Celebrating the publication of Laura Paul's Film Elegy, a poetic reflection on celluloid and the author's relationship with the late Amy Halpern. This event will feature a book signing by Paul, followed by a screening of Halpern's Falling Lessons (1992) on 16mm and the 2K restoration of Nina Menkes' The Great Sadness of Zohara (1983), as well as a Q&A with Paul and Menkes.
About the book:
Laura Paul's Film Elegy is a document of personal loss and the decline of celluloid. Modified from 16mm and formatted to fit the page, Paul’s book asks to be viewed as much as read. Punctuation evokes flickering light, sprocket holes, and cutaway shots, layering photochemical processes as rhapsodic undertones.
Framed by Paul’s friendship and apprenticeship with the late filmmaker Amy Halpern (1953–2022), the book speaks to the communities and legacies of screen culture. It honors the encounters between spectators and films as well as the attachments formed between them—what Godard calls “the relation with me looking at it dreaming up a relation.” As our dreams of the screen flicker, Film Elegy projects words in silver gelatin.
About the films:
Falling Lessons (Dir. Amy Halpern, 1992, 16mm, 64 min)
Amy Halpern's Falling Lessons is a stunningly sensual, life-affirming experience from a major experimental film artist that is open to myriad meanings. The film is a rhythmic montage of almost 200 faces, human and animals, that Halpern pans vertically, creating a cascade of visages suggesting that while individuals express a range of emotions they remain ultimately enigmas. The glimpses of life going on around all these faces have an unsettling, even apocalyptic quality, and the film forces you to consider living beings and their value collectively rather than selectively. Halpern's rich, inspired mix of sounds, words and music complements her images perfectly.
The Great Sadness of Zohara (Dir. Nina Menkes, 1983, 2K restoration, 38 min)
The Great Sadness of Zohara was shot on location in Israel and North Africa. The film traces the solitary, mystical journey of a Jewish girl (Tinka Menkes), who leaves Jerusalem for Arab lands. The film was created entirely by the two sisters, who traveled alone, stayed in cheap hotels and used public transportation, completing the entire work for under $7,000. Zohara won awards at the San Francisco and Houston International Film Festivals and was named one of the decade’s best films by director Allison Anders.
TRT: 102 min
In person: Laura Paul and Nina Menkes
On Falling Lessons:
"The strangest film I've ever seen." — Chick Strand
"A healing film... All the people in it seem naked." —Ornette Coleman
"Functions on one level as a group portrait of a social scene, not unlike Warhol’s Screen Tests. But it’s also both a formalist study of eye contact and an indictment of police violence against the Black community in LA." —Sophia Satchell Baeza, Sight and Sound
On The Great Sadness of Zohara:
"A gloriously moody film... Some of cinema’s most insanely beautiful landscapes." —Allison Anders
"This highly sensual, richly textured film of striking images creates a powerful sense of timelessness." —Kevin Thomas, The Los Angeles Times
(Available to download after screening date)