Each semester, the MassArt Ciné Culture (MACC) Screening Series brings to campus a diverse group of filmmakers and moving image artists for screenings, panel discussions, master classes, and performances.
Most Ciné Culture cinematheque screenings are held in MassArt’s Design and Media (DMC) Center Lecture Hall on Thursday evenings. Cinematheque screenings are now open to the MassArt community and the larger public, and are generally followed by discussions / Q+A sessions with the visiting filmmakers, in person or via Zoom livestream in the Lecture Hall.
The Fall 2023 installment of the Ciné Culture series is programmed and moderated by MassArt Film/Video Professor and Department Chair Tammy Dudman. For information, contact cine-culture@massart.edu.
The Ciné Culture series was established in 2018 by filmmaker and former MassArt Film/Video department professor Soon-Mi Yoo, and is made possible witht the support of MassArt’s Office of Academic Affairs.
Climate stickers, blockades, demonstrations and spray attacks. Is this law or crime? Does democracy need civil disobedience? “Investigation of a Flame” by Lynne Sachs documents an anti-war action by Catholic activists, the Catonsville Nine, against the Vietnam War – and interviews those involved about it thirty years after their action. The Frankfurt lawyer Samira Akarbian has just published her award-winning doctoral thesis on “Civil Disobedience as a Constitutional Interpretation”. We watch the film with her in the Kurbelkiste cinema and discuss civil disobedience today. Afterwards there will be Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass” at the Münster Theater, which was inspired, among other things, by the action of the Catonsville Nine. Audience discussion following the performance.
This is the third event in Heaven, Hell, Happy End , the new series that accompanies musical theater productions. The deputy chairwoman of QueerBw, Lieutenant Colonel iG Anastasia Biefang, was a guest at the first event. At the second appointment we already had a conversation with the director Lynne Sachs about her film Investigation of a Flame.
Over a period of 35 years between 1984 and 2019, Lynne Sachs filmed her father, Ira Sachs Sr., a bon vivant and pioneering businessman from Park City, Utah. Film About a Father Who is her raw and eye-opening attempt to understand the web that connects a child to her parent and a sister to her siblings. Sachs’ cinematic exploration of her father offers simultaneous, sometimes contradictory, views of one seemingly unknowable man. As the startling facts mount, she discovers more about her father than she had ever hoped to reveal.
“[A] brisk, prismatic and richly psychodramatic family portrait.” – Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times
Filmmaker Michael Gitlin will moderate a conversation with Lynne Sachs, after the film.
In partnership with San Francisco Cinematheque | October 21, 2023, 3–5 PM
Join us for nine works by ten contemporary Bay Area filmmakers, a cross-section of the Bay Area’s ever-vibrant multi-generational community curated by Steve Polta, artistic director of San Francisco Cinematheque. These works present a compelling mix of contemplative landscape study, critiques of consumerism and media representation, poetic considerations of solitude and connection, and an abiding love for the physical and chemical charms of the filmic medium itself. Full program details, program notes, and artist bios available at sfcinematheque.org →
Curated by BAN9 Curatorial Counsel member Gina Basso, the ongoing BAN9 Film series will span the entirety of the exhibition, featuring acclaimed Bay Area filmmakers, collectives, and new media artists. Offerings will vary monthly, reflecting BAN9’s curatorial themes and diving into the breadth and depth of the Bay Area’s vibrant film scene by highlighting the local organizations and individuals who contribute to the shape and form of the region’s rich cinematic landscape.
Films
(sans)(image) (arc and Sophia Wang, 7 min, 2023, 16mm, black and white, sound)
Light Signal (Emily Chao, 11 min, 2022, 16mm screened as digital video, color, sound)
The city of Paderborn is ready to celebrate the highlights of international short film art when “Oberhausen meets Paderborn” opens its doors for an unforgettable short film night. The event will take place on Wednesday, 18 October at 8pm at Pollux by Cineplex (Westernstraße 34, 33098 Paderborn). Tickets are available online from Cineplex or directly at the box office.
