SIR ISAAC JULIEN, LESSONS OF THE HOUR, 2019
Lessons of the Hour is a poetic meditation on the life and times of Frederick Douglass, the ten-screen film installation proposes a contemplative journey into Douglass' zeitgeist and its relationship to contemporaneity…
JOEL MEYEROWITZ, POP
Pop chronicles the journey of three generations of Meyerowitz men on a road trip from Florida to the Bronx, in exploration of their familial roots…
JOAN JONAS, LEFT SIDE RIGHT SIDE, 1972
In this early work, Jonas translates her performance strategies to video, applying the inherent properties of the medium to her investigations of the self and the body…
NATHAN MILLER, INSIDE-OUT
Installed at a historical fort, Inside-Out was an examination and open forum on violence in relation to the human spirit…
RASHID JOHNSON, THE NEW BLACK YOGA, 2011
New York-based Rashid Johnson explores complex cultural identities and issues relevant to being African American in the present day. The artist’s recent ventures in film make use of the medium’s ability to express meaning through movement…
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P. JOHNSON, 2017
Victoria Cruz investigates the mysterious 1992 death of black gay rights activist and Stonewall veteran, Marsha P. Johnson. Using archival interviews with Johnson, and new interviews with Johnson's family, friends and fellow activists…
DAVID WOJNAROWICZ, A FIRE IN MY BELLY, 1986-87
Echoing themes explored throughout David Wojnarowicz's art and writing, A Fire in My Belly is a visceral meditation on cultural and individual identity, spirituality, and belief systems. On a trip to Mexico City with Tommy Turner to scout Day of the Dead imagery, Wojnarowicz shot 25 rolls of super-8 film, documenting scenes that embodied the violence of city life…
FEMALE SENSIBILITY, LYNDA BENGLIS, 1973,
Two women, faces framed in tight focus, kiss and caress. Their interaction is silent, muted by Benglis' superimposition of a noisy, distracting soundtrack of appropriated AM radio…
THOMAS ALLEN HARRIS, THROUGH A LENS DARKLY, 2014
The first documentary to explore the role of photography in shaping the identity, aspirations, and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present, Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People probes the recesses of American history through images that have been suppressed, forgotten, and lost…
DOUBLE BLIND (NO SEX LAST NIGHT), SOPHIE CALLE, 1996
In her premiere video project, French conceptual artist Sophie Calle joins with Gregory Shephard to create a voyeuristic tour de force…
FRANCES STARK, NOTHING IS ENOUGH, 2012
Nothing is Enough consists of documented text fragments from Frances Stark’s online chat with a young Italian man, ranging from contemplative, self-reflective discussions to cybersex…
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, 2022
Fearless documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras’s career-long pursuit of truth and justice finds powerful expression in an epic story of art, activism, and survival…
RAGNAR KJARTANSSON, THE VISITORS, 2012
Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson’s nine-screen installation The Visitors was filmed at the historic Rokeby farm in upstate New York. Kjartansson invited a group of friends to stay with him for a week at the ethereal, yet decrepit estate, culminating in the ambitious performance…
SHARON HAYES, RICERCHE: TWO, 2020
Ricerche is a 5 part video series that steps off Pier Paolo Pasolini’s brilliant 1963 film, Comizi d’Amore, to stage a contemporary inquiry into the “sexual problem” in the United States…
NIKOLAI URSIN, BEHIND EVERY GOOD MAN, 1967
Produced several years before the historic Stonewall uprising for LGBTQ rights in 1969, director Nikolai Ursin's gently-activist short Behind Every Good Man (c. 1967) provides an illuminating glimpse into the life of an African-American trans woman…
GILLIAN WEARING, 2 INTO 1, 1997
The short video projection 2 into 1 (1997) features a mother and her twin sons talk about each other, one generation lip-synching the dubbed words of the other…
JEN DENIKE, FLAG GIRLS, 2007
Jen DeNike's video Flag Girls features six women wrapped in hand-sewn flags. As the video loop plays, the women unwrap themselves to reveal their nude bodies…
TOURMALINE, ATLANTIC IS A SEA OF BONES, 2017
Atlantic is a Sea of Bones is a short film drawing from the Lucille Clifton poem of the same name that follows Egyptt LaBejia, an NYC based performer through the 80s, 90s, and 2000's in NYC…
BARBARA HAMMER, SUPERDYKE, 1975
Superdyke is a gem from early liberation days. Influenced by feminism and lesbian militancy, Hammer’s films are politically pointed, bearing witness to lesbian empowerment and visibility, and formally sophisticated, fully cognizant of experimental film history…
PEGGY AHWESH, PHILOSOPHY IN THE BEDROOM, 1993
A home-movie paean to the Marquis de Sade, Philosophy in the Bedroom plumbs the depths of boudoir small talk. In the first part, a newly-acquainted odd couple discuss desire—and lack thereof—over a bag of potato chips. In the second part, a recumbent woman describes her partner and herself as "the John and Yoko of the '90s."…