For the Season 9 finale, we are excited to welcome Jennifer Reeves at Rubicon. Reeves is an internationally acclaimed filmmaker and visual artist whose work has been featured in major film festivals and art museums. Her film projects focus on the themes ranging from feminism to natural world to the abstract beauty of hand-altered film. Come to Rubicon, enjoy the show, and chat with the visiting filmmaker on May 9!
Program:
- Fear of Blushing, 2001, 16mm, color, sound, 6 min
Fear of Blushing bursts forth with irrepressible hand-painted color, corroded emulsion and a menacing soundscape of looped voices, distorted instrumentals, samples & rhythm. Fleeting visions and voices erupt out of the ominous abstraction in unusual juxtapositions, suggesting a cinematic free-association marked by anxiety, pleasure and shame. Best appreciated in the immediate; the 7200 painted frames fly by at an average of 12 per second.
- Color Neutral, 2014, 16mm, color, sound, 3 min
Anything but gray, a color expression sparkles, bubbles, and fractures in this hand-crafted 16mm film. Reeves utilized an array of mediums and direct-on-film techniques to create this exuberant, psychedelic morsel of cinema as material. But it speaks to the end of one era or another, a time for letting go and celebration. Control triumphs over disorder. Reeves mixed samples from rusty, dusty old machines, records, and electric waves to create an aural passage through technological processes.
- The Gloria of Your Imagination, 2024, live dual-projection version (16mm silent plus digital projection), color, sound, 98 min
In 1964, 30-year-old waitress and single mother named Gloria, was persuaded to engage in psychotherapy sessions on film, with three of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century. Reeves newest dual-projection film breaks down and expands the 1965 educational film series “Three Approaches to Psychotherapy” with an intricate superimposed montage of scenes from Gloria’s unguarded sessions, with numerous film artifacts of her lifetime: newsreels, home movies, commercials, cold war propaganda, and educational films from the 1930s-1970s. The compelling layered montage brings out the absurdity, anger, and profound revelations that arise from baring one’s secrets to the experts. Daughter of Polish immigrants, Gloria embarks on a spiritual journey that is both inspiring and heartrending. From Catholic school girl to teenage bride and psychotherapy patient, Gloria forges her own honest and principled self as a remarkably independent thinker and generous soul, whose life
was cut terribly short.
Admission: Free (suggested $10 donation)
BYO beverages and snacks
