Category Archives: FILM

SHATARA MICHELLE FORD — TEST PATTERN

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Some of the ideas that I wanted to express with the character of Renesha come from the many moments in the film where she’s pushed to the background, or to the side, or is out of focus. That’s for a reason, to make you think about how we choose not to see or hear people. Then in the moments where I let you sit with her, what do you notice in what she’s not saying? All of that was intentional. — Shatara Michelle Ford

In her feature debut TEST PATTERN, writer-director Ford presents her case—against the ineptitudes of the health care system, the inadequacies of the police, and the insidious predations of hipster Austin’s bro-culture—against a wonderfully sensitive consideration of the relationship between Renesha (Brittany S. Hall) and Evan (Will Brill), before and after a sexual assault.

Streaming now on the Kino Marquee, the film is also playing at the Noho 7 through April 15. See link below for details.

TEST PATTERN

Written and directed by Shatara Michelle Moore.

Kino Marquee

Now streaming.

Shatara Michelle Ford, Test Pattern (2019), from top: Brittany S. Hall; Will Brill; Test Pattern poster; Amani Starnes; Ford. Images courtesy and © the filmmaker and Kino Lorber.

ON WOJNAROWICZ

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On the occasion of the streaming release of WOJNAROWICZ—F**K YOU F*GGOT F**CKER, filmmaker Chris McKim will join editor Dave Stanke and artist-activist Leo Herrera in conversation.

The film features commentary by Fran Lebowitz, Peter Hujar, Kiki Smith, Richard Kern, Nan Goldin, and Carlo McCormick. See links below for information.

WOJNAROWICZ Q & A—CHRIS MCKIM, DAVE STANKE, and LEO HERRERA

Film Forum

Tuesday, March 30.

4 pm on the West Coast, 7 pm East Coast.

WOJNAROWICZ—F**K YOU F*GGOT F**KER

Directed by Chris McKim.

Laemmle Virtual Cinema

Through April 1.

Chris McKim, Wojnarowicz (2020), from top: Untitled, David Wojnarowicz image courtesy of the David Wojnarowicz Papers, Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University; Wojnarowicz, image courtesy of Tom Rauffenbart; Wojnarowicz poster courtesy and © World of Wonder and Kino Lorber; David Wojnarowicz, Fuck You Faggot Fucker, 1984, image © the Estate of David Wojnarowicz, courtesy of the estate and P.P.O.W.; Wojnarowicz, image © the Estate of David Wojnarowicz, courtesy of the estate and P.P.O.W.

ALICE NEEL — VIRTUAL SCREENING

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In her beautiful, hard, and certain essay, “The Love of God and Affliction,” the religious philosopher Simone Weil said: “The great enigma of human life is not suffering but affliction. It is not surprising that the innocent are killed, tortured, driven from their country, made destitute or reduced to slavery, imprisoned in camps or cells, since there are criminals to perform such actions.” I am certain that Alice Neel, more than many an American artist, had a deep understanding of affliction. She did not use her work to escape it, but rather to plunge further into it—into the trauma of being despised, or forsaken. Indeed, if she had any credo as an artist, it was to show us ourselves, and herself, even when (or especially when) it was dangerous and hard to do so. — Hilton Als*

ICA Boston presents the singular documentary ALICE NEEL—directed by her grandson Andrew. See link below for streaming information.

ALICE NEEL

Directed by Andrew Neel.

ICA Boston

Through April 1.

*Hilton Als, “Carmen and Judy, 1972,” in Alice Neel, Uptown (New York: David Zwirner Books: London: Victoria Miro, 2017), 111.

Andrew Neel, Alice Neel (2007), from top: Alice Neel; Neel with her sons Richard (left) and Hartley. Images courtesy and © the filmmaker and SeeThink Productions.

RASHIDA BUMBRAY AND JEFFERSON PINDER IN CONVERSATION

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This week, MICA presents The Body As Black Archive, featuring performance artist and choreographer Rashida Bumbray and interdisciplinary artist Jefferson Pinder in conversation, moderated by curator Niama Safia Sandy.

See link below to register for the webinar.

THE BODY AS BLACK ARCHIVE

RASHIDA BUMBRAY and JEFFERSON PINDER IN CONVERSATION

Maryland Institute College of Art

Thursday, March 18.

1 pm on the West Coast; 4 pm East Coast.

From top: Rashida Bumbray, photograph by Jamie Philbert, courtesy of the artist and the photographer; Jefferson Pinder, Prowl, 2020, Chicago, image © Jefferson Pindar, courtesy of the artist; Jefferson Pinder, Monolith (dreamcatcher) , Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, 2015–2016, image © Jefferson Pindar, courtesy of the artist and the Hyde Park Art Center.

GARRETT BRADLEY — AMERICA

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AMERICA is sort of a grandiose title, but I didn’t want to shy away from what it would mean to title the film after my country, because the impetus for this was to visually illustrate inclusivity and make a case for the beauty of what that could mean… The heart and soul of the project asks us to evaluate the role of pleasure particularly within communities still in some ways barred from that fundamental experience or right. So AMERICA is both a meditation and recognition of the beauty that exists in the past, a resurfacing of that beauty, and also a proposal for the future. — Garrett Bradley

The latest iteration of Bradley ’s AMERICA—a multichannel installation at MoMA organized by Thelma Golden and Legacy Russell, in partnership with the Studio Museum in Harlem—is on view for one more week.

A series of historical enactments of twentieth-century Black life, the work takes the unfinished film Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1914, starring comedian Bert Williams) as an initial point of investigation. AMERICA features a score by Trevor Mathison and Udit Duseja. See link below for details.

GARRETT BRADLEY—AMERICA

Through March 21.

Museum of Modern Art

11 West 53rd Street, New York City.

Garrett Bradley, America (2019 / 2021), Museum of Modern Art, New York, November 21, 2020–March 21, 2021, installation photographs by Robert Gerhardt. Images © Garrett Bradley, courtesy and © the artist and MoMA.