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Doors 7pm / Show 7:30pm
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presented by San Francisco Cinematheque
Microscope Gallery Curators Elle Burchill & Andrea Monti In Person
Microscope is a Manhattan-based art gallery founded in 2010 specializing in the works of risk-taking artists, emerging to established, whose practice includes moving image, sound, performance, photography and digital art. Microscope’s programming includes an ongoing series of weekly screenings, sound/music/performance events, readings and lectures as complement to its exhibitions, with the intention of bridging the gap between white cube exhibitions and the black box of the screening/performance space.
For tonight’s screening, Cinematheque and the Lab are thrilled to welcome Microscope’s founders Elle Burchill and Andrea Monti to present Avant-barb(ie). Curated in response to and dialog with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (2023), Avant-Barb(ie) features 14 film/video works—spanning nearly 60 years—which address the perpetually renewing cultural impact of the iconic doll, works which interrogate, subvert and/or dismantle associated cultural stereotypes while presenting discourse on sexuality, gender and American culture at large, even while considering the act of playing with dolls as an enjoyable, social or empathic tool. Avant-Barb(ie) also asks: “Will Gerwig’s movie spur further Barbie-related investigations, or will it be more of a deterrent, for film and video art of the future?”
Complete program information, film notes and artist bios here.
FILMS TO SCREEN:
Shut Up Barbie (1974) by Vincent Grenier; 16mm, color, silent, 13 minutes
Barbie Dream House (2018) by Susan Kouguell; digital video, color, sound, 5 minutes
I’ve Never Had an Asian Barbie (2020) by Jessy Jiao; digital video, 2 minutes
Meryl Fuckin Streep (2017) by Ava Bogle; digital video, color, sound, 5 minutes
Barbiemageddon (2023) by Penumbra Carter; digital video, color, sound, 55 seconds
Invasion (2021) by Penumbra Carter; digital video, color, sound, 35 seconds
Out and about with Barbie (2021) by Penumbra Carter; digital video, color, sound, 48 seconds
Big Gurl (2006) by Lauren Kelley; digital video, color, sound, 7 minutes
Barbie’s Audition (1995) by Joe Gibbons; pixelvision video screened as digital video, b&w, sound, 9 minutes
Erotica (1989) by Lucretia Knapp; VHS screened as digital video, color, sound, 3 minutes
Sally Cheesey Raffelyell (1992) by Lucretia Knapp; Hi-8 video screened as digital video, color, sound, 5 minutes
PRISM Break Barbie (2013) by Addie Wagenknecht; digital video, color, sound, 1 minute
Hello Barbie: The First Dispatch (2020) by Faith Holland; digital video, color, sound, 8 minutes
Black Moses Barbie (Harriet Tubman Commercial) (2011) by Pierre Bennu; digital video, color, sound, 1 minute
Burka Barbie (2014) by Narcissister; digital video, color sound, 5 minutes
23 Barbiepuppen kippen um (23 Barbie Dolls Tip Over) (1988) by Dagie Brundert & Gesine Jochems, Super-8mm screened as digital video, color, sound, 3 minutes