The video revolution of the 1970s offered unprecedented access to the moving image for artists and performers. This Is Not a Dream explores the legacies of this revolution and its continued impact on contemporary art and performance. Charting a path across four decades of avant-garde experiment and radical escapism, This Is Not a Dream traces the influences of Andy Warhol, John Waters and Jack Smith to the perverted frontiers of YouTube and Chatroulette, taking in subverted talk shows and soap operas, streetwalker fashions and glittery magic penises along the way.
The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (1896)
A group of people are standing along the platform of a railway station in La Ciotat, waiting for a train. One is seen coming, at some distance, and eventually stops at the platform. Doors of the railway-cars open and attendants help passengers off and on. Popular legend has it that, when this film was shown, the first-night audience fled the café in terror, fearing being run over by the "approaching" train. This legend has since been identified as promotional embellishment, though there is evidence to suggest that people were astounded at the capabilities of the Lumières' cinématographe.
Georgia O'Keeffe (1977)
Georgia O'Keeffe appears on camera for the first time to talk candidly about her work and her life in this 1977 documentary.
Flamboyants (2021)
The trajectory of flamboyant bodies that expose themselves in their social networks, whether artistic or not, and use these spaces freely.
Sergio Leone: cinema, cinema (2001)
The life and work of one of the great masters of Italian cinema, Sergio Leone (1929-89); a rich and fascinating portrait through unpublished testimonies of collaborators, actors, directors and critics who reconstruct every aspect of his creative activity.
Solitary Eyes (2023)
An isolated filmmaker struggles to connect with others in the absence of cameras. When he becomes creatively stuck, the world around him begins to dissolve.
Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present (2016)
Feature documentary on the pioneering life and work of iconoclastic filmmaker/musician/composer/artist Tony Conrad.
Comic Relief Zero (2013)
So, what’s the deal with Comic Relief Zero!? Sit down and shut up, so we can tell you! But seriously folks, sit down and shut up, because those dumb-faced, giggle-grabbin’ goof-troupers at Everything Is Terrible! are dishing out a stand-up comedy special! This special is the opposite of special; featuring today’s hottest ventriloquists, racists, prop comics, sexists, impersonators, homophobes, and talk show hosts in their hate-filled prime! Are you oppressed and underrepresented in society? Well then, watch out! Let’s pull back the banana peel and take a head-first descent into the brick wall of our own mind! Take my life... please!
Blood of Two (2009)
The first collaboration between Matthew Barney & Elizabeth Peyton, Blood of Two is a unique, site-specific work that draws its references from Hydra itself – the surrounding environment, animals, humans, and local traditions are all part of the project in equal measure. Blood of Two centers on the former function of the Slaughterhouse and the customs of Hydra to establish connections between paganism and religion, ancient and modern, the ritualistic and familiar. As much as its conflicted terms strive for balance and fusion, it is Blood of Two’s greater resistance to these impulses, its failure to surrender unconditionally to them that ultimately counts, as a network of overlaps and crisscrosses.
Little Miss Westie (2019)
A year in the life of two transgender siblings as they navigate puberty, a local beauty pageant, and transitioning in the Trump era.
Queer Artivism (2013)
An insight into 5 queer film festivals accompanied with the discussion about the importance of queer film festivals, queer film and people's experience with both.
Closeness to the Land (2022)
In 2020, just as the pandemic was beginning, Gazala purchased land in western Ohio, on which sits a disused school building. This site allowed her to explore her complex relationship with “the land.” As the daughter of displaced indigenous Palestinians, she attempts to form a proxy bond with the earth, on ground that was stolen from the displaced indigenous Shawnee people. Closeness to the Land is video footage of hand-painted text signs that translate the word الأرض (ard) into six English words, displayed performatively in multiple locations to capture the now-invisible nature of indigenous culture in Ohio. These signs were installed on the old schoolhouse in early 2021.
The Stroll (2023)
The history of New York’s Meatpacking District, told from the perspective of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there. Filmmaker Kristen Lovell, who walked “The Stroll” for a decade, reunites her community to recount the violence, policing, homelessness, and gentrification they overcame to build a movement for transgender rights.
Kokomo City (2023)
Four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City break down the walls of their profession.
Growing Up Coy (2016)
A Colorado family is thrust into the international media spotlight when they fight for the rights of their 6-year-old transgender daughter in a landmark civil rights case.
Egon Schiele: Dangerous Desires (2018)
The dramatic story of Egon Schiele in his own words, celebrating his remarkable artistic achievements but also debating the controversies around his work.
Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened... (2016)
This film from acclaimed theater director Lonny Price charts the journey of the original cast of Stephen Sondheim's "Merrily We Roll Along" in the 30-plus years since the musical debuted on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre in 1981.
David Lynch: The Art Life (2017)
An intimate journey through the formative years of David Lynch's life. From his idyllic upbringing in small town America to the dark streets of Philadelphia, we follow Lynch as he traces the events that have helped to shape one of cinema's most enigmatic directors.
Mifune: The Last Samurai (2016)
An account of the life and work of legendary Japanese actor Toshirō Mifune (1920-97), the most prominent actor of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema.
Who I Am Not (2023)
What makes a male, and what makes a female? Where do we draw the line, and does it really matter? Sharon-Rose Khumalo, a South African beauty queen, plunges into an identity crisis after finding out she is intersex. In her quest to deal with gender dysphoria, she needs the guidance of somebody just like her. The only person who will help is Dimakatso Sebidi, a masculine presenting intersex activist, who turns out to be her complete opposite. The two parallel but divergent stories offer an intimate look at the struggle of living in a male-female world, when you are both or neither. For the first time in a creative documentary, Who I Am Not gives a voice to the long ignored and mostly silent two percent of the world's population: the intersex community.
Mudflat (1980)
Years ago, artists would walk around the muck at the edge of the San Francisco Bay in Emeryville, and build loads of sculptures out there on the flats, created from driftwood and found objects that drivers would enjoy as they motored south on the old Highway 17 (known in numerous radio ads as 'Highway 17, The Nimitz'). Grabbing material off someone else’s work was considered fair game and part of the fun, and contributed a kinetic dynamic to the ongoing display. Now the place is a park, and the sculptures are gone, but you can see what it used to be like in this neat and funny documentary by Ric Reynolds, augmented by Erich Seibert’s wonderful musique-concrète/time-lapse sequences. The flashback circus sequence includes Scott Beach and Bill Irwin. Sculptors interviewed include Walt Zucker, Tony Puccio, Robert Sommer, Ron & Mary Bradden, and Bob Kaminsky.