The Short Film Night offers the opportunity to discover emerging talents and renowned filmmakers from all over the world. The programme includes new works by filmmakers such as Lynne Sachs from the USA and artists from Colombia as well as German and Austrian productions. The diverse selection reflects the global range of cinematic art and invites the audience to explore new perspectives and stories.
A special highlight of the event is the presentation of short films carefully selected by students of Paderborn University. Within a seminar, the students were able to experience the “69th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen” and have then put together a programme. These films are the result of passionate work and creative inspiration, covering a wide range of genres and narrative styles.
The 14th “Oberhausen meets Paderborn” Short Film Night is not only an opportunity to enjoy art and culture, but also a platform for filmmakers and the audience to exchange ideas and network. Film enthusiasts in particular will have the opportunity to see short films that are otherwise rarely seen on the internet or even on the big screen.
About “Oberhausen meets Paderborn
“Oberhausen meets Paderborn” is an annual short film night that presents the best short films from around the world. The event provides a platform for emerging filmmakers and established artists to present their work to a wide audience and celebrate the magic of short film.
Annette and LynneAnnette BrauerhochLynne Sachs at PaderbornStudent CuratorsStephan Ahrens Stephan Ahrens Lynne Sachs Annette B and projectionistsPorn CollectionPorn Collection
In May 1968, the Catonsville Nine, a group of Catholic priests and laypeople who wanted to stop the Vietnam War, burned draft records. They used homemade napalm. They had previously stolen the files from a district military replacement office in broad daylight. For some it was a crime, for others it was civil disobedience. For the composer Leonard Bernstein, this action, which caused a lot of attention in the public and also in the Catholic Church, was an important impulse for his musical theater piece Mass. He was friends with Father Daniel Berrigan, who was sentenced to prison for this action.
The feminist filmmaker Lynne Sachs made a film about this action in 2001 and allowed the activists, but also employees of the authority, jurors and the public prosecutor to have their say: How do they see the action in retrospect?
She comes to Münster for the premiere of the film (with German subtitles) and speaks to Professor Dr. Oliver Tolmein after the screening about the film and the meaning and consequences of civil disobedience.
This is the second event in “Heaven, Hell, Happy Ending”, the new series that accompanies musical theater productions.
For the final PETROPRESENTS at Petrohradská 13, we have invited American poet and filmmaker Lynne Sachs for two evenings of hand-picked short film screenings and one workshop, which are free for the public. Curated by Christopher Small and Daniela Hanusová.
TUESDAY 10 19:30 Program 1: Film is a Collaborative Art (90 mins)
THURSDAY 12 18:00 Lynne Sachs: Making Films Personally and Politically (Workshop, 60 mins) 19:30 Program 2: Feminism as Filmmaking (90 mins)
Lynne Sachs will be present for two nights of screenings, on Tuesday 10th and Thursday 12th October. Before the second program on the 12th, Lynne will give a special workshop to the students of Film Studies at Charles University, which is also open to the public, at Petrohradská kolektiv.
Admission to the screenings and the workshop are free of charge, but the capacity of the workshop is limited, so please register if you wish to take part.
Lynne Sachs’s work — both cinematic and poetic — and theoretical thinking teeter on multiple edges; somewhere between the deeply personal and the general, the corporeal and the abstract, the introspective yet always relatable. Kino Petrohradská will screen two blocks of her short documentaries: one exploring feminism as a method of filmmaking, the other Sachs’ frequent tendency to make films collaboratively and communally – whether with her family or with other filmmakers (as in her collaboration with queer cinema pioneer Barbara Hammer on A Month of Single Frames).
In her talk, Sachs will combine film and feminist theory with labour history, focusing on the concepts of reproductive labour, performativity and somatic cinema. The lecture will be based on her forthcoming collaborative publication (with contributions from, for example, the prominent feminist theorist Silvia Federici). The book analyses the process of making her film The Washing Society, exploring the milieu of New York’s laundries and the intersections of immigration, race and capitalism. The talk will be followed by a discussion.
