Film Subjects

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The Body Is…

Adventures in Assimilation
Richard Dean Moss
1992, 8 min., Color, US
In this engaging performance video, Moss experiments with his own choreography and dance, using movement within a fixed frame to express self-discovery and the aesthetics of identity....

Against the Grain
Seyi Adebanjo & Betty Yu
2011, 6 min., Color, US
To break the mold of past documentaries about gender transformation, AGAINST THE GRAIN goes beyond the usual gender binary and linear racial focus. This short documentary follows the story of OluSeyi,...

aletheia
Tran T. Kim-Trang
1992, 16 min., Color, US
An introduction to Kim-Trang's video series on metaphorical and physical blindness, ALETHEIA explores the interconnected issues of cosmetic surgical alteration of the eyelids, technology, language, ra...

alexia
Tran T. Kim-Trang
2002, 10 min., Color, US
Alexia is an experimental video about word blindness and metaphor. Word-blindness is a condition that usually afflicts people who have suffered a stroke, causing them to lose the visual recognition of...

Among Women
Renata Gangemi
1996, 32 min., Color, US
Using interviews and experimental techniques, AMONG WOMEN is a wide ranging exploration of the social perceptions of pregnancy, the medical professions approach towards it, and midwifery as a healthy ...

Asian Boys
Angel Velasco Shaw
1994, 19 min., Color, US
This documentary was produced in collaboration with performance artist Nicky Paraiso for his critically acclaimed multi-media performance at P.S. 122. Eleven different interviews with "Asian Boys" are...

Black Body
Thomas Allen Harris
1992, 7 min., Color, US
Thomas Allen Harris uses text, special effects, and a single bound male nude to emphasize the humanity underlying the multiple definitions of black identity and subjectivity. The audience may be asked...

Black Nations/Queer Nations?
Shari Frilot
Producer: Frilot and Black Nations/Queer Nations?
1995, 52 min., Color, US
This is an experimental documentary chronicling the March 1995 groundbreaking conference on lesbian and gay sexualities in the African diaspora. The conference brought together an array of dynamic sch...

Black Women, Sexual Politics and the Revolution
Black Planet Productions
Producer: Black Planet Productions
1992, 29 min., Color, US
Black women speak candidly on issues of sex, class and gender roles. The video examines how African American women deal with issues of poverty, abortion, battering and lack of health care, and address...

Bodily Functions
Jocelyn Taylor
1995, 14 min., Color
Exploring the notions of body image and sexual expression as they intersect with family and society, this short interweaves three narratives: first, a "naked fugitive on the loose" as she runs, walks ...

A Cosmic Demonstration of Sexuality
Shari Frilot
1992, 20 min., Color, US
A humorous comparison between female sexuality and cosmic structures, this video interviews five different women on topics such as menstruation, masturbation and ejaculation. The video proposes how se...

De*fat*ting
Michelle Lewis & Third World Newsreel Workshop
Producer: Third World Newsreel Workshop
2000, 13 min., Color, US
Today is the first day of the elusive diet for Lewis' main character. A funny and poignant meditation on American society's fascination with thinness, DE*FAT*TING explores food, addiction, obesity, an...

Demarcations
Kym Ragusa
Producer: Third World Newsreel Workshop
1992, 5 min., Color, US
DEMARCATIONS uses the female body as a landscape to explore memories of a rape. Ragusa focuses on ways in which identity and exoticism are played out on the level of the body....

Ent-homo-philia
Hima B.
2003, 10 min., Color, US
With traces of Kafka, this experimental short locates us in an altered state of reality as the set for an unsuspecting beetle's participation in her mate's metamorphosis. Influenced by Kafka's "The M...

Ex-voto
Tania Cypriano
1990, 7 min., Color
Both artistic production and spiritual offering, EX-VOTO was created by the artist as an expression of her gratitude for surviving near fatal burns in a fire when she was ten years old. Cypriano mixes...

Haircuts Hurt
Randy Redroad
1992, 10 min., Color, US
A Native American woman and her young son encounter everyday racism when they visit a local barbershop. The situation leads her to reflect on her own childhood and reconsider her son's first haircut. ...

