2016 SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT

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Basilica is thrilled to announce its 2016 season, which will once again include a wide range of innovative, avant-garde live performance, music, film, literary, farm and community programs. We’ll kick off the season with the second annual 24-HOUR DRONE, and the addition of a Basilica Farm & Flea Spring Market. Summer brings freaky favorites on Flag Day and the newly added Read & Feed, bringing together artisanal makers of food with artisanal makers of literature. In Fall, we’ll return with Basilica SoundScape, the Basilica Farm & Flea Holiday Market, and more very special events to be announced!

As always, we’re excited to be working with a far-reaching group of extraordinary artists, makers, and talented community members. We look forward to welcoming audiences from all over, whether they be from around the corner or from around the world. (more…)

2015 IN FILM

Season Five: Year In Review

Saturday, October 27, 2012. Jason and Megan's wedding at Basilica Hudson in Hudson, NY.

It was Basilica’s fourth season of bringing unique and exceptional films to the region through Basilica Screenings. The season emphasized expansive documentary practices, with selections from Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968-1986, formerly presented at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and hosting guest programmer Jake Perlin and filmmaker Charles Hobson. Additional highlights included screenings with filmmakers Kevin Jerome Everson and Wu Tsang in person, and a program co-presented with the HQTBD art collective that featured Peggy Ahwesh, Ephraim Asili and Takeshi Murata. And, the launch of our Sci-Fi Summer Nights Series included the community success Blade Runner Noodle Night! Our big annual events also featured crossover cinematic programming; 24-HOUR DRONE screened an all-female video program from the collection of Second Ward Foundation along with Bill Stone’s Pensato Clock. At Basilica SoundScape, Kiln Films presented Direct-to-Video, a program of films dedicated to eliciting dialogue between artists and challenge spectatorship, which was joined by Chris Bower’s We Won’t Bow Down along with several other Friday screenings in the North Hall.

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FILM & MEDIA ARCHIVE

2012 – 2015

North Hall courtesy of Clean Plate Pictures.

2015

May 22: HQTBD SCREENING PROGRAM. Screening by filmmakers Ephraim Asili, Peggy Ahwesh, and Takeshi Murata, with all filmmakers in person. MANY THOUSANDS GONE, Ephraim Asili, 2015, 8 min. KISSING POINT, Peggy Ahwesh, 2014, 15 min. LESSONS OF WAR, Peggy Ahwesh, 2014, 5 min. OM RIDER, Takeshi Murata, 2014, 11 min.

June 4: SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE, William Greaves, 1968, 75 min. Part of the season-long series, Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968-1986.

June 11: CITIZENFOUR, Laura Poitras, 2014, 114 min.

June 18: VIDEODROME, David Cronenberg, 1983, 87 min. Part of the Sci-Fi Summer Nights Series.

June 25: SUGARCOATED ARSENIC AND OTHER RECENT FILMS BY KEVIN JEROME EVERSON, 68 min. An evening with Kevin Jerome Everson, with an introduction and Q&A with the filmmaker.

July 3: BLADE RUNNER NOODLE NIGHT. Dinner available for purchase and introduction by artist Maximilian Goldfarb. Part of the Sci-Fi Summer Nights Series.

July 9: INSIDE BEDFORD-STUYVESANT PROGRAM, 1968-1971, 70 min. Intro and Q&A with producer Charles Hobson and programmer Jake Perlin. Part of the season-long series, Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968-1986.

July 16: WILDNESS, Wu Tsang, 2012, 74 min. Intro and Q&A with the filmmaker.

July 23: ASPEN, Frederick Wiseman, 1991, 146 min.

August 6: JOE’S BED STUY BARBERSHOP: WE CUT HEADS, Spike Lee, 1983, 60 min. Part of the season-long series, Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968-1986. Projected on 16 mm. film.

August 15: DUNE VERSUS DUNE. Back-to-back screening of JODOROWKSY’S DUNE, Frank Pavich, 2013, 88 min. and DUNE, David Lynch, 1984, 137 min. Part of the Sci-Fi Summer Nights Series.

