Location Shapeshifters Cinema 567 5th Street Oakland, CA 94607
March is Women’s History month! And we are kicking off this month’s programming with a stellar screening of films made over the past 50 years that are both entertaining and thought-provoking that speak to a spectrum of women’s issues including mother-child relationships, mental health and self-determination.
This very special screening will include the films Schmeerguntz (1965) by Gunvor Nelson & Dorothy Wiley, Anything You Want to Be (1971) by Liane Brandon, Women and Children at Large (1973) by Freude, Killing Time (1979) by Fronza Woods, Artificial Paradise (1986) by Chick Strand, Chronicles of a Lying Spirit by Kelly Gabron (1992) by Cauleen Smith, Noa, Noa (2006) by Lynne Sachs, Our Voices in Reverse (2013) by Nadia Shihab, The Way Light Keeps its Shadow (working title/WIP) by Vanessa Woods and Edge of Alchemy (2017) by Stacey Steers.
All proceeds from the screening will go towards supporting the forthcoming series Gravitational Lensing: Feminist Film Dialogues, that we will be launching at Shapeshifters beginning in April.
In the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade, “Contractions” takes us to Memphis, Tennessee where we contemplate the discontinuation of abortion services at a women’s health clinic. We listen to an obstetrician and a reproductive rights activist who movingly lay out these vital issues. We watch 14 women and their male allies who witness and perform with their backs to the camera. In a state where a woman can no longer make decisions about her own body, they can only “speak” with the full force of their collective presence.
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ended a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion in the United States. Twenty-one states now ban abortion outright or earlier in pregnancy than the standard set by Roe v. Wade, which governed reproductive rights for half a century. The woman’s health care facility in this film no longer offers abortions.
Intimate confessions, paired with experimental choreography outside a woman’s clinic in Memphis, offer a glimpse into post Roe v. Wade America.
“A couple of years after the annulment of the ruling known as Roe v. Wade, which, since 1973, guaranteed the right to abortion in the United States, weeds are growing on the walls of an empty clinic in Memphis, Tennessee. In this abandoned setting, a group of women, some holding hands with their companions, seem to recreate a kind of off-screen abortion: the entrance and exit of the clinic. We do not see their faces, but the sound guides us: in the voices of two women we hear the testimonies of those who once exercised a right, now lost. “ – Karina Solórzano, Documenta Madrid
“The cast’s gestures enact trauma, nerves, and capriciousness in doing something once legally acceptable that is now the opposite. They carry a history where their reproduction rights are currently in paralysis.” – Dispatches from True/False, The Brooklyn Rail, Edward Frumkin
“Fourteen women and their male allies, their backs to the camera, stand in full force outside a Memphis health clinic that can no longer provide abortion services following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade. On the soundtrack, an expert obstetrician-gynecologist and an anonymous activist bear witness to the fearsome uncertainties and dangers that lie ahead.” – Josh Siegel, Curator of MoMA
“Contractions is a much-needed film in the current political climate, as the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022. Offering an intimate look at abortion rights, this experimental short exposes the poignant testimonies of people directly connected to a clinic in Memphis, Tennessee. As we observe the slow march of women and their allies to the clinic, the voices of an obstetrician and a reproductive rights activist echo the disastrous consequences of ending women’s right to a safe, legal abortion in the United States. In the film, it’s the strength of community that shines through, as these people can no longer make decisions for their own bodies.” – Festival Filministes
Sachs records the participants in her film Contractions as they vocalize their reactions to the reduction of women’s bodily autonomy in the US.
Artist Statement
Maybe everyone has this feeling in some way. When something terrible happens in the world, we ask ourselves “What can I do?” More often than not, I feel hopeless and powerless and go on with my life. But sometimes, the despair so haunts me that I realize that I must respond in some way. I need my artistic practice to articulate how I am feeling, not so much as an act of persuasion but rather a witnessing. In the summer of 2023, I went back to my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee when abortion clinics across the country were closing their doors after the 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion nationwide. I worked with 14 activists – mostly women but also a few male allies – to perform with their backs to the camera in a unified expression of anger and sadness. We had also had the same number of volunteer marshals there with us — inside cars and in nearby buildings — to look out for us during the entire film production. These days, gathering together with kindred spirits to make a movie about abortion rights puts everyone involved in a vulnerable position. It was a relief to have a form of security there to support us. I interviewed two women for the film’s soundtrack: Dr. Kimberly Looney, an obstetrician gynecologist who had years of experience performing abortions prior to the changes in the local laws and a leader in the African-American family planning movement; and, an anonymous driver who is part of an underground reproductive justice community that takes pregnant women who want abortions across state lines.