DRAWN & QUARTERED (3 min., 1987) Recently read Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”. Male gaze challenged. Talk about French feminist theorists Helene Cixous, Luce Irigeray and Julia Kristeva.
WINDOW WORK (9 min, 2000) I was performer, cameraperson, and director – one woman band so to speak. Talk about domestic work, being a mother, Silvia Federici (who came into my life much later), “Wages for House Work” and her theories of Reproductive Labor. Talk about Chantal Ackerman’s “The Bed”.
ATALANTA: 32 YEARS LATER (5 min., 2006) Revision of mythic story of the princess Atlanta whose father, the King, wanted her to marry a prince. She refused, unless he organized a competition of princes around the kingdom who would race to see who was the fastest. The fastest could marry her. I rewrite this, “queer” it, feminize it as we might say today. Dedicated to Barbara Hammer.
AND THEN WE MARCHED (3 min. 2017) How do we as artists participate in the swirl of mainstream politics. Can we change thinking? How does our witness make a difference?
CONTRACTIONS (10 min. 2024) Working collectively to speak out for reproductive justice. Just the act of coming together can make a difference at least amongst ourselves. Talk about Fred Moten’s concept of “hesitant sociology”. Talk about Meredith Monk’s “Elis Island.”
THE JITTERS (3 min. 2023) Coming full circle with Drawn and Quarted almost 40 years later. Talk about Carolee Schneeman’s “Fuses”.
Interactive Section – how do we move a concern, concept or conundrum from just being an idea to being a visual or oral experience of very short duration?
Listen to topics from our volunteers and brainstorm on a film they really could make with their cell phone and a computer editing program they probably already have.
Keyshawn Griffith is finishing his M.F.A. at St. Francis College, with a concentration in novel writing. His passion for writing drives him to not only publish novels with black protagonists, but to also become a college professor that furthers students’ ability to write well and experience African-American literature.
2:10 p.m. Amie Souza Reilly (essayist)
Amie Souza Reilly holds an M.A. in English Literature from Fordham University and an M.F.A. from Fairfield University, where she was the recipient of the Fairfield Fellowship in 2019. Her most recent work can be found in Wigleaf, HAD, The Chestnut Review, The Atticus Review, Catapult, SmokeLong Quarterly, Barren, Pidgeonholes, and elsewhere. She teaches and is the writer in residence at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut and is at work on a collection of hybrid-genre essays.
2:20 p.m. Emily Edwards (essayist)
Emily Lynell Edwards is an assistant professor of digital humanities in Brooklyn. When she’s not teaching students about metadata, she’s moonlighting as a general editor at Digital Humanities Quarterly. Her serious academic book, Digital Islamophobia: Tracking a Far-Right Crisis, is coming out with De Gruyter this fall. She’s also working on a novel about digital archiving in a futuristic corporate dystopia starring a hard-to-like heroine. She is a fan of cyberspace and iced Americanos.
2:30 p.m. Jon Asmundsson (essayist)
Jon Asmundsson works as an editor at a financial magazine and lives in Brooklyn.
2:40 p.m. Stephen Williams (essayist)
Stephen Williams is a writer and podcast host from Brooklyn. He graduated St, Francis College, where he studied creative writing. His writing style blends imaginative metaphors, and emotional themes packaged through an internal monologue. He enjoys film, anime, and nerd culture (Evil Dead, Dragonball Z, etc.).
2:50 p.m. Philip Dray (essayist)
Philip Dray is the author of nine books of American cultural and political history, most recently A Lynching at Port Jervis: Race and Reckoning in the Gilded Age. He teaches in the Journalism + Design Department at Eugene Lang College and lives in Brooklyn.
3:00 p.m. Plastic Beef (music)
From every corner of New York City’s underground music scene comes the band Plastic Beef. Plastic Beef is a South Brooklyn music project created in 1994 by drummer Joe Filosa.