August 22: HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT, Josh and Benny Safdie, 2014, 94 min. Skype Q&A with Josh Safdie.

August 27: THE WOLFPACK, Crystal Moselle, 2015, 89 min.

 

2014

June 5: PHYSICAL COSMOLOGIES: THE SHINING, with intro and Q&A by Kevin McLeod (mstrmd).

June 12: DAISIES, Vera Chytilová, Czechoslovakia, 1966, 76 min. Tribute Screening.

June 21: DYKETACTICS AND OTHER 70s FILMS, 75 min, with Barbara Hammer in person.

July 3: WORKINGMAN’S DEATH, Michael Glawogger, Austria, 2005, 120 min. Tribute screening.

July 10: BLACK MOON, Louis Malle, France, 1975, 100 min.

July 17: THE BALLAD OF GENESIS AND LADY JAYE, Marie Losier, 2011, 72 min, with Q&A by Marie Losier.

July 24: NO MAN’S LAND (TERRA DE NINGUÉM), Salomé Lamas, 2012, 72 min, with intro by Joana Pimenta and Q&A by Salomé Lamas.

July 31: LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF, Thom Andersen, 2003, 169 min, with intro by writer Colin Beckett.

August 8: THE ROLLING STONES’ ROCK AND ROLL CIRCUS, Mick Jagger and Michael Lindsay-Hogg, 1996, 66 min, with a reading and talk by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Presented in association with Spotty Dog Books and Ale.

August 9: A SPELL TO WARD OFF THE DARKNESS, Ben Rivers and Ben Russell, Estonia/France, 2013, 98 min, with Q&A by Ben Russell via Skype.

August 15-16: COLONY OF LIGHT (Programs I & II). Colony of Light is a provisionally utopian collective of artists and filmmakers which first convened and collaborated in July 2013 at MoMA PS1, NYC. They reunite for a week residency at Basilica Hudson this August, where they will be collaborating on new work, and will present two public programs of films, videos, and performances. Each night will be an entirely different program of recent work by the Colony members: Basma Alsharif, Peter Burr, Bonnie Jones, Ted Kennedy, Jodie Mack, Xander Marro, Ben Russell, Jonathan Schwartz, Fern Silva, Ruth Somalo, and others, all of whom will be in attendance for discussion.

August 28: DUSTY STACKS OF MOM: THE POSTER PROJECT, Jodie Mack, 2013, 41 min, with Q&A by Jodie Mack via Skype.

September 28: FILM AS FILM: Three Films By Gregory J. Markopoulos, with discussion by filmmaker Robert Beavers and curator Mark Webber. Co-presented by the Film and Electronic Arts Department at Bard College.

 

2013

June 6: THE DEVIL, PROBABLY, Robert Bresson, 1977, 93 min.

June 14: THEY ACCEPTED THE PLEASURES OF MORNING: Screening by Basma Alsharif, with Q&A following the screening.

June 20: C’EST VRAI, Robert Frank, 1990, 60 min; and LOOK AT THIS, Aaron Graham, 2010-2012, 16 min, with Q&A by Aaron Graham. Curated by Maxwell Paparella.

June 28: TOWHEADS, Shannon Plumb, 2013, 86 min, with Q&A by Shannon Plumb.

July 12-21: TO LOOK IS TO LABOR, an exhibition of moving image work by Harun Farocki, Lucy Raven and Andrew Norman Wilson. Co-presented by CCS Bard/Basilica Hudson, and curated by Olga Dekalo and Aily Nash.

August 8: VANESSA HAROUTUNIAN DOES JOANIE4JACKIE, with Q&A by Vanessa Haroutunian.

August 15: EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF, Jean-Luc Godard, 1980, 87 min.

August 22: GIMME THE LOOT, Adam Leon, 2012, 81 min, with director Adam Leon and producer Sam Soghor in person.

September 19: SUNDANCE SHORTS, 2013, 93 min.

