"Psychogeographies" at Flaherty NYC

Took part in a screening at Flaherty NYC at Anthology Film Archives, March 14, 2011.  Penny Lane curated the films.

The program:
PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIES
For the March installment of the Flaherty NYC monthly screening series, The Flaherty will present Psychogeographies: work by Kathryn Ramey, Jason Livingston, & Joel Schlemowitz. The program consists of four 16mm films about places both real and imagined. There will be a post-screening discussion with the filmmakers, moderated by Colin Beckett, Critical Writing Fellow at UnionDocs.

The Films:
Yanqui WALKER and the OPTICAL REVOLUTION (Kathryn Ramey, 2009, 33 min)
Weimar (Joel Schlemowitz, 1996, 8 min)
Tombeau for Arnold Eagle (Joel Schlemowitz, 1994, 4 min)
Under Foot & Overstory (Jason Livingston, 2005, 35 min)

In addition to programming the show, Penny wrote a lovely short essay about the works to accompany the screening:
"Psychogeographies: Four films about place and time"

I had given Penny a hard time about her wanting to show "Weimar," this rather silly film that was made on a bit of a lark, and also so old (made 15 years ago).  But she was pretty insistent on including it.  Perhaps it was appropriately "psychogeographic," in keeping with the program's theme.

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An interesting question during the Q&A:  Did we, the filmmakers, all know each other and know each other's work before it had been programmed together in this show?  Were we all friends, did we make work in reaction to each other?  Or did Penny just find three filmmakers who had no association with each other and put our films together, discovering a connection between the work that was unknown to any of us?

It's a curious relationship between the individual works that we create and the larger artistic community in which they are a part.  Discovery of this larger artistic community is often an important step in the beginnings of artistic maturity.  Something I'm often encouraging my students to seek out.  Perhaps the community of other artists could be thought of as the environment through which our wanderings, intersections, and connections form a psychogeographic experience?  Not an experience of a geographic place, but a geography of artists.  Is our relationship to the artistic community, through which our works wander, like that of relationship between the flâneur and the city?

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A good-sized crowd from the screening made it over for drinks post-screening drinks at The Scratcher.  More than I'd seen at other Flaherty NYC screenings.  A testament to that sense of community!

Cheers!