This iteration of Plastic Beef came from Joe trying to retire, moving to Florida, and deciding he would rather retire in rock in Brooklyn. Joe pulled MILF & DILF, a local novelty duo, Punk Rock legend Brian Dillon, virtuoso guitar player Joe Vasquez, and back up singer Christine Hackett, all to be in their six-piece pile of rock music.
Each musician in Plastic Beef hails from a different music scene. Filosa is a Dead Head; Brian, Sharissa, and Joe Vasquez are all from the punk scene; Gf Newland is a Beatles maniac; and Christine Hackett is your straight-ahead soul rocker. The combination of musical influences creates a uniquely New York rock sound. They play songs from other NYC artists, covers, and their own original songs.
3:30 p.m. Athena Devlin (essayist)
Athena Devlin is an associate professor of literature and American studies at St. Francis College. She writes on gender, race, and American popular culture. Her book, Between Profits and Primitivism was published by Routledge. She earned her Master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and her B.A. at Barnard College.
3:40 p.m. Jennifer Wingate (essayist)
Jen Wingate teaches art history at St. Francis College. After writing about WWI and memorials for a long time, she’s been working on a new book, “At Home with Political Portraits: Photographs of the Domestic Display of U.S. Presidents.”
3:50 p.m. Rose Thomas Bannister (essayist)
Rose Thomas Bannister is a songwriter, sommelier, essayist and poet. Adopted by fundamentalists and raised in isolation in rural Nebraska, Rose Thomas changed her destiny with a creative writing degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a move to New York City. She writes and makes films about wine, language, travel, and culture for her project Modo di Bere, and she performs her original folk songs in Brooklyn and around the world.
4:00 p.m. Jive Poetic (essayist)
Jive Poetic is the founder of the Insurgent Poets’ Society, Carnival Slam: Cultural Exchange, and co-founder of the Brooklyn Poetry Slam. His work has been showcased on TVONE’s Lexus Verses and Flow, PBS NewsHour, and BET. He has published with the Academy of American Poets; No, Dear Magazine; and Toss The Earth. Jive curates and hosts the Friday Night Slam at the Nuyorican Poets Café. When he is not touring or hosting, Jive teaches performance poetry and hip–hop workshops to at-risk youth in New York City and the surrounding tri-state area.
4:10 p.m. Elizabeth Albrecht (essayist)
Elizabeth Albrecht’s plays, including Jazz, have been performed in the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s One Act Play Marathon and Octoberfest. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, has been a guest at Yaddo, and her most recent writing appeared in The American Bystander and J Journal: New Writing on Justice.
4:20 p.m. Lynne Sachs (essayist)
Lynne Sachs is an experimental filmmaker and poet living in Brooklyn. Over the last four decades, she has created cinematic works that defy genre through the use of hybrid forms and cross-disciplinary collaboration, incorporating elements of the essay film, documentary, performance, and collage. Her films and poems explore the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences. Working from a feminist perspective, she investigates connections between the body, the camera, and the materiality of film itself. Sachs uses letters, archives, diaries, poetry, and music to take us on a critical journey through reality and memory. Retrospectives of her work have been presented at The Museum of the Moving Image, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, Cork Film Festival, China Women’s Film Festival, and Costa Rica Int’l Festival de Cine. Tender Buttons Press published Lynne’s book Year by Year Poems. Inés Espinosa López photo.
4:30 p.m. Barbiana Complex (music)
A Hoboken, N.J.-based art/noise/improv ensemble featuring Barbara Solsky (vocals/guitar), Mike McCann (drums/percussion), Warren Kitt (bass), and Elliott Levin (sax/flute), Barbiana Complex has performed at legendary venues such as CBGBs, Continental, Bowery Electric, Maxwell’s, and The Viper Room. Described by Chuck Eddy of Rolling Stone as “thick, sprawling, psychedelic fuzz goth,” Barbiana Complex has performed and/or recorded with David First, Elliott Levin, and Daniel Carter, among other artists. Barbiana Complex’s latest recording, Glamour of Evil, has received radio airplay on the East and West coasts.
