Politically-Trenchant New York City Symphony Films Curated by Jon Gartenberg

Due to inclement weather LPV program has moved locations
FRIDAY, AUGUST 9th, 8PM
At 368 East 8th Street Storefront West (Allied Productions Project Space)

Spanning the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s, the five films in this program posit the Big Apple as a backdrop, and conduit, for political discourse pertaining to the AIDS crisis, economic gentrification, and 9/11. In Jack Waters' Berlin/NY (1984), fenced-in empty lots of the Lower East Side are contrasted with views of East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie, with Waters commenting on the potential for capitalist exploitation of these two sites. In Jim Hubbard's Elegy in the Streets (1989), silent footage of marches, vigils, police confrontations, and the AIDS quilt coalesce to form a direct response to the negligence of Reagan-era political figures towards the AIDS crisis. Abigail Child's B/Side (US, 1996) captures the plights of homeless folk in Tompkins Square Park in poetic fashion, while Jem Cohen's NYC Weights and Measures (2006) and Steve Bilich's Native New Yorker (2006) reexamine the tragedy of 9/11 through the lenses of political repression and Indigenous identity. Together, these films critically engage with a myriad of seemingly disparate yet undeniably interconnected sociopolitical issues still impacting the metropolis we call home.

Photo Credit: Steve Bilich's Native New Yorker (2006)