September 26: NORTHERN LIGHTS, John Hanson & Rob Nilsson, 1978, 95 min.

October 10: SPECIAL EFFECT: Live Cinema by Peter Burr, 2013, with Q&A by Peter Burr.

October 17: TEENAGE, Matt Wolf, 2013, 78 min, with Q&A by Matt Wolf via Skype.

October 24: YUMEN, Xu Ruotao, J.P. Sniadecki & Huang Xiang, 2013, 65 min, with Q&A by J.P. Sniadecki.


2012

May 25: HALLELUJAH THE HILLS, Adolfas Mekas, 1963, 82 minutes. Tribute screening, with intro by Peter Hutton.

June 8: BALLOON LAND: THINNER THAN AIR, with intro & Q&A by Benny and Josh Safdie, and Jake Perlin (Cinema Conservancy).

June 14: PROMISED LANDS, Susan Sontag, 1974, 87 min.

July 5: FOURTH OF JULY: RAUCOUS CAUCUS, curated by Aily Nash and Benjamin Schultz-Figueroa, with special performance by Brian Dewan.

July 12: POSSESSION, Andrzej Zulawski, with Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, 1981, 127 min.

July 19: STREETWISE, Martin Bell, Mary Ellen Mark, and Cheryl McCall, 1984, 91 min. Co-presented with Oral History Summer School 2012 (Suzanne Snider).

July 24: REMINISCENCIAS, Juan Daniel F. Molero, 2010, 85 min, with Q&A by Juan Daniel F. Molero.

September 7: An Evening with ALBERT MAYSLES, with Albert Maysles in person.

September 13: SANS SOLEIL, Chris Marker, 1983, 100 min. Tribute screening.

October 18: PERFUMED NIGHTMARE, Kidlat Tahimik, 1977, 93 min, with intro by Ed Halter and post-screening discussion with Kidlat Tahimik.

 

Photo credit: North Hall courtesy of Clean Plate Pictures.

BASILICA SCREENINGS: AUGUST 2015

Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads by Spike Lee
Dune versus Dune
Heaven Knows What by Josh + Benny Safdie
The Wolfpack by Crystal Moselle

Basilica Screenings is a film series that presents an array of works from new and repertory narrative features, documentaries, experimental films, to video and media art, as well as guest curated programs, often with filmmakers and special guests in attendance for a discussion following the screenings. Programmed by Basilica Hudson’s film curator Aily Nash, and creative directors Melissa Auf der Maur and Tony Stone. (more…)

BASILICA SCREENINGS: JULY 2015

Blade Runner Noodle Night
Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant Program
Wildness by Wu Tsang
Aspen by Frederick Wiseman

BASILICA SCREENINGS is a film series that presents an array of works from new and repertory narrative features, documentaries, experimental films, to video and media art, as well as guest curated programs, often with filmmakers and special guests in attendance for a discussion following the screenings. Programmed by Basilica Hudson’s film curator Aily Nash, and creative directors Melissa Auf der Maur and Tony Stone.

All films begin at 8 pm and are $5-15 sliding scale, unless otherwise noted.

BASILICA SCREENINGS: JULY

Friday, July 3, 7 PM
BLADE RUNNER NOODLE NIGHT!
free event, part of the Sci-Fi Summer Nights Series
dinner available for purchase + introduction by artist Maximilian Goldfarb!

Thursday, July 9, 8 PM
INSIDE BEDFORD-STUYVESANT PROGRAM, 1968-1971, 70 min.
part of the season-long series, Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968-1986
Intro and Q&A with producer Charles Hobson and programmer Jake Perlin!

Thursday, July 16, 8 PM
WILDNESS, Wu Tsang, 2012, 74 min
Intro and Q&A with filmmaker Wu Tsang!
Food before the screening by Truck Pizza at 7 PM

Thursday, July 23, 8 PM
ASPEN, Frederick Wiseman, 1991, 146 min


BRNoodle2

FRIDAY, JULY 3, 7 PM
BLADE RUNNER NOODLE NIGHT!

