Allocution. 2022. USA. Directed by Jennifer Montgomery. DCP. 13 min.
Les Goddesses. 2011. USA. Directed by Moyra Davey. DCP. 61 min.
Moyra Davey and Jennifer Montgomery met at the Whitney Independent Study Program in 1988 and have been present in each other’s lives and work since. Montgomery introduced Davey to experimental cinema through the films of Peggy Ahwesh, Leslie Thornton, and her own, even loaning the Super8 camera on which Davey would shoot her first short. Davey, in turn, was involved with several of Montgomery’s projects, notably creating black-and-white prop portraits at the heart of Art for Teachers of Children (1995), a frank tale of adolescent sexuality based on Montgomery’s underage relationship with a teacher and the FBI investigation that ensued decades later. This special evening premieres Montgomery’s newest work, Allocution, a bookend to Art for Teachers of Children, which screens with Davey’s Les Goddesses, itself rife with women in the throes of thrills and misfortune. “Over the decades, my perspective on consent, aging, and ideas of beauty has shifted radically,” notes Montgomery. “Allocution represents what I hope is the final chapter in a 45-year saga.” The two artists, who share an unwavering ability to address difficult subject matter with eloquence and purpose, come together to discuss the feminist filmmaking they stem from and the experiences and friendships that have shaped them along the way.