Tag Archives: Hood by Air

LEILAH WEINRAUB’S SHAKEDOWN

In the last screening of the 2017 Whitney Biennial Film Program, Leilah Weinraub presents her new film SHAKEDOWN, “an intoxicating, dreamlike portrait of Los Angeles’ African-American lesbian strip club scene, in which a network of female performers attached to a weekly party called Shakedown take center stage. SHAKEDOWN chronicles the personal and professional relationships of the party’s dancers and organizers, among them: Ronnie-Ron, Shakedown Productions’ creator and emcee; Mahogany, the legendary mother of the scene; Egypt, Shakedown’s star dancer; and Jazmine, the Queen of Shakedown. Mapping out economies of pleasure rarely seen onscreen, Weinraub herself emerges as a desiring participant, rejecting the pose of ‘neutral onlooker’ in favor the intimate gaze of a collaborator and confidante.”*

In 2007, Weinraub and Shayne Oliver founded Hood by Air, now on hiatus. Oliver is creating a collection for Helmut Lang, and Weinraub, for now, will concentrate on filmmaking.

 

LEILAH WEINRAUB—SHAKEDOWN, Saturday, May 20, at 2 pm and 5 pm. Sunday, May 21, at 3 pm.

Weinraub will join Christopher Y. Lew, co-curator of the 2017 Biennial, for a post-screening conversation on May 21.

WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, 99 Gansevoort Street, New York City.

 

*whitney.org/Events/LeilahWeinraub

Shakedown (2017), directed by Leilah Weinraub. Image credit: Leilah Weinraub and the Whitney Museum of American Art.