Raw Stock: No Wave Films from Downtown NYC, 1976-1984

[size=30]Raw Stock: No Wave Films from Downtown NYC, 1976-1984[/size]
[size=15]Oct 1st, 7-11PM[/size]

Curated by: Vanessa Roworth, Sabine Rogers & Celine Danhier, director of the documentary “Blank City”

Selected screenings from New York’s own explosive yet fleeting era of filmmaking known as “No Wave” Cinema. Rising from the ashes of a bankrupt and destitute 1970’s Manhattan, and reacting to the modernist aesthetic of 1960’s avant-garde film, No Wave filmmakers threw out the rules and embraced their own brand of vanguard moviemaking. Inspired by the films of Warhol, Jack Smith, John Waters and The French New Wave many of the films combined elements of documentary and loose narrative structure with stark, at times confrontational imagery. Much like the No Wave music of the period from which the movement garnered its label, these filmmakers freed themselves of the constraints of formal training and pillaged the nascent East Village arts scene for co-conspirators in the likes of Lydia Lunch, James Chance, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Debbie Harry, Richard Hell, Vincent Gallo, Steve Buscemi, Nan Goldin, Cookie Mueller and many others. With wildly varying styles, they shared the common mindset of fast and cheap, and catalyzed by collaboration. Equipment could be begged, borrowed or stolen, your friends could be your actors and the city, abandoned and free to roam, could be your set.

OCT 1st

Minus Zero (1979)
Directed by Michael Oblowitz, 45 mins
[img]http://www.louisvesp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/minus-zero-l1.png[/img]
A psycho noir shot in high contrast black & white where stalkers, terrorists and government agents collide. “It promised pleasure and delivered death… nothing ever happened to her class… there was no reason to feel nervous even in the heart of New York… you push the fourth button and arrive at the fourth floor… she was one more person in personville was one more person too many…” Starring Rosemary Hochschild, Ron Vawter, Will Patton & Eric Mitchell.

Barbie (1977)
Directed by Tina L’Hotsky, 10 mins
[img]http://www.louisvesp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/barbie1.png[/img]
Witty commentary on female objectification. It’s a doll eat doll world.

Plus more selected shorts, and Celine Danhier DJing New York Punk and No Wave…

OCT 8th Program Coming Soon…

Please visit www.louisvesp.com for more info on this and other exhibitions.

LOUIS V E.S.P.
140 Jackson St. #4D
Brooklyn NY 11211