Upcoming Screenings Online/Week of August 2nd

Top Picks for Art Online Week of August 2nd 

Chez Jolie Coiffure (2018) by Rosine Mfetgo Mbakam

POV/Feature Film, Public Broadcast + Online Stream

August 3, 2020/Broadcast Premiere 10pm ET/Free

In the Brussels district of Motange, Sabine runs a hair salon. Like most hair salons, her space is a hub of friendship, gossip, and support, in this case, solidified by the shared migrant experience of Sabine and much of her clientele. In this cinema-verite chamber film, the director observes but is also brought into the fold of the space, filming for a year through many lash extensions and immigration rumors while also processing her own ex-pat status as a Cameroonian woman in Belgium. The complicated relationship with homeland and home unfold as many other forces tug at the lives of the women within. The othering of the migrant experience is also captured as tourists and locals gawk through the window of the salon, cultures in flux from both sides of the glass.

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After Civilization by Various Artists
Maysles Documentary Center/Online Screenings + Zoom Q&A
Zoom Q+A: August 4, 2020/7pm ET/Free, RSVP
Screening: Ends August 15, 2020/11:59pm ET/Free

This group of short and feature on-demand films thinks about the future. After all of the falls, the sinking, the collapsing: what will rise? These docs range in form but seem to favor boundary-pushing styles, a curatorial choice that takes advantage of the online streaming scene as seated, ticketed theaters aren't easily able to accommodate non-traditional film lengths and aesthetic risk-taking. These films offer speculative futures through experimental means using modes like science fiction and archival manipulation to predict the end of world as we know it and the beginning of a brave new one. On August 4th, a live Q+A will take place with some of the line-up's filmmakers, Nicole Macdonald (A Park for Detroit), Hannah Jayanti (Truth or Consequences), G. Anthony Svatek (.TV), Christina Battle (Bad Stars and Water Once Ruled) and Zack Khalil (INAAT/SE).

Arakimentari (2005) by Travis Klose presented by Khalik Allah
Maysles Documentary Center/Online Feature Film Screening, Under the Influence Series
July 22-August 5, 2020/Free

Also at The Maysles Documentary Center, a new online series has been launched called Under the Influence, a series that looks to documentarians and other figures to learn about what they find inspiring. In this installation, photographer and filmmaker Khalik Allah presents the 2005 film Arakimentari, a portrait of Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki. Araki remains a controversial figure due to his erotic flair (and his predilection towards abusive/exploitative studio practice). Though probably best known for his more pornographic tendencies, Araki's bold visions move beyond this realm an aspect that this doc seems to cover in detail. Though I'm not familiar with this film or subject, Khalik Allah's work is something I do know about, a deft, deep eye capturing a fearless essence in his photographs and documentaries, check out his work too.

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Exploring the VSW (Visual Studies Workshop) Archive: Early Video Art: Community Media in Western NY
Hosted by Bay Area Video Coalition & VSW/ Screening, Q&A + Zoom karaoke
August 5, 2020/5-6pm PT/Free, Eventbrite Registration

The VSW archives are home to a few thousand videotapes of NY community access programs hailing from the 1970s-90s. For those unfamiliar, community access was like the youtube of tv where nearly anyone could have their own show about anything. One of my personal favorite encounters w/community tv was BCAT in the mid-2000s where I came across a show titled Philosophy and Karate which, in addition to the show's namesake features, also featured dance remixes of classical music and green screen backgrounds of a pre-9/11 skyline. Like most community access, it was an intense, totally infectious passion project. VSW has been archiving this trove of artists and thinkers with the help of BAVC's Preservation Access Program that offers subsidies for digitization projects. This evening of clips will be hosted by Tara Nelson from VSW and Morgan Morel from BAVC who will announce and provide context for clips while also discussing the preservation and archiving process. Naturally, Tara also has a karaoke bar in her basement so, that too.

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Uniqlo Tate Late: Nights In, Andy Warhol
Tate Modern, sponsored by Uniqlo/Online Event
August 6, 2020/7pmBST(2pm ET USA)/Free
A recording of the event will be available until August 13, 2020

Nights In features two simultaneous livestreams from the Tate Modern, competing line ups of talks, workshops, DJs, screenings, and more which one can pop between. This particular edition is an exploration of Andy Warhol to celebrate the museum's current exhibition. What caught my attention about this event was author Olivia Laing, whose 2016 book The Lonely City is a meditation on loneliness including a section on Warhol's relationship to the feeling evidenced in his personal memorabilia collection (did his cookie jars fill the void?). [Side note: Though I haven't read this book, Laing's 2018 novel Crudo was one of the best things I have ever read-- a fictional imagining of Kathy Acker with precise, whiplashing sentences that struck me deeply with their pure, graceful rethinking of words.] Other highlights of this event include a discussion with Warhol collaborator (to say the least) Laurie Anderson, a screening of the short film Happy Birthday, Marsha! (an ode to queer activist, Stonewall instigator Marsha P. Johnson) and a re-invention of Warhols's screentests updated from Studio 54 to the interior of the Queer South Asian Bollywood night known as Hungama.

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Freshbuzz (www.subway.com) (2013/14) by Cory Arcangel
Screen Slate, Rhizome/Online Screening + Twitch Q&A
August, 6, 2020/4pmET/Free
Patreon members have post-show access

Imagine an internet world prior to data being oil (or whatever)? A place where websites were limited to the abilities of html & css (or something)? Back in 2013/14 pioneering digital artist Cory Arcangel did a project where he slowly explored corporate websites, recording his desktop deep-surfs. The project brings up all kinds of deep (web) thoughts on the early formation of digital identity, the idea of corporations as human-digital beings, the complications of archiving a fleeting medium and a lot more. To accompany this screening of Arcangel's archeologic dig through Subway sandwich shop's website, the artist will take part in a Q&A moderated by critic, programmer and co-founder of Light Industry, Ed Halter. This post is not sponsored by Subway. In fact, the smell of Subway bread has always made me a little nauseous.

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Please send recs for upcoming weeks to: donnak3[at]gmail[dot]com