Together, they bear witness to a troubled time in which women are losing their ability to control what happens to their own bodies. In addition, I recorded with our performers. Each participant sang, hummed, or simply verbally articulated their anguish over the situation they watch each and every day in the state of Tennessee and elsewhere around the country. Mixed in unison, their voices form an aural chorus, that can be heard in the film. Making Contractions has already given me the chance to spend time with others in the reproductive justice movement. Through the film, I have engaged with spokespeople in the medical field, underground activists with a commitment to acts of nonviolent civil-disobedience, and quiet powerfully committed volunteers. The experience of making this film has changed me. I am only beginning to discover how the film and our collective efforts will be experienced by audiences. I will smile if these moments of witnessing – whether in the theater or the living room — bring about introspection and recalibration.
Credits
Director Lynne Sachs
Voices Dr. Kimberly Looney Jane
Performers SaBrenna Boggan Chase Colling Shana J. Crispin Kimberly Hooper-Taylor Coe Lapossy A. Lloyd Audrey May Vanessa Mejia Natalie Richmond Krista Scott Neal Trotter J. Wright Nubia Yasin
Co-producers Emily Berisso Laura Goodman Lynne Sachs
Cinematographer Sean Hanley
Editor Anthony Svatek with assistance from Tiff Rekem
Studio recording Doug Easley
Sound mix Kevin T. Allen
Festivals and Selected Screenings:
True/False Film Fest, United States (2024) Cosmic Rays Film Festival, United States (2024) Ann Arbor Film Festival, United States (2024) Onion City Experimental Film Festival, United States (2024) Prismatic Ground Film Festival, United States (2024) Moviate Underground Film Festival, United States (2024) Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, United States (2024) DocumentaMadrid International Film Festival, Spain (2024) VIENNA SHORTS International Shorts Film Festival, Austria (2024) PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art | “Sentient Disobedients” Program, Canada (2024) DC/DOX Film Festival, United States (2024) Olhar de Cinema Festival Internacional de Curitiba, Brazil (2024) Other Cinema, San Francisco (2024) AGX Boston Film Collective, Films from the Abortion Clinic Film Collective, Boston (2024) Women Make Waves Film Festival, Taipei, Taiwan (2024) Mimesis Documentary Festival, Boulder, Colorado (2024) Camden International Film Festival, (2024) Chicago Underground Film Festival, (2024) Dialogues Documentary Festival, Milwaukee, WS (2024)
MAR. 16 2024: HUGHES + GRUFFAT + SACHS/WATERS/GUEVARA-FLANAGAN +
Utterly inspiring are the creative responses by US women artists–both individually and collectively– to last year’s deplorable dismantling of Roe Vs. Wade. Now, the opening half of our annual SisPix show is proud enough to boast a diverse selection of resonant pieces from contemporary female makers on a variety of women’s issues, tho we’re equally honored to dedicate the evening’s latter half to the initial group screening of the Abortion Clinic Film Collective‘s righteous howls of rage! So, in the first 40 mins. of (mostly) new work we’ll be treated to Salise Hughes‘ Big Daddy Learns a Lesson, Sabine Gruffat‘s Move or Being Moved, Christina Ibarra‘s Dirty Laundry, Kate Novack‘s Hysterical Girl, and more! Then our second block sets out to amplify the angry voices and visions of of a newly developing network of fierce feminists producing protest pieces to rally our will to resist the retrograde forces raiding our hard-won rights. Among that cadre is Lynne Sachs, Sasha Freyer Waters, Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, Ray Rea, Doan Hoang Curtis…and more coming in! $10-100 fund-raiser for the Ntl. Network of Abortion Funds non-profit. Celebrate Women’s History Month!
“Movies can be a fertile ground of inspiration for photographers looking to improve and find meaning in their craft. Since cameras are used in photography and cinema, they share technical aspects in image-making such as lighting, composition, exposure, and post-processing. As visual tools used to portray reality, fiction, or a mix of both, photos and films are also used to reflect on concepts surrounding history, memory, identity, humanity, and more. In this list, various filmmakers from Europe, Asia, and the United States offer visual inspiration and introspective views on the art of making pictures.
