The Color of Love. 1994. USA. Directed by Peggy Ahwesh. 10 min. 16mm
Chop Off. 2008. USA. Directed by MM Serra. 6 min. Digital
Love Is Power. 2023. USA. Directed by Erica Schreiner. 9 min. Digital
Match Girl. 1966. USA. Directed by Andrew Meyer. 25 min. 16mm
Samson & Delilah. 1970. Colombia. Directed by Luis Ernesto Arocha. 9 min. Digital
Program run time: 67 min
“Artcore,” as described by MM Serra, is “avant-garde filmmaking that blends raw, intense imagery with themes of personal identity and societal critique.” Experimental filmmaker Peggy Ahwesh takes a heavily deteriorating 1970s porn film in which the chemical degradation “threatens to censor the image entirely,” and colors, re-edits, and optically prints it to make it an entirely new film. The result is The Color of Love, “an abstract stained-glass mosaic” of a film, “powerful, erotic and disarming at a time.” MM Serra’s Chop Off follows performance artist R.K. and his experiments in body modification, and Erica Schreiner’s Love Is Power offers an intensely close-up look at the body that is both erotic and “authentically human.” Andrew Meyer’s Match Girl follows the experiences of a young actress trying to survive in the fast-paced environment of the Warhol Factory. The film is loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Match Girl,” and features Warhol superstar Gerard Malanga, Andy Warhol himself, and music by the Rolling Stones. Luis Ernesto Arocha’s experimental short Samson & Delilah is “an explosion of Delilah myth, a biblical super-spectacular in the Bizet-De Mille grand opera tradition, with torrid ballet sequence.” Eschewing standard storytelling for intense visuals and imagery, these works challenge conventional norms and confront the viewer with visceral depictions of sexuality and power.