7 PM: Dinner available for purchase at Blade Runner Noodlebar by Alimentary Kitchen/Nicole LoBue and Carrie Waldman. Noodle dishes created by chefs Nicole LoBue and Carrie Waldman will be served out of the Alimentary Kitchen located in Basilica’s courtyard. BUILDING FUN FACT: Basilica’s kitchen was inspired by the noodle bar in Blade Runner!

8 PM: FREE EVENT – BLADE RUNNER (FINAL CUT) & Handbook for Human Machines Book Launch
part of the Sci-Fi Summer Nights Series.

Introduction by artist Maximilian Goldfarb!

Experience the haunting and prophetic science fiction masterpiece by Ridley Scott alongside food inspired by the film. We’ll be showing Ridley Scott’s “Final Cut,” the only version over which he had complete artistic control and expressed his original vision for the film. Artist Maximilian Goldfarb will introduce the film and also present his new book, Handbook for Human Machines newly produced by Publication Studio. Handbook is comprised of visual research, drawings and found print material – instrumental in constructing episodes of Goldfarb’s monthly radio program, Human_Machine.


THURSDAY, JULY 9, 8 PM
INSIDE BEDFORD-STUYVESANT PROGRAM, 1968-1971, 70 min.
TRAILER

part of the season-long series, Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968-1986
Intro and Q&A with producer Charles Hobson and programmer Jake Perlin!

Produced by Charles Hobson and aired on WNEW (better known as Channel 5), this weekly show was originally conceived by Robert F. Kennedy’s organization and community boosters to counter images of black neighborhoods as presented in the mainstream news. It is considered the first African American–produced television series in the USA. Hosted by Roxie Roker and Jim Lowry, the program reflected the home of 400,000 people as it transitioned into a new era, featuring open and unscripted dialogues with residents, guest celebrities, and, most notably, a powerful public forum with Harry Belafonte. This program will feature a selection of episodes, presented by Charles Hobson. – Jake Perlin


THURSDAY, JULY 16, 8 PM
WILDNESS, Wu Tsang, 2012, 74 min
Intro and Q&A with filmmaker Wu Tsang!
Food before the screening by Truck Pizza at 7 PM
TRAILER

Rooted in the tropical underground of Los Angeles nightlife, WILDNESS is a documentary portrait of the Silver Platter, a historic bar in the MacArthur Park area that has been home for Latin/LGBT immigrant communities since 1963. With a magical-realist flourish, the bar itself becomes a character, narrating what happens when a group of young artists create a weekly performance art/dance party (organized by director Wu Tsang and DJs NGUZUNGUZU & Total Freedom) called Wildness, which explodes into creativity and conflict. What does “safe space” mean, and who needs it? And how does it differ among us? At the Silver Platter, the search for answers to these questions creates coalitions across generations.


THURSDAY, JULY 23, 8 PM
ASPEN, Frederick Wiseman, 1991, 146 min

Aspen is a film about the town of the same name which became famous in the 19th century for silver mining and now for it’s scenic mountains, skiing culture, and fashionable clientele. Directed by Frederick Wiseman’s neutral, yet guided eye (absent of narration, talking heads, and subtitles) the town is presented as a study in contrasts. As Harry F. Waters in Newsweek commented when the film came out in 1991, “his target is Aspen, and his treatment — is an eyeful.”


Prior iterations of Basilica Screenings have brought filmmakers including Albert Maysles, who showed and discussed many of his rarely seen works from the 50s and 70s, essential cinematic works such as Susan Sontag’s Promised Lands, Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil, internationally renown contemporary directors including Jem Cohen, Deborah Stratman, and Denis Côté, and rare radical documentary forms such as Yumen produced by Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab.

 

 

BASILICA SCREENINGS: JUNE 2015

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One
Citizenfour
Videodrome
Sugarcoated Arsenic & other recent films by Kevin Jerome Everson

BASILICA SCREENINGS is a film series that presents an array of works from new and repertory narrative features, documentaries, experimental films, to video and media art, as well as guest curated programs, often with filmmakers and special guests in attendance for a discussion following the screenings. Programmed by Basilica Hudson’s film curator Aily Nash, and creative directors Melissa Auf der Maur and Tony Stone.