5:00 p.m. Oliver Katz (poet)
Oliver Katz is a musician, filmmaker, and writer living in New York City. A recent University of California, Berkeley, graduate, Katz is working on a number of documentary projects, including one on the history of poetry in the San Francisco Bay Area, featuring interviews with Anne Waldman, Joanne Kyger, Bill Berkson, and others. You might also find him playing live music with various bands, most recently at Heaven Can Wait in the East Village.
5:10 p.m. Jerome Sala (poet)
Jerome Sala’s latest book is How Much? New and Selected Poems (NYQ Books). Other books include cult classics such as Corporations Are People, Too! (NYQ Books), The Cheapskates (Lunar Chandelier), and Look Slimmer Instantly (Soft Skull). His work appears in Pathetic Literature (Grove Atlantic) and two editions of Best American Poetry (Scribners). His blog, on poetry, pop culture and everyday life, is espresso bongo.
5:20 p.m. Elaine Equi (poet)
Elaine Equi is the author of many books including Ripple Effect: New and Selected Poems, and, most recently, The Intangibles. A new collection, Out of the Blank, is forthcoming from Coffee House Press. She is also the guest editor of Best American Poetry 2023.
5:30 p.m. Thomas Fink (poet)
Thomas Fink has published 12 books of poetry—most recently Zeugma and A Pageant for Every Addiction (both Marsh Hawk Press), the latter written collaboratively with Maya D. Mason. His Selected Poems & Poetic Series appeared in 2016. He is the author of Reading Poetry with College and University Students: Overcoming Barriers and Deepening Engagement (Bloomsbury Academic), as well as two books of criticism, and three edited anthologies. His work appeared in Best American Poetry 2007. Fink’s paintings hang in various collections. He is Professor of English at CUNY-LaGuardia. Image “Thomas Fink,” by Maya Mason, oil on canvas, 2011.
5:45 p.m. Rachel Abramowitz (poet)
Rachel Abramowitz is the author of The Birthday of the Dead, winner of the 2021 Marystina Santiestevan prize from Conduit Books, the chapbooks The Puzzle Monster (Factory Hollow Press), winner of the 2021 Tomaž Šalamun prize, and Gut Lust (Burnside Review Press), winner of the 2019 Burnside Review prize.
5:55 p.m. Senoritis featuring Kellie & Luigi (music)
Senioritis is Kellie Anne Specter and Luigi Babe Scorcia. Senioritis plays a combination of rock, pop, swing, and blues in a blend of originals and “original covers.” Scorcia has had a storied career as a musician and performer, recording and touring with legends like Johnny Thunders and Bo Diddley. He is also an actor and has been in several movies and TV shows. Specter has worked in media and entertainment, including CBS, PBS, The Greek Theatre, and A&M Records. She began singing with Luigi in 2021. Senioritis has performed at Arlene’s Grocery, Tompkins Square Park, Parkside Lounge, Berlin, Hard Swallow, and community gardens all over the Lower East Side.
6:25 p.m. Boog City Classic Albums Live presents
for its 30th anniversary
Sweet Relief: A Benefit for Victoria Williams
Steven Klett
“Summer of Drugs” (Soul Asylum)
“Main Road” (Lucinda Williams)
“Crazy Mary” (Pearl Jam)
Steven Klett is a writer, poet, and musician. He is the singer and guitarist of the band Undercover Rabbis and has a solo acoustic career.
Todd Carlstrom
“Merry Go Round” (Buffalo Tom)
“Weeds” (Michael Penn)
“Animal Wild” (Shudder to Think)
Todd Carlstrom has been arguing for more stage time with the venues of NYC since the mid-’90s. He’s performed in bands (The Domestics, Heroes of the Alamo, The Dirty Vicars) and solo with or without his band The Clamour. Of late, his wife Michele and he have been playing as Todd & Michele. His songs won a 2015 Best Music award at NYC Web Fest for “R+J (The Web Series).” Besides music, he’s an actor, playwright, teaching artist, and pro Dungeon Master for Slope Dungeoneering, which he founded. That’s for Dungeons and Dragons. Not for, y’know, the other thing. Meaning naughty sexy time.
