Join us Thursday, April 3, at 6 pm, for a screening in our series a field of bloom and hum on film. This series, inspired by the exhibition a field of bloom and hum, is part of Whole Grain: Experiments in Film & Video.

The Dancer from the Dance Program Notes

The body is arguably the most basic and essential creative material that an artist can work with. This program of seven films and videos focus on the performing body and its capacity for intimate interrelation with others, whether in the immediacy of the present or in longer timelines. Dance becomes not only a form of communication and often ecstatic communion but also a visceral way of embodying queer cultural legacies and lineages.

Variation FQ (dir. Jeremy Shaw, US, 2013, 11 min., 16mm on digital)
Jeremy Shaw’s film presents trans voguer Leiomy Maldonado within the stark, black and white aesthetics of an experimental 1960s ballet film by Norman McLaren. Using sharp contrast, optical effects, slow motion, and an original soundtrack by the artist, it amplifies the unique, cathartic movements of the protagonist’s dance—both eloquent and violent.

Lazarus (dir. Kang Seung Lee, US, 2023, 8 min., digital)
Lazarus emerged from the artist’s research on Singaporean American choreographer Goh Choo San and the final work by Brazilian artist José Leonilson (both of whom died of AIDS): “It’s two shirts put together. I thought of it as a shroud for two people or for many […] a prop and outfit for the two dancers [who] move together inside it, with little space.”

Beehive (dirs. Frank Moore and Jim Self, US, 1985, 16 min., digital)
Beehive is a film and ballet developed by painter / designer Frank Moore and dancer / choreographer Jim Self from 1981 to 1987. Bees—who dance to communicate—lend themselves well to performance. Moore’s scientific interest in bees and plants blended with Self’s desire to shake up a dance world focused on abstraction and minimalism. This work is in the Tang collection.

What I Did Last Summer (dir. Charles Atlas, US, 1991, 12 min., digital)
The three short, low-tech works in this compilation by renowned dance-on-film/video artist Charles Atlas celebrate downtown New York nightlife at the beginning of the 1990s. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.

A Chairy Tale (dirs. Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra, Canada, 1957, 9 min., digital)
A chair (animated by Evelyn Lambart) refuses to be sat upon, forcing a young man to perform a battle of the wills with it through dance. This virtuoso film is the sole collaboration between Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra, two queer directors at the National Film Board of Canada in the 1950s, with music by Ravi Shankar and Chatur Lal.

Your Giorgio (dir. Matthew Leifheit, US, 2018, 12 min., digital)
Your Giorgio is based on the love letters of the late queer photographer George Platt Lynes. Filmed on location at Yale University, it depicts a sexualized experience of the archive, in which the researcher’s subjects come alive as amorous ghosts.

Girl Talk (dir. Wu Tsang, US, 2015, 4 min., digital)
An iPhone-shot reverie depicting poet / scholar Fred Moten letting loose to the eponymous 1965 jazz standard, performed by Josiah Wise (serpentwithfeet). Moten twirls in slow motion with a wry smile, crystals from his flowing garb sparkling across the sun-soaked frame. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.

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.