All films begin at 8 pm and are $5-15 sliding scale, unless otherwise noted.

BASILICA SCREENINGS: JUNE

Thursday, June 4, 8 PM
SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE, William Greaves, 1968, 75 min
part of the season-long series, Tell It Like It Is: Black Independents in New York, 1968-1986
programmed by Jake Perlin and Michelle Materre for Film Society of Lincoln Center

Thursday, June 11, 8 PM
CITIZENFOUR, Laura Poitras, 2014, 114 min
First 10 guests get a free TV dinner!

Thursday, June 18, 8 PM
VIDEODROME, David Cronenberg, 1983, 87 min

Thursday, June 25, 8 PM
SUGARCOATED ARSENIC AND OTHER RECENT FILMS BY KEVIN JEROME EVERSON, 68 min
An evening with Kevin Jerome Everson, with an introduction and Q&A with the filmmaker
Food before the screening by Alimentary Kitchen/Nicole LoBue at 7 PM

(more…)

BASILICA SCREENINGS: MAY 2015

Many Thousands Gone | Kissing Point | Lessons of War | OM Rider | co-presented by HQTBD

scuds_PeggyThe fifth annual season of BASILICA SCREENINGS kicks off on Thursday, May 22 at 8 PM coinciding with the launch of the HQTBD exhibition Still//Life in Basilica’s Back Gallery.

HQTBD (Headquarters To Be Determined) is a parasite art project that will serve as a container for an exhibition and a series of events, performances, screenings, talks, and food and will inhabit the Basilica Back Gallery from May 22 – June 14. The full schedule of HQTBD events is posted here.

HQTBD SCREENING PROGRAM
Friday, May 22, 8 PM
Work by Peggy Ahwesh, Ephraim Asili and Takeshi Murata
co-presented by HQTBD Still/Life exhibition
Filmmakers Ahwesh, Asili and Murata will all be present to discuss their work!


Many_Thousands_Gone_01_560_265_c1MANY THOUSANDS GONE, Ephraim Asili, 2015, 8 min

Filmed on location in Salvador, Brazil (the last city in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw slavery) and Harlem, New York (an international stronghold of the African Diaspora), Many Thousands Gone draws parallels between a summer afternoon on the streets of the two cities. A silent version of the film was given to jazz multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee to use as an interpretive score. The final film is the combination of the images and a modified version of McPhee’s real time “sight reading” of the score. – EA


lamp1_Peggy

KISSING POINT, Peggy Ahwesh, 2014, 15 min

Playing on the sexual implications of the term “kissing point”—the geographical location where two enemy territories touch—this split-screen video pairs footage from inside and around West Bank tunnels with an Israeli bypass road and its environs. – Art of the Real

The nighttime skies and landscapes on the physical and political edges of the territory are empty, haunted, and surreal…one’s expansive sense of wanderlust is controlled by the limitations of division… – PA


dream drone_PeggyLESSONS OF WAR, Peggy Ahwesh, 2014, 5 min

Five little narratives, ‘newsworthy’ stories from the most recent war in Gaza–retold to not forget the details, to reenact the trauma and to honor the dead.  The footage is lifted from a Youtube channel that renders the news in animation, fantastic and imaginative and several protective layers away from reality.  The footage is re-purposed here to critique that safe distance from the violence, the antiseptic nature of the virtual narrative. – PA


OM_MurataOM RIDER, Takeshi Murata, 2014, 11 min
TRAILER

In OM Rider, Takeshi Murata deftly weaves the aesthetics of retro-noir, video games, and Italian giallo film into a cinematic exercise in cool, narrative minimalism and distilled rebellion. In a vast desert bathed in neon hues, a misfit lycanthrope blasts syncopated techno rhythms into the night.

