Join us Thursday, March 28 at 7:30 pm, for a screening of director David Cronenberg’s film Crimes of the Future (2022, Canada/Greece/UK, 107 min., digital), a meditation on human evolution. The film is the first in the Framing the Flesh series, organized by Piper Ingels ’24, which explores our fascination with and revulsion to the fantasies of unconventional bodily alterations.

About Crimes of the Future

The film is set in a not-too-distant future, where humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings and, as humans alter their biological makeup—some naturally, some surgically—the body itself becomes art. Viggo Mortensen and Léa Seydoux star as underground performance artists who perform quasi-legal body modifications for entertainment. They are obsessively tracked by a government investigator, played by Kristen Stewart, who becomes increasingly captivated by their work and uncovers what may be the next phase in human evolution.

This program contains material of a highly sensitive nature including language, nudity, violence, gore, and disturbing content.

Framing the Flesh

Framing the Flesh is a four-film series that explores our fascination with and revulsion to the fantasies of unconventional bodily alterations. The films meet at the intersection of pain and gratification linked to body modifications, cyborg enhancements, and plastic surgery, examining how these practices serve as sources of stimulation, empowerment, and avenues for sexual satisfaction.

Framing the Flesh is organized by Piper Ingels ’24, as the capstone project for her 2023-24 Meg Reitman Jacobs ’63 Endowed Internship. The series is programmed in conjunction with the student-curated exhibition Abject Anatomy, on view at the Tang from February 9 through April 21, 2024.

Framing the Flesh Screenings

• March 28, 7:30 pm: Crimes of the Future (2022)

• April 4, 6 pm: Eyes Without a Face (1960) and Tetsuo: The Iron Man 1989)

• April 18, 6 pm: birth/rebirth (2023)