1. For Contemplating Memories Through Photography: Sans Soleil
2. Capturing Cityscapes: News From Home
3. Defining Beauty: Claire’s Camera
4. On Experimenting: Emak-Bakia
5. Revisiting Old Photographs: A Month of Single Frames
“Eight years after a one-month residency in an off-grid shack, Barbara Hammer received her cancer diagnosis. A decade after the news, she started to look back at her personal archive as part of her art of dying. That year, in 2018, she entrusted the outputs from her residency to her filmmaker friend Lynne Sachs. A year later, the short film was released, and Hammer finally embraced eternal rest. As Hammer narrated her meditations about life, idyllic shots unfurled in this peaceful farewell: deep purple skies during sunset, long blades of grass dancing with the wind, and gentle rainfall outside the cabin window. This bittersweet tribute is a reminder that there are things that can only be discovered and realized in hindsight.”
6. Visualizing the World and Humanity: Koyaanisqatsi
7. Understanding Walter Benjamin’s Essay: Certified Copy
8. Trusting the Process: Mysterious Object at Noon
9. Rethinking Your Purpose: The Spectre of Hope
10. Digging Through Photography Archives: To Pick a Flower
The COSMIC RAYS FILM FESTIVAL is an annual celebration of short films that expand our idea of what film is and what it can be.
The Festival presents several programs of short films made by filmmakers from North Carolina and around the world that are formally inventive; speak with a personal voice; and are inspired by the possibilities of film as art.
PROGRAM 4: WE’LL GO DOWN IN THE ABYSS IN SILENCE
Rituals to ward off the demons or lead us through the abyss. Incantations in the face of dropped frames and radioactivity. If the choice is between love or religion, what are you waiting for?
Ashes of Rose Sasha Waters, 2023 RT: 11:30 minutes
Her Backyard / My Front Window Billy Palumbo, 2023 RT: 3:36 minutes
Hey Sweet Pea Alee Peoples, 2023 RT: 4:08 minutes
Three Mystics Ioanna Filippopoulou, 2023 RT: 8:34 minutes
We’ll Go Down The Abyss in Silence Vincent Guilbert, 2023 RT: 11:00 minutes
Evocation Richard Ashrowan, 2023 RT: 3:22 minutes
Otherhood Deborah Stratman, 2023 RT: 3:00minutes
Poem For Three Voices Lan Anh Chu, 2023 RT: 02:44 minutes
“My memories of my girlhood hold a double self. I had two bodies – the body of the body and the body of the mind. The body of the body was flaccid and forgotten. It was a body that was wet with dirty fluids, withholes that couldn’t be closed, full of smells and curdled milk. But the flesh of the body was not bones. This body was surrounded and enveloped by the bones, a protective shell of flesh, just to the other side of the wall, which I call skin. Filled with infectious contagious fluids we hold blood, water, mucus, wax, hair, pus, breath. Everything that is ours to let go, to release onto this earth, is held back, stored. I am the cauldron of dangerous substances.” 1
The body of a woman is twofold. One worshiped, adored, cherished for its most sacred beauty and riches. This sacred body does not exist. It appears only in the imagination of intellectuals, artists, clerics and men of “good taste”. They impose their noble ideas and fetishes on women as their true and only essence. But as poet and filmmaker Lynne Sachs noted in House of Science: A Museum of False Facts (1991), the real body – the body of the body – is not like that. It is human, natural, animal. It ages, it performs functions, it dies and decays. It is constantly in motion towards extinction, never freezes in a moment of absolute beauty, light and chaste immobility.