At once opaque and thrilling, OM Rider expands upon Murata’s previous 3D character-based animation and references to horror cinema, benefiting from the integral collaboration of longtime composer Robert Beatty, here joined by musicians Devin Flynn and C. Spencer Yeh. – Electronic Arts Intermix


Prior iterations of Basilica Screenings have brought filmmakers including Albert Maysles, who showed and discussed many of his rarely seen works from the 50s and 70s, essential cinematic works such as Susan Sontag’s Promised Lands, Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil, internationally renown contemporary directors including Jem Cohen, Deborah Stratman, and Denis Côté, and rare radical documentary forms such as Yumen produced by Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab.

 

 

2014 IN FILM

Season Four: Year In Review

Never did we dream that such a charismatic rule breaker as Alex Cox would appear at Basilica the same month as the “Pope of Trash” pioneer John Waters, to take our film programming to the next level! The Basilica film dream team was joined throughout our season by artists far, near, and in our own backyard: feminist icon Barbara Hammer, acute documentarian Salomé Lamas and acclaimed film and television director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Forging connections between film, music and art, Basilica SoundScape included projections by Zia Anger, Maxwell Paparella, Nathan Corbin and Stephen G. Rhodes as part of the Kiln Films series. We also hosted a late night screening of Dead Poets Society in honor of the late Robin Williams, with an introduction by our friends from down the river, Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer, and co-presented by Secret Cinema, an organization which presents large-scale cultural experiences in abandoned spaces.

(more…)

BASILICA SCREENINGS: SEPTEMBER

Film as Film: Three Films by Gregory J. Markopoulos
Ming Green | Twice A Man | Through a Lens Brightly: Mark Turbyfill

Markopoulos copy

BASILICA SCREENINGS: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 8 PM

FILM AS FILM: THREE FILMS BY GREGORY J. MARKOPOULOS, co-presented by the Film and Electronic Arts Department at Bard College

MING GREEN, 1966, 16mm, 7 min.
TWICE A MAN, 1963, 16mm, 48 min 

THROUGH A LENS BRIGHTLY: MARK TURBYFILL
, 1967, 16mm, 14 min.
total program 69 min.

//  Filmmaker Robert Beavers and curator Mark Webber will be present for a discussion! //

“There is no language. There is no art. There is no knowledge. There is but film as film: the beginning and the eternal moment.” –Gregory Markopoulos

Celebrating the publication of Film as Film: The Collected Writings of Gregory J. Markopoulos (The Visible Press), filmmaker Robert Beavers, and curator Mark Webber will present a very rare screening of three early Markopoulos films that were made in the United States in the mid-60s.



MING GREEN
, 1966, 16mm, 7 min.

“An extraordinary self-portrait conveyed through multiple layered superimpositions of the filmmaker’s sparsely furnished room in Greenwich Village.” —Mark Webber

Dedicated to Stan Brakhage. Music: Traumen /Wesendonck Lieder by Richard Wagner. Filmed in New York City

Twice a Man copy



TWICE A MAN
, 1963, 16mm, 48 min.

Twice A Man is a fragmented re-imagining of the Greek myth of Hippolytus, who was killed after rejecting the advances of his stepmother. Markopoulos’ vision transposes the legend to 1960s New York and has its main character abandon his mother for an elder man. Employing sensuous use of colour, the film radicalised narrative construction with its mosaic of ‘thought images’ that shift tenses and compress time. One of the touchstones of independent filmmaking, Twice A Man was made in the same remarkable milieu as Scorpio Rising and Flaming Creatures by a filmmaker named ‘the American avant-garde cinema’s supreme erotic poet’ by its key critic P. Adams Sitney.” —Mark Webber

Based on the story of Hippolytus. Featuring Paul Kilb, Olympia Dukakis, Albert Torgesen. Music: Excerpt from Manfred Symphony by Pyotr Tchaikovsky op. 58. Filmed in New York City, Staten Island, Long Island and Bear Mountain Park.



