
Q&A TICKETS

This day could change their lives … but it probably won’t.

Taking place over one day at a postpunk music festival, I’LL BE AROUND follows over a hundred struggling musicians as they navigate issues ranging from missing guitars to premature ejaculation to generation angst. A remarkably ambitious and expansive film, it’s filled with the freaks, geeks, divas, misfits, hangers-on, dreamers, and criminals that make up an indie music scene, all lovingly and colorfully drawn.

This Rockuary, Spectacle is proud to present the theatrical world premiere of the director’s cut of Mike Cuenca’s I’LL BE AROUND, featuring a Q&A with actor Joaquin Dominguez moderated by Emily Pierce after the Feb. 9 screening.