Conveying with wit and inventiveness the personal implications of sociopolitical issues, the films of Yvonne Rainer (who will be present at both screenings) interweave narrative and non-narrative elements, blur the line between fact and fiction, deconstruct cinematic conventions, and expand upon the immediacy, corporeality, and emotional complexity of her dance and performance work. Journeys from Berlin/1971 (1980) is a groundbreaking exploration, both personal and political, of psychiatry, feminism, terrorism, and power. Privilege (1990) takes on the rarely explored subject of menopause and constructs a witty, complex critique of empowerment and class by delving into issues of age, sexuality, and race.

Distinguished Professor in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine, Yvonne Rainer began her career in the arts, in the 50s, as a dancer and choreographer. In the early 70s, after nearly twenty years working in modern dance, she turned her attentions to filmmaking. Over the subsequent twenty-five years, she made seven experimental feature films, including Lives of Performers (1972), Privilege (1990), and MURDER and murder (1996). Encouraged by a commission from the Baryshnikov Dance Foundation, she returned to choreography in 2000 for the White Oak Dance Project. Recent work includes choreography on AG Indexical, with a little help from H.M. (a revision of Balanchine’s Agon), on RoS Indexical (a revision of Nijinsky’s Rite of Spring), and on Spiraling Down (a meditation on soccer, aging, and war), as well as a video installation for a traveling solo exhibition comprising dance and texts that touch on art and politics in fin-de-siècle Vienna. Rainer published a memoir, Feelings Are Facts: A Life, in 2006.

Rainer will also deliver a Spheres of Interest: Experiments in Thinking & Action lecture entitled “One Day When I Was Growing Up in the 60s . . . ” on Friday, 20 November 2009 at 5:00pm in the Lecture Hall on SFAI’s 800 Chestnut Street campus. For more information on the lecture, please go to http://www.sfai.edu/rainer

For details about the screenings of Journeys from Berlin/1971 and Privilege, please go to http://www.sfai.edu/rainerfilms

Journeys from Berlin/1971 (1980)
Saturday, 21 November 2009 at 7:30pm Lecture Hall

Privilege (1990)
Sunday, 22 November 2009 at 7:30pm Lecture Hall

Yvonne Rainer will be present at both screenings.

Admission: General: $10; San Francisco Cinematheque members: $5.00; SFAI students, faculty, and staff with ID: free.

San Francisco Art Institute
Screening Room
800 Chestnut
San Francisco CA

Press release and image provided by SFAI.

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