entering and exiting in peace:
FOR MY FRIENDS IN THE PLAGUE YEARS

Wednesday, December 1, 2021 7:00pm
Co-presented with Anthology Film Archives - GET TICKETS HERE
Programmed by L u m i a
With Jeanne Liotta and Bradley Eros in person

In observance of World AIDS Day 2021

part 1: everywhere is electricity!

 
 

PROGRAM 1

Cassandra (1989) by Caroline Avery, 2’, 16mm
Dream Sphinx Opera (1974) by Roger Jacoby, 7’, 16mm
Nocturne (1998) by Peggy Ahwesh, 30’, 16mm
Dervish Machine (1992) by Bradley Eros & Jeanne Liotta, 9’, 16mm
Earthly Possessions (1992) by Pelle Lowe, 23’, 16mm
Fear of Feeling (1990) by Amanda Katz, 10’, Super-8

TRT: 81 mins

Cassandra (1989)

"If a body meet a body, Comin' thro the rye, If a body kiss a body, Need a body cry?" These are lyrics from a folk song. (Courtesy of Lightcone)

Caroline Avery

Seeing's there's no point of reference that does not break down when looked fully in the face, it's preferable to consider them (points of reference) as singular events in a chain of same seen most clearly when seen from the corner of the eye as part of the larger construct that is a person's "Life". Kind of like the blurry forms in the subway cars passing by in the opposite direction in a tunnel. (Don't stare at this metaphor too long or you may go blind)... Insomuch there is no way to bio anyone without having the foolish thing break down when the head is turned to face it head on. How liberating! (Courtesy of Lightcone)

 

Dream Sphinx Opera (1974)

Ondine and Sally Dixon "star" as ecstatic 19th century lovers in Jacoby's first home-processed film. Nickelodeon imagery, school children of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Botanical Conservatory. "As the strains of an aria rise, the grainy specks of Jacoby's self-processed film begin to darken and swim like fruit flies, lighting on the flowers in the garden, sticking to the lips of the lovers as they kiss." - Victoria Dalkey (Source: Canyon Cinema)

Jacoby filming; Pittsburgh, 1978. Still from Jim Hubbard’s documentary, Elegy in the Streets (1989).

Roger Jacoby

Roger Jacoby died November 19, 1985 at the age of 40. Originally a painter, he began making experimental film in New York City in the 1960s. For both aesthetic and financial reasons he began to process his own film footage in the bathtub of his darkened bathroom. After receiving an NEA grant in 1974 he was able to buy a simple processing machine. By maintaining control of the processing, and by using an 'outdated' Auricon camera, Jacoby was able to weave texture, color and sound in a highly dramatic way. Many of his films contain the sounds of opera, images of family and often feature his lover of many years, Warhol superstar Ondine.

"On a personal note: My brother, Roger, was the most remarkable person I have ever known. He could turn the mundane into a roller-coaster adventure. His eye for beauty, truth and absurdity brought an unparalleled excitement to my life. Through him I learned about film, met fascinating people, felt glamorous, developed an aesthetic. His films are a testament to his complexity, sincerity, and sense of humor. A wonderful and loyal buddy - I miss him a lot." - Susan Shiller (Canyon Cinema)

 

Nocturne (1998)

'Nocturne' is a psychological horror film built on the conflicts of a woman tortured by the ambiguity between reality and illusion, dream and desire. The woman has perhaps murdered her lover and is living in an unstable world when he returns to her at night, in her dreams and into her arms, as witness to the subversive violence of nature, corporeality and desire. Loosely based on 'The Whip and the Flesh' by Mario Bava.

Peggy Ahwesh

Since the early 1980s, Peggy Ahwesh has forged a distinctive moving image practice in the ruins of originality and authority. She is represented by Microscope Gallery and has received grants from Jerome and Guggenheim Foundations, Alpert Award in the Arts, NYSCA. Ahwesh taught Film at Bard College for 3 decades.

 

Dervish Machine (1992)

"M'elevasti!, Lift me up!"

Hand-developed meditations on being and movement, as inspired by Gysin's Dreamachine, Sufi mysticism, and early cinema. A knowledge of the fragility of existence mirrors the tenuousness of the material. The film itself becomes the site to experience impermanence, and to revel in the unfixed image.

"Seen and unseen meet in the place between image and emulsion."

Dervish Machine was shot on super-8mm in 1990 - 91, at the height of the AIDS crisis, and blown up to 16mm in 1992. It features a short performance clip with the industrial art / noise band Circle X, from a live show at KillTime, in Philadelphia in 1990. Dedicated to Bruce Witsiepe.

Bradley Eros & Jeanne Liotta

Bradley Eros & Jeanne Liotta made films, videos, photography, texts, and projection performances together in New York City LES from 1987 - 1995, under the name Mediamystics, investigating living myths & materials of the body and culture, collaborating on multi-media work.

 

EarthLy Possessions (1992)

Earthly Possessions is a contemporary gothic depiction of fragmented identity using texts by Emily Brontë; and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Pelle Lowe

In 1998, Pelle Lowe was named one of the top ten experimental filmmakers in the United States, when her films were screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of a retrospective exhibition of 8mm Moviemakers. She is currently Visiting Professor of Film and Performance at the San Francisco Art Institute. She taught film and performance at The Massachusetts College of Art from 1990-1997. Her films include Smoke and Bottom Line (1995), Work (1994), Earthly Possessions (1992), Chintz (1990) and Nor (1987), among others. (Text Courtesy of ASU)

 

Fear of Feeling (1990)

THE FEAR OF FEELING is an impressionistic film. It concerns the struggle to retain ones sensuality and emotion in a depersonalized world. The film was directed by a woman and shot by a man in order to create alluring images of a female who is bound & defined by the patriarchal perspectives of the culture in which she lives. These images were then edited by the filmmaker as a silent visual commentary on her objectification. –Amanda Katz

 

Flaherty NYC Programmers

Kelsey White Born in Los Angeles when Saturn and Uranus were conjunct with the Sun at the Ascendant, Kelsey White is currently a film projectionist living in Brooklyn, New York. Though much of her time is given towards showing films to the cinephiles in New York City, she continues to pursue a polyphonic set of creative interests, including writing, music-making, and filming. She is a new mother who likes to observe the changing seasons and listen to small talk on street corners, and she attempts to practice non-judgment towards all beings, remaining open to the unknown, while carefully paying attention to the complexity, the irony and pain, as well as the beauty of existence.

L u m i a (818) 514 - 4601