Hair-tage
Shawn Batey
Producer: Third World Newsreel Workshop
1997, 10 min., Color, US
This short documentary examines the decisions involved in growing and wearing dreadlocks in African-American communities. Through interviews and playful camerawork, Batey explores the motivations and ...

Heaven, Earth and Hell
Thomas Allen Harris
1994, 26 min., Color, US
Reflecting on the "trickster" figure in African and Native American cultures, while recounting the story of his first love, this beautiful work incorporates the critical texts of Frantz Fanon, bell ho...

Human Touch: Pain and Power
Vejan Lee Smith
Producer: Third World Newsreel Workshop
1995, 30 min., Color, US
In a powerful and moving reclamation of the body and human touch, this video documents how survivors of sexual abuse reaffirm their sexuality and physical selves. Intercutting dance footage, interview...

The Kitchen Blues
Charlene Gilbert
1994, 14 min., BW, US
An intimate portrait of an everyday moment, focusing on a young girl getting her hair braided. It opens with a photograph of the filmmaker at age 5 and her voice describing her own childhood hair memo...

L’Esprit Prêt-à-Partager
Jamika Ajalon
2009, 28 min., Color, Germany/Senegal
Documents an art workshop held in Dakar, Senegal, in 2008, where artists from Africa and Europe explore issues surrounding fashion, sport and diasporic art and identities. The artists collaborate with...

Memory Tracks
Jamika Ajalon
1996, 12 min., UK
A woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown follows the afroed spirit of a revolutionary past through London's streets: Brixton and Portobello. I used the camera as the means for reflexive analysis of...

Out of La Negrura/Out of Blackness in the Bronx
Jane Gabriels
2018, 24 min., Color, US
Dance artists Sita Frederick, Ana "Rokafella" Garcia, and Marion Ramirez collaborate to create a performance work that explores Caribbean and Latina-American experiences through dance. OUT OF LA NE...

Respect is Due
Cyrille Phipps
Producer: Third World Newsreel Workshop
1992, 10 min., Color, US
In keeping with the doctrines of Wall Street and Madison Avenue, sex sells rap music. In this video, Black youth examine the ways women of African descent are frequently portrayed in rap lyrics and mu...

Samuel & Samantha On
Jorge Lozano & Samuel Lopez
1993, 23 min., Color, US
Samuel is a Salvadoran college student, political refugee, and Samantha a performance artist. Samuel/Samantha's experiences in Toronto show the complexities and difficulties faced by Latino gay men as...

A Shortness of Breath
Ann Kaneko
1993, 15 min., BW, US
Mixing documentary and narrative this film is a candid account of one woman's struggle with breast cancer and her own imminent death. Delving into various attitudes towards death and dying, the filmma...

This is My House
Charlene Gilbert
1995, 6 min., Color, US
This experimental short humorously and powerfully explores women's body imagery. A Black woman's body is defined and re-defined in her own voice, exploring the notions of beauty, power, gender, owners...

Toc Storee
Ming-Yuen S. Ma
1993, 21 min., Color, US
The first in a series by the artist addressing Asian/Pacific Islander Gay experiences, this multilevel narrative explores sexuality, identity, tradition and personal recollection through gay Asian sto...

Undertow
Me-K Ahn
1995, 18 min., BW, US
"undertow" is an experimental short film which explores how the loss of family and culture can affect one's body consciousness and sexuality. It juxtaposes one adopted woman's reconstructed search for...

Vintage: Families of Value
Thomas Allen Harris
1995, 72 min., Color, US
VINTAGE is an experimental documentary which looks at three African American families through the eyes of lesbian and gay siblings--including the filmmaker and his younger brother. Three groups of que...

Water Ritual #1: An Urban Rite of Purification
Barbara McCullough
1979, 4 min., BW, US
An original and visionary work, this cathartic film links the present with the ancestral past. A graceful young African American woman emerges from the ruins of a crumbling building. She disrobes, and...


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TWN acknowledges that in New York we are on the unceded territory of the Lenni Lenape, Canarsie, Shinecock, and Munsee peoples and challenges the harm that continues to be inflicted upon Indigenous and People of Color communities here and abroad, which is why we all need to be part of the struggle for rights, equality and justice.

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