“Memories of Underdevelopment” with James Kienitz Wilkins at Temporary Agency

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Featured works:

getting in (Shelly Silver, 1989, 3:00 min) starts with the deceptively soothing pastel hues of a sunny afternoon in San Francisco, and goes on to stage a collision between the institutions of heterosexuality and real estate.

1 (Shelly Silver, 2001, 3:12 min) is a short tape about longing, threat, power and seduction, with the camera functioning in turn, as aggressor, mediator and confessor. A group of cops laugh and talk, while scanning the street for suspicious activity. An extreme close-up of a sensuously exposed neck; a soft pink fleshy ear turns to reveal an inquisitive hostile eye…

Untitled (James Wilkin, 2014, 12 min) is an apparent interview with three highlights. Presented as a lo-fi fragment from a forgotten video production, an interviewee interacts with an interviewer, recounting a special experience at once unique and shared.

Neither Forever, Nor Instant (Parallel Lines in collaboration with FIERCE, 2010, 14:19 min) is a collaborative project of Parallel Lines (Mike Cataldi, David Kelley, Hans Kuzmich, Jens Maier-Rothe and Jeannine Tang), a group of artists and historians, and FIERCE (Fabulous Independent Educated Radicals for Community Empowerment), an organization led by queer youth of color, whose activism in the West Village and the piers have engaged the queer histories of these neighborhoods, and redirected their urban development. The video draws its content from FIERCE’s West Village Walking Tour, where members, allies and donors are introduced to sites with historical and political significance for FIERCE’s campaigns and community organizing. These include Stonewall Inn, Lucille Lortel Theatre, Northern Dispensary, and future sites of action such as Pier 40, a possible location for FIERCE’s queer youth center. In 2010, Parallel Lines built a studio in Queers for Economic Justice’s offices (a FIERCE-allied organization), to stage and shoot FIERCE’s tour preparation; following which each tour venue was filmed, and actions conducted along the stairwells and empty lobby of Manhattan’s Pier 40– bracketing the material and geographical possibilities of political action, with spaces of rehearsal, transition and projection.

Tender Comrades (Sunita Prasad, 2013, 23 min) plays on the conventions of documentary filmmaking to tell a fictional story of a radical intellectual celebrity named Sophie Vix Maurer and her biggest fan: a fictionalized version of the artist herself. Shot partially at Occupy Wall Street, the film uses real-life events, fake interviews, and lo-fi re-enactments to illuminate a seldom examined history of anarchism and subversive movements. The stories Sophie re-tells are drawn from the memoirs of 20th century anarchists Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, the legendary shooting of their contemporary, Voltairine de Cleyre, and a heart-wrenching anecdote about two women imprisoned during the Dirty War in Argentina. The film is foremost about the relationship between writers and their readers, particularly women writers and readers, and posits this bond as a romance kindled with well-chosen words and a shared history of exuberant resistance.

Yeoungdeungpo Sisters (Caroline Key, work in progress, 60:56 min) South Korea’s brothels are disappearing. The nation’s “Special” Anti-Sex Trade Law is steadily “cleaning up the city” by driving prostitution underground and pushing already vulnerable groups of women further into risk. Yeoungdeungpo Sisters documents Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo red-light district on the verge of permanent closure. Faced with constant police crackdowns following the opening of the Times Square shopping mall next door, the sex workers have banded together in protest. They demand the rights of work. They demand the right to stay.