Some women are not entitled to have a human body. It has been stolen from them and denied them for a higher purpose, to serve as a model of goodness and virtue. Such was the fate of the Virgin Mary. The Marian cult has fascinated me since I was a child. Cold Sundays spent in church did not offer many acceptable heroines for a young girl. The Virgin Mary is a special idol for me: she is celebrated as the Queen of Heaven, even though her role is consistently reduced to that of a passive bearer of the “divine seed.” She is a woman who never makes up her mind and accepts everything with humility – including her motherhood heralded by the archangel Gabriel. Mary encompasses all the Western ideal of womanhood: motherhood and virginity, chastity, beauty, devotion, gentleness. Mary has no body. And it is as if she never had one. According to the Marian tradition, both her soul and her physical shell were assumed after death. In mythology, this prevented her main attribute, beauty, from succumbing to decay and extinction. Mary died in her sleep at about the age of 50. Believers of many centuries know her as a beauty in early adulthood. On her deathbed she is often depicted as a young girl, which cannot be explained other than that she is not considered a realistic historical figure. Her symbol is a luminous beauty that every artistic tradition and culture has interpreted in its own way. In our context, she is anachronistically depicted as a pale European woman with blue eyes. It doesn’t matter who Mary really was.The model for women believers remains her supreme beauty and universal goodness, which are the keys to a right and virtuous life. There is no point in further explaining how dictatorial and dysfunctional this pattern of life is. In addition to erasing the individual imperfect body, the Goddess is denied access to all carnal pleasures. As a perpetual virgin with one “immaculate” conception, the saint is precluded from indulging in sex (even in marriage). Sexual pleasure was denied her, as were the pains of childbirth and the convulsive delirium of the deathbed. The defilement inherent in the biological body, the excretion, amniotic fluid and menstruation are symbols of sin. The only acceptable thing is to shed tears over the passion of the son Jesus. Women who are exemplary in this tradition tend towards incorporeality and abstinence. In both Jewish and Christian tradition, the custom was maintained that a woman is unclean after childbirth or during menstruation and is not allowed to enter society. In our folklore, for example, women were not allowed to leave the room for six Sundays after childbirth and their beds were veiled in the common rooms. Not only does the Virgin Mary not have an individual body in Christian iconography, but her earthly experience is purely disembodied, mystical.
But one strangely carnal feminine symbol does occur in (medieval) religious practice. It is the depiction of the wounds of Christ, which was very popular in the illumination of prayer books from the 13th to the 16th century. The curious fragment of the human body looks like nothing more than a vulva. The wounds of Christ represent the five wounds with which Jesus was tortured on the cross. Macabrely devotional practices led to an act of physical meditation in which these representations were kissed, rubbed, and licked. Some finds suggest that believers, following the example of the unbeliever Thomas, cut through the parchment and penetrated the symbol with their hands in religious rapture. The striking similarity of the wounds depicted to the vulva refers to Christ’s death on the cross. This suffering is symbolically the birth of the Church – a mystical birth. The fluids in the wounds also evoke female cyclical physiognomy: menstruation and other urges.
How is it possible that the saints are wrapped in fragile and cherished shells of beauty, but the torn fragment of their bodies is ecstatically worshiped as part of the Savior’s body? I cannot explain this devotional fetish except as the ravings of a perverse patriarchal logic that knows no bounds. As Lynne Sachs writes, the female body is territory. A territory divided into areas of interest. It’s functional integrity is disrupted. Movement, purpose, direction. That’s how the masculine has “defined” itself. But they have divided their little idols into small areas of artificial mystique. Divide et impera!
We need your help and support to raise money for our dear friend and beloved community member, MM Serra. We’re asking you to contribute to a fund that will pay her apartment rent for the next two years. This will guarantee MM’s security and well-being through December 2025.
MM Serra is a filmmaker, curator, and adjunct professor at The New School. Until recently, she was Executive Director of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, the world’s oldest and largest distributor of independent film, where she served on staff for 32 years. She has taught courses on cinema at The New School since 1998 and has made over 34 films, which have screened at venues like MoMA, Sundance, and the Tribeca Film Festival. In March, the Society for Cinema & Media Studies’s annual conference in Boston will feature the roundtable discussion, “A Celebration & Reflection on Filmmaker, Curator MM Serra’s 30+ Years as Executive Director of Film-makers’ Cooperative.”
In the last year, Serra has experienced significant life changes, which have left her in a precarious financial position. Since transitioning off of the Coop’s staff, Serra has been living in New York City without a substantial source of income and has been subsisting on social security, a meager adjunct salary, and modest savings. In addition, Serra had a serious health scare last summer. She underwent emergency surgery in July and was hospitalized for several days afterward. This left her with thousands of dollars in medical bills, as well as an increased need for long-term medical care and home care.
Despite these issues, Serra has continued production on several new films. She has also maintained an active teaching schedule at The New School, and has worked to develop new programming projects to support artists in her community. Her philosophy of making art no matter what life throws at her has inspired us all. As her friends, we believe that giving her this rent stability will allow her to direct her income toward other material needs, while also enabling her to continue her active and necessary artistic practice.
