Confessional Cinema
2021-10-22 19:00 - 20:30 | Museum of the Moving Image – Bartos Screening Room
With James N. Kienitz Wilkins, Lori Felker, and Joanna Raczynska in person

Mediated confrontations, revelations, apologies, and other emotional proclamations have become commonplace in contemporary culture thanks to internet videos and social media. However, artists have long used the cinematic form to create confessionals to be shared in the dark sanctuary of the public cinema. In this latest program of the Persistent Visions screening series, we present a selection of bold, funny, vulnerable, and aggressively personal films that break the fourth wall. Each is a one-sided conversation, manifesting cathartic release. From contemporary stream-of-consciousness musings in James N. Kienitz Wilkins’s This Action Lies and moving and radically honest works from Lori Felker and Joanna Raczynska, to ruminations on the cascading political and personal affects of the Canadian extraction industry in Thirza Cuthand's Extractions and Curt McDowell’s 1971 queer masterpiece Confessions, these films ruminate on what hasn’t or couldn’t be said in private, instead shared lovingly with humor and beauty in the safety of a movie theater.

Program (total run time is 75 mins):

This Action Lies. James N. Kienitz Wilkins. 2018, 32 mins. 16mm.

Extractions. Thirza Cuthand. 2019, 15 mins. Digital format.

Nonfunctional Seasonal Confessional. Joanna Raczynska. 2003, 3 mins. Digital format.

Spontaneous. Lori Felker. 2020, 14 mins. Digital format.

Confessions. Curt McDowell. 1971, 11 mins. 16mm.

I'm Too Sad To Tell You. Bas Jan Ader. 1971, 3.5 mins. Digital format.

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). Order online. Please pick up tickets at the Museum's admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. Review safety protocols before your visit.

Share
