Monday June 15 – Thursday June 18, 10:30pm
Intimate Moments
Films by Tom Chomont, Peter Cramer, Jim Hubbard, Taylor Mead, Lynne Sachs, MM Serra, Jack Waters
Curated by Devon Narine-Singh
In collaboration with the Film-makers’ Cooperative
Live Chat and Q&A w/ the artists at 9pm ET
We are very pleased to present, in collaboration with the Film-makers’ Cooperative of New York, a program of works by Tom Chomont, Peter Cramer, Jim Hubbard, Taylor Mead, Lynne Sachs, MM Serra, and Jack Waters, culled from the Coop’s film collection by artist and curator Devon Narine-Singh. The works in the program engage with various forms and degrees of intimacy — including with lovers, friends, family, and pets — under differing social and political moments in time.
From Narine-Singh:
“Candlelight vigils, fractured lovers bodies, solarized eroticisim, headless figures, the scratches of hand processed film. Disease, protest, race, optics, the politics of rhythm, silence as a form of space. If we see intimacy as solely pleasure, we fail to allow the richness and healing nature of it to emerge. Tonight’s program uses the Film-Makers Coop’s collection to explore intimacy beyond platonic, romantic, or sexual, but rather as a political form.”
The online program goes live on Monday June 15 at 7:30pm ET and remains available for the following 72 hours. It is preceded by video introductions by several of the artists, as well as Film-makers’ Cooperative’s executive director, curator Devon Marine-Singh, and Microscope’s co-directors Elle Burchill and Andrea Monti.
A Q&A and live chat with the artists will follow the program at 9:15pm ET.
TO WATCH:
A “WATCH NOW” link will become available on this page by 7:15pm ET on Monday June 15th.
Passes for viewing can be purchased then, giving full access to video introduction, film program, and live Q&A.
General admission $9 (Valid through June 18, 10:30pm ET)Member admission $7 (Valid through June 18, 10:30pm ET)
Program:
The Male Gayze
By Jack Waters, 16mm film, color, sound, 1990, 11 minutes
Jack Water’s film, The Male GaYze was shown in the January-February 1994 media program at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s exhibition, Black Male:Representations of Masculinity In Contemporary Art. The 1989 video short (11 minutes) presents an individual’s observation of sexuality and power relations between men, a young African American dancer’s reminiscence of his encounter with a famous Dutch choreographer. Approached from a personal perspective, the story is told in a casually direct voice-over that is read by the author/director. Issues of authority clash in a pedagogical combat zone. The depiction of seemingly random home movie-esque visuals cause the structures of text (masculine) and image (feminine) to form a contrapuntal relationship of identities. Waters constructs a theater where Black/White, European/American, Younger/Older; Experience and Beauty interact. Platonic in the original sense, the movie invites the viewer to engage in the process of experience itself, where one must make one’s own reactive decisions. Like gender role playing itself, some viewers determine the postulation of form and content in The Male GaYze as competitive. Others sense the image/text relationship as complementary whereby the descriptive narrative can be absorbed unimpeded by undue intellectualization.
Same Stream Twice
By Lynne Sachs, video, 2012, 4 minutes
“My daughter’s name is Maya. I’ve been told that the word maya means illusion in Hindu philosophy. In 2001, I photographed her at six years old, spinning like a top around me. Even then, I realized that her childhood was not something I could grasp but rather – like the wind – something I could feel tenderly brushing across my cheek. Eleven years later, I pull out my 16mm Bolex camera once again and she allows me to film her – different but somehow the same.” -Lynne Sachs
Elegy in the Streets
By Jim Hubbard, 16mm film to video, 1989, 30 minutes
Exploring the AIDS crisis from both a personal and a political perspective, the film attempts to create a filmic rendering of the elegiac form, utilizing a procession of mourners, a catalog of flowers, a visit to the underworld and other poetic techniques. It intertwines two main motifs: memories of Roger Jacoby, a filmmaker who died of AIDS, and the development of a mass response to AIDS. The collective response begins with mourning at a candlelight vigil and the deep sadness of the AIDS Quilt and then progresses toward a much more determined reaction by ACT-UP: first, in the Gay Pride March in New York City, then in separate demonstrations that build in militancy — with a corresponding increasingly heavy-handed response by the police — culminating in a demonstration during a baseball game and the thumbs-up sign of a teenager sporting a Silence = Death button. The film is nearly 30 minutes long and silent. I know that is a lot to ask of an audience, but it is silent for several crucial reasons. First, it is a literalization of the phrase “Silence = Death.” Second, I live in New York City, a very loud place to live and, for me, silence is a great luxury. Third, I believe that film is a visual medium and sound is typically used to manipulate and limit the emotional response of the audience. I want each member of the audience to experience the film uniquely and personally. Silence forces the viewer to really look at what there is to see.
Soi Meme
By MM Serra, 16mm film to video, 1995, 6 minutes
Sound composition by Zeena Parkins. Erotic dance performance by Goddess Rosemary.
Home Movies – Rome/Florence/Venice/Greece
By Taylor Mead, 16mm film to video, 1965, 14 minutes
A collection of Mead’s travels and home films, creates a joie de vivre that is both abstract yet solid. “I shot my home movies with the cheapest, littlest hand-held camera I could buy. And in the low 1960s film was so expensive that I just used the single frame button.” — TM
Ophelia / The Cat Lady
By Tom Chomont, 16mm to video, 1969, 2 minutes 30 seconds
Two films. With Elizabeth Reizner and Carla Liss. “The Cat Lady” – Backwards storms, ominous voiceovers, reverse explosions all hurtle towards the quietly petting Cat Lady. T.C.
Black & White Study 1990
By Peter Cramer, 16mm film to video, 1990, 8 minutes
An exploration of chiaroscuro, nudes, movement and film techniques in constantly shifting fields of perception. Eroticism and humor highlight an interracial couple engaged in a tableau vivant of opposites and attractions. Premiered at the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival (now MIX).
TRT: 75 minutes
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Microscope Gallery Event Series 2020 is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).