Engram Sepals (Melodramas 1994-2000): A Film in Seven Parts by Lewis Klahr

Co-presented by PICA's TBA Festival

Sep. 19 - 4:00 pm

Artist-In-Attendance

Guide Theatre
829 SW Park Avenue

Work Stills:

About This Screening

"Well, the word 'melodrama' has rather lost its meaning nowadays: people tend to lose the 'melos' in it, the music."—Douglas Sirk (from Sirk on Sirk) Dubbed "the reigning proponent of cut and paste animation" by Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman, Lewis Klahr is often placed into the lineage of collage filmmakers such as Harry Smith, Larry Jordan, and Stan Vanderbeek. But Klahr's films are much more closely influenced by his affinity for classical Hollywood, specifically the melodramas of Douglas Sirk and Vincente Minnelli. For TBA. Klahr will present his feature length series Engram Sepals, which "traces a trajectory of American intoxication—both sexually and substance wise—from World War II into the 70s." Primarily composed of cutouts from old magazines and comics, his films occupy a flat space that is enlivened through Klahr's mysterious and seductive stories. With this extensive vocabulary of appropriated imagery and characters, Klahr's films lead the viewer through a rich and dense cloud of pop culture dreams.