Two Films by Carolee Schneemann

Sunday, October 12, 1 pm | BUY TICKETS

$12 | $8 Speed members

A revolutionary artist, Carolee Schneemann’s work in painting, performance, film, and other media has repeatedly confronted and rewritten the aesthetic codes of gender, sexuality, and the body. In cinema, Schneemann’s transgressive instincts led her to challenge the traditional subject-object relationship of filmmaking, placing herself in front of her own lens, defying linearity, and pushing the chemical limits of the celluloid itself. In this program, her landmark film Fuses will be accompanied by the shorter piece Plumb Line, the two illustrating the alternate ends of intimacy. Also included is Barbara Hammer’s short work Psychosynthesis, providing an alternate look at many of the same questions Schneemann was considering at the time. 1967-75, U.S., 16mm, 55 minutes. Recommended for 18+.

Fuses
Directed by Carolee Schneemann

Filmed and edited by Schneemann; with herself, James Tenney and Kitch. 1967, U.S., 16mm, 29 minutes.

Plumb Line
Directed by Carolee Schneemann

Breaking down, splitting apart, burning up: a relationship and the film itself. Edited from scrap diary footage shot in 8mm, hand printed as 16mm. Plumb Line is a moving and powerful subjective chronicle of the breaking up of a love relationship. The film is a devastating exorcism, as the viewer sees and hears the film approximate the interior memory of the experience. 1972, U.S., 16mm, 18 minutes.

Psychosynthesis
Directed by Barbara Hammer

The sub-personalities of me as baby, athlete, witch and artist are synthesized in this film of superimpositions, intensities, and color layers coming together through the powers of film. 1975, U.S., 16mm, 8 minutes.