Join us Thursday, March 20, at 6 pm, for the first of five screenings in our series a field of bloom and hum on film. The series, inspired by the exhibition a field of bloom and hum, is guest-curated by film scholar Jon Davies, who will introduce this first screening. The series is also part of Whole Grain: Experiments in Film & Video.

A Room of One’s Own Program Notes

A program of six films and videos in the queer diaristic tradition. Queer people have traditionally had to cobble together their identities from bits and pieces gleaned from the outside world. Here the camera—or even the celluloid of the film itself—becomes a way of piecing the self together and for reflection through words both written and spoken. Cinema becomes a tool for confession and irony, erotic desire and self-fashioning, pain and glory.

Gently Down the Stream (dir. Su Friedrich, US, 1981, 12 min., 16mm)
“Su Friedrich’s film becomes a public exorcism, one that continually exposes and infects the viewer with the psychic consequences of religious constraints, familial binds and sexual conflicts.” – Bruce Jenkins

A Place Called Lovely (dir. Sadie Benning, US, 1991, 14 min., digital)
“Nicky is seven. His parents are older and meaner.” Sadie Benning collects images of socially pervasive violence from a variety of sources, tracing events from childhood: movies, tabloids, games, personal experiences, and those of others. They use small toys as props—handling and controlling them the way we are, in turn, controlled by larger forces.

Creeping Crimson (dir. George Kuchar, US, 1987, 15 min., digital)
The beloved underground filmmaker George Kuchar visits his mother in the hospital on Halloween and contemplates the autumn colors.

The Male GaYze (dir. Jack Waters, US, 1990, 11 min., 16mm)
Observing sexuality and power relations between men, a young African American dancer reminisces about his encounter with a famous Dutch choreographer over seemingly random home-movie visuals. Issues of authority clash in a pedagogical combat zone where Black/White, European/American, Younger/Older, Experience and Beauty interact.

Solitary Acts #5 (dir. Naz Dinçel, US, 2015, 5 min., digital)
WittnerChrome, Exacto Knife, Fishing Line, and Sewing Machine. The filmmaker practices kissing with a mirror and recalls teenage memories of overconsumption, confusing oral fixations that are both sexual (kissing) and bodily (eating).

Oh Paulo (dir. Cam Archer, US, 2024, 16 min., digital)
After unintentionally leaving a boy named Paulo out of his frame, middle-aged filmmaker Cam Archer ruminates on what else is missing, and how to split from what’s familiar.

About a field of bloom and hum on film

Weaving together historical and contemporary film/video works by artists, this five-screening series, guest-curated by Jon Davies, pulls out threads and expands on the exhibition a field of bloom and hum, which focuses on queer lives and networks. How do we survive both individually and collectively when we are under threat? How does “queer” reimagine what kinship can be? What can we do for our elders and for those who will come after us? What lessons does the queer and trans past hold for our fraught present? Rethinking body and voice, the personal and the political, and the space between the living and the dead, each program draws on a queer cultural practice that was key to the 1980s–1990s—the era when the word “queer” was first reclaimed to name a new wave of radical activist, artistic and intellectual activity catalyzed by the (ongoing) AIDS pandemic—and considers its meaning, power and value today, in a time of great peril. All shorts programs bring together 16mm film and video.

a field of bloom and hum on film Screenings

– Thursday, March 20, 6 pm: A Room of One’s Own

– Thursday, March 27, 7 pm: The Hatred of Capitalism

– Thursday, April 3, 6 pm: The Dancer from the Dance

– Saturday, April 5, 2 pm: Eternal Homes of the Transient Heart

– Thursday, April 10, 6 pm: The Personal Is Political

All screenings are free and open to the public.

About Jon Davies

Jon Davies is a curator, writer and scholar from Montreal. In 2023, he received his PhD in Art History from Stanford University and co-curated the 68th Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, Queer World-Mending, with artist Steve Reinke, which took place at Skidmore College. He is the 2024–2025 General Idea Fellow at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

About Whole Grain

The Tang Teaching Museum’s Whole Grain series explores classic and contemporary work in experimental film and video. Whole Grain is organized by Assistant Director for Engagement Tom Yoshikami.