Ptr Kozlowski
“Tarbelly and Featherfoot” (Lou Reed)
“Opelousas (Sweet Relief)” (Maria McKee)
“This Moment” (Matthew Sweet)
Ptr Kozlowski first learned guitar at sixties-style hootennanies and went on, in the ’70s, to do covers of singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks, Leonard Cohen, and others, performing alone and with a couple of singing groups. In the Eighties he joined downtown poet JD Rage in her East Village New Wave band, Baby Boom. They played CBGB’s, A-7, and the SIN Club, among others,. and put out a 4-song EP. Along the way he’s had over two dozen poems published in journals and anthologies. In recent years Ptr has been making videos of many poetry readings around NYC, hosted on his own YouTube page and those of others. Now living in Brooklyn, he reads and sings at New York-area open mics and readings. Didi Champagne photo.
Rew Starr
“Frying Pan” (Evan Dando)
“Lights” (The Jayhawks)
“Why Look at the Moon” (The Waterboys)
Crowned Miss Underground NYC, and dubbed a “firebrand” by The New York Times, Rew channels equal parts Courtney Love and a gothic version of Olivia Benson from Law & Order. Rew hosted ReW & WhO?, a web talk show, for many years. Rew Starr is an actress and a songwriter/artist signed with Manta Ray Records. Her song “u suck” won Punk Song of the Year on Pi- rate Radio of the Treasured Coast and was featured on The Bad Girls Club. ReW was featured on Love Lust or Run with Stacy London (TLC). She loves it all; film, theater, TV, dives, and stadiums! As The Village Voice noted, when summing up Rew, “This is what you moved to New York for.”
Didi Champagne
“Big Fish” (Giant Sand)
“Holy Spirit” (Michelle Shocked)
Didi Champagne has performed on NYC stages for close to 40 years. A fashioned musician (singer, bassist, composer, poet) has played CBGB’s, The Bitter End, Webster Hall, The Limelight, The Continental, The Scrap Bar, and many other music venues. Her present band, Blueberry High Heels, features guitarist Gai, a music master’s graduate based in Thailand, and drummer David, a graduate from The Berkelee College of Music. Blueberry High Heels has been around for over 10 years with a few CD’s of original music available upon request.
Champagne has also contributed her voice in the poetry circuit by attending readings at ABC no Rio with host JD Rage, Cornelia Street Cafe, Gargoyle Mechanique with Matthew Courtney, and countless other venues she was able to find through the three-tier poetry calender she used to pick up from St. Mark’s Bookshop. She has also attended thousands of art exhibitions that she found inspiring which became an inspiration for her artwork. Her first book of poetry and art, Life of a Kalamata, is available upon request. Her work is a reflection of her past, present, and future. It is fresh and modern and hopes to inspire those around her. Please visit her page on facebook and check out the repertoire of activities she is involved in.
Film director Lynne Sachs, with the CHSA Museum and San Francisco Cinematheque are proud to present “Your Day Is My Night,” a hybrid documentary by Lynne Sachs, at the CHSA Museum on Saturday, February 28, 2015 at 1pm.
Immigrant residents of a “shift-bed” apartment in the heart of New York City’s Chinatown share their stories of personal and political upheaval. As the bed transforms into a stage, the film reveals the collective history of the Chinese in the United States through conversations, autobiographical monologues, and theatrical movement pieces. Shot in the kitchens, bedrooms, wedding halls, cafés, and mahjong parlors of Chinatown, this provocative hybrid documentary addresses issues of privacy, intimacy, and urban life. More info at yourdayismynight.com
Director Lynne Sachs will be available to discuss her film.