MY FIRST FILM
dir. Zia Anger, 2018-2021
70 mins. United States.
In English.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16 – 7:30 PM in-theater only w/Zia Anger in person
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17 – 7:30 PM in-theater only w/Zia Anger in person
(These events are $10.)
The expanded cinema performance MY FIRST FILM began its gestation at Spectacle in June 2018 as (abandoned). It’s since played numerous film festivals, embarked on a world tour, and been called one of “62 of the Best Documentaries of All Time” by Richard Brody in The New Yorker. Following on our 2020 Spectacle in Exile zoom event (abandoned) 2, we once again welcome back filmmaker Zia Anger for a two-night run of My First Film.
“From memoirs to director’s commentary, the tradition of self-reflection in the film industry is nothing new. Self-reflection serves as a means for a director to further explain the significance of their work. In many cases, it functions as a distancing tactic—creating a dissonance between the filmmaker at present and their naïve former self. However, these reflections on the finished work are often as polished as the film itself, rendering the director’s ideas practiced and stale.
MY FIRST FILM repeatedly examines my first, and only, feature-length narrative film through an interactive live cinema performance. Each rendition contains new revelations and nuanced narrative shifts that build on both the original work and its accumulating commentary. The audience is encouraged to reconsider the formal limits of where a film begins and ends, to see that a film is only as fixed as the world around it.” —Zia Anger
ZIA ANGER works in moving images. Her most recent short, MY LAST FILM, premiered at the 53rd New York Film Festival. In 2015 her short I REMEMBER NOTHING premiered domestically at New Directors/New Films and internationally at Festival del film Locarno. She directed music videos for various independent artists including Angel Olsen, Mitski, Julianna Barwick, Beach House, Maggie Rogers, and Jenny Hval, the latter of whom she also toured with as a performer and stage director. Various online publications including Pitchfork, the Guardian, and NPR have featured her music videos.
MY FIRST FILM is produced by MEMORY.