PUBLIC JOY! AND OTHER FEELINGS! 

A presentation of Black Rock Arts and The Film-Makers’ Cooperative

Thursday, December 4, 7PM

A free screening of historic and contemporary films comprising an expansive urban portrait, drawn entirely from the extensive catalog of The Film-Maker’s Coop, featuring: 

SSS by Henry Hills (1988)

I Have a New York Accent by Barbara Rosenthal (1988)

Bridges-Go-Round by Shirley Clarke (1959)

Excursion by Marie Menken (1968)

Scotch Tape by Jack Smith (1963)

A Few Minutes with the Chinatown Basketball Club by Jason Duval (2024)

Square Times by Rudy Burckhardt (1967)

Faculty 45 by Andrew Ferullo (1970)

Faces II by Andrew Ferullo (1970)

Total run time: ~60 minutes

SSS, 1988, by Henry Hills. 16mm transferred to digital, color, sound, 5.5 minutes. A dance film improvised on the streets of New York City, with improvised music, painstakingly edited over three years. Fantastic 80s fashions and beauty emerging from rubble. A longtime resident of NYC’s East Village, Henry Hills has been making experimental films since 1975.

I Have a New York Accent, 1988, by Barbara Rosenthal. Digital video, color, sound, 1.5 minutes. A short video investigating herself, other selves, humanity, and urban identity. Voice-overs by random passersby reading Rosenthal's script during a lunch hour in Madison Square Park, New York City. Barbara Rosenthal is a polymathic conceptual artist and lifelong resident of NYC.

Bridges-Go-Round, 1959, by Shirley Clarke. 16mm transferred to digital, color, sound, 7.5 minutes. “A film that captures the bizarre magic of man-made spans with the movement of a lightning clap and with the same terrible beauty." – Howard Thompson, The New York Times. Shirley Clarke was an acclaimed documentary and experimental filmmaker and a founding member of New American Cinema Group and The Film-Makers’ Cooperative.

Excursion, 1968, by Marie Menken. 16mm transferred to digital, color, silent, 5 minutes. A boat ride round the isle of Manhattan in 5 minutes. Though largely overlooked during her lifetime, Marie Menken is now considered a major figure of the mid-century American avant-garde and an essential artist to the development of experimental cinema.

Scotch Tape, 1963, by Jack Smith. 16mm transferred to digital, color, sound, 3 minutes. With Jerry Sims, Ken Jacobs and Reese Haire, shot on the rubble-strewn site of the future Lincoln Center in NYC. The title arises from the piece of scotch tape which had become wedged in the camera gate during filming. Jack Smith was a pioneering artist in the fields of filmmaking and performance art and was a founding member of New American Cinema Group and The Film-Makers’ Cooperative. 

A Few Minutes with the Chinatown Basketball Club, 2024, by Jason Duval. 16mm transferred to digital, black & white, sound, 5.5 minutes. Shot at the sidelines and from the hip, this spontaneous portrait of the Club at play pays tribute to CBC's spirit of joyful, competitive camaraderie and their unique community. Jason Duval is an artist a co-founder, with Dorota Kolodziejczyk, of Black Rock Arts.

Square Times, 1967, by Rudy Burckhardt. 16mm transferred to digital, color, sound, 6.5 minutes. A Saturday night on 42nd Street, from dusk to dawn. The glamour, the garbage, the hot dogs, the movies, the sex and the violence in the air – with music by The Supremes. Swiss-born photographer and filmmaker Rudy Burckhardt was an essential documentarian of, and participant in, NYC’s avant-garde arts scene for over half a century.

Faculty 45 and Faces II, both 1970, by Andrew P. Ferullo. 16mm, black & white, sound. Before the University of Buffalo had a Media Study department, it had a Film Club. Student member Andy Ferullo was a leading member of the Club in its pre-Media Study heyday. Faculty 45 and Faces II were shot on the UB campus while Ferullo was a graduate student in the Department of Art. Faculty 45 (4 minutes) documents the 45 UB faculty members who were arrested during a 1970 sit-in at Hayes Hall protesting the war in Vietnam. Faces II (22 minutes) comprises a collective portrait of the University. Ferullo set up his camera outside the student union and filmed anyone who wanted to get in front of the camera. His voluminous footage was edited down to two or three seconds per person. The film’s soundtrack draws on audio recordings captured during the Buffalo riots and student protests of the late 1960s.

The Film-Makers’ Cooperative / New American Cinema Group is the oldest non-profit organization devoted to the collection, preservation, and distribution of experimental film and media art in New York City. The organization was founded in 1961 as a collaboration between 22 NYC artists, among them Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Ken and Flo Jacobs, Andy Warhol and Jack Smith, to support filmmakers and artists outside of the mainstream Hollywood film industry. FMC is a member-run organization that distributes and exhibits work from its ever-growing collection of nearly 6,000 films, videos, and media artworks by approximately 2,000 artists. Public accessibility and non-exclusivity have always been the core of their educational mission, as they work to bring the history and future of experimental cinema to audiences in New York and around the world. 

FMC activities are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and also by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Visit film-makerscoop.com to learn more.

This is the second in an ongoing series of film screenings curated and presented collaboratively by Black Rock Arts and The Film-Makers’ Cooperative. To be informed about future events, follow @_black_rock_arts_ on Instagram or sign up for the gallery’s mailing list by contacting info@blackrockarts.biz.