The major reason we are working to raise money for Serra is because she has dedicated so much time and labor to supporting the independent film community in New York. As the Executive Director of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, for instance, Serra guided the organization through two major relocations, supported the distribution of films in the collection, secured grants and other forms of financial assistance for the organization, curated innumerable screenings of artists’ work, and oversaw numerous restorations of independent media. Serra’s work for the Coop involved long hours and little pay, but she did it with love and joy, giving her whole self to our community.
We are seeking to raise $27,000, as this would cover two years of rent for Serra’s apartment in the Lower East Side, where she is an active and celebrated presence in the neighborhood. The monthly rent will be paid from the fund directly to Serra’s landlord. Contributions made to Allied Productions, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit arts service organization, are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. If you prefer to write a check directly, please make payable to Allied Productions,Inc. earmarked for MM Serra Fund and mail to PO Box 20260 New York, NY 10009.Donors will receive a letter from Allied Productions, Inc. with information confirming the tax deduction. An administrative fee of 9% has been calculated into the campaign’s target goal delegated for the administration of the funds of MM’s rent each month.
MM Serra has meant many things to each of us. Over the next few weeks, we, along with a few invited guests, will be sharing a range of narratives testifying to Serra’s remarkable contributions to our community. Stay in touch for some great slices of underground experimental film history!
In health, solidarity and enthusiasm,
Friends of MM Serra, Members of the Film-makers Cooperative(FMC), **FMC’s Advisory Board:
Peggy Ahwesh, Josh Guilford, Devon Narine-Singh, Lynne Sachs, Peter Cramer, Jack Waters
Narratives to MM Serra’s contributions to our community
A VALENTINE For MM. SERRA from Abigail Child
I first met Serra when she arrived from Los Angeles, wearing high heels, fabulously sexy black bangs (much like Pabst’s Lulu), and designer coats. I warned her about those heels, saying “you have to be able to run in NYC.” She was a fashionista then and still is. Together, along with Robert Hilferty (brilliant ex-student of mine from NYU and a filmmaker in his own right), we
co-curated Conspiracies over a weekend in May 1988 at Rapp Arts Center, a Catholic church and nun’s residency hall in the East Village (not incidently, where I had edited Mayhem (1987) in a 8’ by 15’ nun’s bedroom, with hardly space for the Steenbeck plus an editing chair.) MM being Catholic, particularly enjoyed screening our outrageous experimental films there. They had a remarkable theater with tragedy-comedy plaster masks centered above the proscenium arch. The line-up of filmmakers on those programs included Todd Haynes, Lewis Klahr, Mary Filippo, Joe Gibbons, Erika Beckmann and other key members of the downtown NYC avantgarde. The poster included Weegee’s famous photograph of a mobbed Coney Island, and our several shows, too, were mobbed and exhilarating. I should add our projectionist was Alex, then, the mixer at Duart Labs, who magnanimously volunteered to work the event. There we were, up in the booth, where things went a bit crazy, as they easily could do screening a long list of short experimental films!
It was successful and fun enough, so that in May 1990, we did another Weekend and then in 1991, Serra and I curated a Valentine’s Day Film Night at WEBO Gallery downtown. Later, Serra single-handedly curated another show, again at Rapp. The most memorable for me from that program was Nick Zedd’s War Is Menstrual Envy, which had Annie Sprinkle cuddling a burn victim. Disturbing and unforgettable. Just what MM loved: sex and shock.
We became fast friends. A bit later, MM was showing her films in S and M dungeons downtown. She had shared her sexual history with me, which involved abuse as a child, abuse that her mother denied. Around then, she showed me her film of her mother, Reel to Real Momma (1982), and the image of her mother staring out at the audience, so harsh, so cold—I felt for her. The person in her family whom she loved the most was her Dad, whom I was privileged to meet. He worked as a coal miner; small and round, he was the opposite of the mom. And he loved gardens. At that point I was a member of a community garden in the East Village, and he would come by and visit, talking about plants and gardening. He was happiest there. Serra has a plot now in the community garden at 6th Street and Ave. B. Digging in the garden is always a pleasure, grounding, quite literally.
