Significant Others Screening & Panel Discussion

Esther Kaplan, Cynthia Carr, Rayya Elias, Jack Waters

Thursday 20 June, 2013
7pm, $0

Participant Inc
253 East Houston Street

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  • David Wojnarowicz,  Beautiful People,  Super 8 on digital video,  34 min,  1988,
  • Carl George,  6 Feet,  Dancers That I Know and Love,  16mm,  23 min,  1991, Beautiful people,  artists known and loved.

PANEL discussion,  moderated by Esther Kaplan,  editor of the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute,  and featuring panelists Cynthia Carr,  author of the recent critically acclaimed biography Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz,  winner of the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for biography,  Rayya Elias,  whose just-released memoir,  Harley Loco,  recounts her time making music,  battling addiction,  and living in Tent City in the East Village,  and Jack Waters,  featured performer in 6 Feet,  founding member of POOL,  former co-director of ABC No Rio,  and co-founder of Le Petit Versailles. 

The story of the downtown scene of 80s and early 90s New York is about more than a few select artists. It is the story of another city—fighting with grit gentrification and a heightening AIDS crisis—the story of a whole generation of friends,  lovers,  and collaborators,  connecting and making art together at now legendary sites, from ABC No Rio to Danceteria,  8BC,  or the Pyramid Club. 

The story of the downtown scene of 80s and early 90s New York is about more than a few select artists. It is the story of another city—fighting with grit gentrification and a heightening AIDS crisis—the story of a whole generation of friends,  lovers,  and collaborators,  connecting and making art together at now legendary sites, from ABC No Rio to Danceteria,  8BC,  or the Pyramid Club. 

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Visual AIDS and in conjunction with the Gordon Kurtti Project,  a retrospective exhibition of work by 80s East Village artist Gordon Stokes Kurtti,  Dirty Looks presents a screening and panel discussion,  remembering and celebrating this scene and featuring rarely seen films by Carl George and David Wojnarowicz. 

Beautiful People is one of the last films David Wojnarowicz made,  like his controversial film,  Fire in My Belly,  left uncompleted at his death. Nevertheless,  the film,  unusual among his work for its clear narrative,  stands as one of his best films. Filming his 3 Teens Kill 4 bandmate,  Jesse Hultberg,  as he gets up in drag in his small East Village apartment before heading through the city and out into the wider world,  in Beautiful People Wojnarowicz sees “drag queens as true revolutionaries who fuck with visual codes of gender, ” bringing the queer,  East Village revolution to the streets of the city and beyond. This screening features the rarely shown,  full version of Beautiful People.

In 6 Feet: Dancers That I Know and Love,  Carl George pays tribute to three friends and collaborators,  who made up the collective POOL,  the resident dance company of the legendary Pyramid Club in the 1980s—Brian Taylor,  Jack Waters,  and Peter Cramer—each given his own vignette to showcase his dance. Cramer,  Waters,  and Taylor,  along with brother Brad Taylor,  as well as Carl George,  Kembra Pfahler,  Tabboo!,  Samoa,  Gordon Kurtti,  and many others,  together formed a community of artists at ABC No Rio and in the East Village. Shot on location on the streets of the city,  6 Feet moves from its opening scenes in the East Village these artists called home,  eventually bringing its queer,  DIY sensibility to the rest of the city,  culminating in a showstopping romp in Central Park.

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