Jem Cohen: Recent Work
April 4 and 13, 2003
This exhibition of
recent work by the New York–based filmmaker Jem Cohen features
a one-time theatrical presentation on April 4, copresented with
Eyebeam Atelier, of Chain Times Three (2002), a three-projector
panoramic triptych that creates a “superlandscape” from
malls, highways, franchises, and corporate centers across the globe.
Shot over six years, the project weaves together documentary and
fiction, and includes original music by Godspeed You Black Emperor!,
the Montreal band performing with Cohen’s live film projections
at the Bowery Ballroom on April 1 and 2, and at Warsaw in Brooklyn
on April 3 and 4.
Accompanying this special event are screenings
on April 13 of Cohen’s two other recent feature
films: Benjamin Smoke (2000), and Instrument (1999).
Cohen has worked extensively with musicians, including
R.E.M., Elliott Smith, Jonathan Richman, and Vic Chesnutt, and
is the recipient of Rockefeller and Guggenheim fellowships and many
international film festival prizes. He will introduce all three screenings, followed by a Q&A session.
Organized by Joshua Siegel, Assistant Curator,
Department of Film and Media. Special thanks to Cowboy
Pictures, Eyebeam Atelier, ACMI, and Gravity Hill for
their loan of prints and equipment.
. 2000. USA. Directed by Jem Cohen.
Celebrants of a war victory parade in lower Manhattan
are seen through Cohen’s discriminating
lens. With a haunting soundtrack by Fugazi. 7 min.
. 2002. USA. Directed
by Jem Cohen. A one-time, three-projector screening of Cohen’s
latest work, described above. Introduced by the filmmaker. 41 min.
. 2000. USA. Directed by Jem Cohen,
Peter Sillen. With a special appearance by Patti Smith
and still photographs by Michael Ackerman. Cohen was first
introduced to the Atlanta-based speed freak, drag queen, and
underground-music legend Benjamin by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe
in 1989, and was so captivated by this “scrawny
little powerhouse in a sundress” that he and codirector
Sillen would spend the next ten years capturing his life and music
on whatever 16mm, 8mm, and video material they could scrounge up.
The result is a tender, raunchy, and ultimately beautiful portrait
of a true original. Introduced by the filmmaker. 75 min.
. 1999. USA. Directed by Jem Cohen.
Cohen’s portrait
of the politically charged band Fugazi has become a true
cult film, playing with equal success at the 2002 Whitney
Biennial and in Antarctica. Cohen avoids the clichés
of the conventional music documentary, mixing multiple film and video formats,
weaving together ten years’ worth of concert footage,
studio sessions, and interviews with the musicians and
their fans, and capturing the hard-edged, hallucinatory
quality of Fugazi’s sound in his
imagery. Introduced by the filmmaker. 115 min.
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