There was a time when we tried to do a film together on bisexuality. It didn’t quite work out. But there she was, clicking in her heels across the wood floor at Westbeth where we were shooting. Either later or just before, Peggy Ahwesh and I shot for her film, Soi Meme, on female ejaculation. Quite fun, even if I remained skeptical about what we were seeing.
Serra took on the job at the film coop not long after. She remained always supportive, and always active. In many ways, she brought the Film Coop into the 21st century, getting the films out to an international audience, travelling with them and curating shows, often of women or lesser known and/or forgotten filmmakers. While working, she studied and graduated with an advanced degree from New York University, remaining dedicated, determined, and loving cinema. She moved ahead no matter the problems, curating shows abroad and establishing an ongoing tradition of exhibition at the Coop itself, continuing to make her own films. She was living on very constrained finances, yet still a fashionista, showing up in wonderful idiosyncratic style, discovering and befriending downtown designers, heralding them just as she did the Coop’s filmmakers. She remained an eccentric beauty, even as she switched from high-heels to baseball shoes. During this time, she was also teaching at the New School, enabling her to influence and bring to experimental cinema a new crop of devotees. She influenced so many people, building community. She worked with Michelle Handleman, Peggy Ahwesh, Jennifer Reeves, Tom Chomont and myself, among others.
Most particularly, I will never forget those incredible Rapp shows and the group of people we brought together in New York: this moment of unity, a fantastic cross-section of filmmakers just as New York was coming out of the 1980s, funky with drugs and a reputation for danger popularized by the film “Escape from New York”. We never ‘escaped’ but stayed, to continue our love affair with the city and cinema, sustaining experimentation, friendship and community.
“Narcisa Hirsch in Berlin in 1928. Argentine by choice, she is a filmmaker, with a long career in experimental cinema. In the 60s and 70s she expanded her activity in the form of installations, objects, performances, graffiti, urban interventions.
In her works she exposes central themes such as love, birth and death, or questions about the feminine condition, recreated through a particularly intimate language of images, with a marked visual and sound poetry. To date she has made more than 30 films in super 8, 16 mm and video.
Since the ’60s, Narcisa Hirsch has given as much importance to experimental cinema as to everything related to it (film archives, sound archives, books, photographs, etc.). Thanks to this visionary spirit, she has gathered, over the years, an impressive archive that includes a collection of national and international films, film material, sound, photographs, among others.” – https://filmotecanarcisahirsch.com.ar/
Interview with Narcisa Hirsch by Lynne Sachs August, 2008, Buenos Aires
In August of 2008, I was living in Buenos Aires with my family. I was able to meet and spend quite a bit of time with artist filmmaker Narcisa Hirsch.
In this conversation, we talk about so many things including: her belief that painting on an easel had died, “Happenings”, her collaborative Marabunta (1967) feminist performance, her discovery of 16mm, watching Michael Snow’s “Wavelength”, creating “Taller” a response to Snow’s ideas, a 16mm visualization of Steve Reich’s “Come Out”, her friend and collaborator Marie Louise Alleman, “Fuses” by Carolee Schneemann which was her first film purchase, making films in the troubled 1970s in Argentina, owning films by Su Friedrich and Stan Brakhage, rejecting making feature films with a script, filming daily life, her being world famous for 50 people, remembering Laura and Albert Honig (Argentine experimental filmmakers), support from the Goethe Institute, making “radical” work that did not threaten the government, “I didn’t go to jail because they didn’t want me,” giving away 500 little dolls on the street and saying “you have a baby” in NYC, London and Buenos Aires. All of these Happenings were filmed and each was very different, she was doing this during the same time that Cesar Chavez was encouraging people to boycott lettuce. She defines what a “happening” is including public participation and very much not a conventional gallery show, art was no longer “re-presentation” but now is a situation, not isolated from the public but including the public. They talk about Ramundo Glazer who was one of the Argentine disappeared.
Then we watch her film response to Steve Reich’s “Come Out”, film diary footage from summer 1973, close ups of leaves and water, her feet, a fly, her shadow in the sand as she carries her film camera, cherries on skin, a fly, a mouth luxuriating at the taste of fruit, a baby on the grass., a breast and a belly in the sunlight, a fly.
with Paula Felix Didier, Ruben Guzman, and Maya and Noa Street-Sachs
This Sat., Feb. 17, at 12:00 p.m., we’ll be celebrating our annual Presidents Day weekend event, the Welcome to Boog City 17.5 Arts Festival. We will livestream the goings-on to