THROUGH A LENS BRIGHTLY: MARK TURBYFILL
, 1967, 16mm, 14 min.
“The life of painter, dancer and poet Mark Turbyfill, seen in his 70th year, is evoked through traditional portraiture and personal objects.” —Mark Webber

Filmed in Chicago.



Gregory J. Markopoulos (1928-92)
is acknowledged as one of the pioneers of independent and avant-garde cinema. A contemporary of Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage and Andy Warhol, he was at the forefront of a movement that established a truly independent form of cinema. Markopoulos became a key figure in the New York avant-garde film scene of the 1950s and 60s, co-founding the New American Cinema Group alongside Jonas Mekas, Robert Frank, Peter Bogdanovich and others. Markopoulos’ films, which often translated literary or mythological sources to a contemporary context, are celebrated for their extraordinary creativity, the sensuous use of colour and innovations in cinematic form. His many film portraits feature significant figures in the arts such as David Hockney, Rudolph Nureyev, Leonor Fini, Alberto Moravia, Gilbert and George, Susan Sontag, Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Thek and W.H. Auden. At the end of the 1960s, he left the USA for Europe and began to withdraw his work from circulation. He ultimately re-edited his entire output into the 80-hour epic Eniaios (1947-91), which remained unprinted during his lifetime. Following the death of Markopoulos in 1992, his work has slowly returned to the public arena through events with institutions including The Museum of the Moving Image, Pacific Film Archive, New York Film Festival and Documenta 12. The Whitney Museum presented a complete retrospective in 1996. Since 2004, premieres of the restored units of Eniaios have taken place every four years at a site in rural Arcadia, Greece that was chosen by the filmmaker. These unique events have been reviewed in Artforum, Frieze, Film Comment and other important periodicals. His films are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris) and the Austrian Film Museum (Vienna).

Many thanks to Robert Beavers and Mark Webber. For more information regarding Temenos, a monographic archive in Switzerland devoted to Markopoulos and Beavers’ work, and its projection space in Arcadia, Greece, visit www.the-temenos.org. For more information on the book, visit: www.thevisiblepress.com.

Additional events will take place at The Kitchen, Harvard Film Archive, Anthology Film Archives, and elsewhere this fall.


BASILICA SCREENINGS is a film series that presents an array of works from new and repertory narrative features, documentaries, experimental films, to video and media art, often with filmmakers and special guests in attendance for a discussion following the screenings. Programmed by Basilica Hudson’s film curator Aily Nash, and creative directors Melissa Auf der Maur and Tony Stone.

All films begin at 8 pm and are $5-10 sliding scale, unless otherwise noted.

Click here for more info on upcoming Basilica Screenings.

BASILICA SCREENINGS PRESENTS: DUSTY STACKS OF MOM: THE POSTER PROJECT

Thursday August 28 | 8 PM | $5-$10 Sliding Scale

DUSTY_STACKS_OF_MOM_MATTETHURSDAY, AUGUST 28, 8 PM
DUSTY STACKS OF MOM: THE POSTER PROJECT, Jodie Mack, 2013, 41 min
with NEW FANCY FOILS, UNDERTONE OVERTURE, GLISTENING THRILLS, and LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE, total program runs 75 min.
//  Q&A via Skype with Jodie Mack!  //

Interweaving the forms of personal filmmaking, abstract animation, and the rock opera, Dusty Stacks of Mom is an animated musical documentary that examines the rise and fall of a nearly-defunct poster and postcard wholesale business; the changing role of physical objects and virtual data in commerce; and the division (or lack of) between abstraction in fine art and psychedelic kitsch. Using alternate lyrics as voice over narration, the piece adopts the form of a popular rock album reinterpreted as a cine-performance.

This collection of films questions the role of abstract animation in a post-psychedelic climate. Merch tables meet museum gift stores. The sublime meets Sublime the band. Rippling head shop tie dyes and dollar store gift bags form ebullient spectacles from resurrected dead capital and banal everyday objects.

Click here for more info on upcoming Basilica Screenings.