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    Henry Art Gallery
    Wednesday, May 06, 2020, 7:30 PM — 9:00 PM

    SCREENING ONLINE - In Plain Sight Film Series: Community Action Center

    ** This film features explicit sexual content and is intended for audiences 18+. **

    Community Action Center is a 69-minute sociosexual video by A.K. Burns and A.L. Steiner which incorporates the erotics of a community where the personal is not only political, but sexual. This project was heavily inspired by porn-romance-liberation films, such as works by Fred Halsted, Jack Smith, James Bidgood, Joe Gage and Wakefield Poole, which served as distinct portraits of the urban inhabitants, landscapes and the body politic of a particular time and place. Community Action Center is a unique contemporary womyn-centric composition that serves as both an ode and a hole-filler.
    Because the video contains sexually explicit content, the term ‘porn’ is relevant and the artists have an interest in exploring the trappings of the term itself. Sex, sexuality and the complexities of gendered bodies are inherently political. Queer sex and feminist agency is a shared acknowledgment of reciprocal penetration. This project is a small archive of an intergenerational community built on collaboration, friendship, sex and art. The work attempts to explore a consideration of feminist fashion, sexual aesthetics and an expansive view of what is defined as ‘sex’. Burns and Steiner worked with artists and performers who created infinitely complex gender and performance roles that are both real and fantastical, set to a soundtrack of music and original compositions by artists culled from the worldwide sisterhood. The video seeks to expose and reformulate paradigms that are typical of porn typologies, intentionally exploiting tropes for their comical value, critical consideration and historical homage. Using the gallery to exer/exorcise the mystical and discreet lost spaces of homosocial configuration, the artists have created a reason and a space to reflect on the cultural realness of homo-grown lesbian sexuality. The work aims to be a hedonistic and distinctly political adventure.

    Trailer for Community Action Center (NSFW/18+)

    Presented in partnership with ByDesign Festival, Cadence: Video Poetry Festival, and the UW Bothell Black Cinema Collective, the Henry Art Gallery and Northwest Film Forum co-present the In Plain Sight Film Series [Online] on the occasion of the Henry's exhibition, In Plain Sight.
    This series invites engagement with hidden histories and contexts unearthed with the aid of moving image media. Programs explore the myriad shades of nuance in disciplinary synthesis and delight in the discovery of new relationships between poetry, artifactology, and cinema.
    ADMISSION

    Sliding scale admission: $5–25

    Proceeds support Northwest Film Forum's move to a virtual platform!

    Showtime listed is Pacific Daylight Time.

    Learn more about Henry membership and NWFF membership!

    tickets

    Northwest Film Forum is SCREENING ONLINE! NWFF and Henry Art Gallery’s physical spaces are temporarily closed in light of public health concerns around COVID-19, but community, dialogue, and education through media arts WILL persist.

    • HOW TO WATCH • •

    • Purchase a ticket through Brown Paper Tickets in advance of the listed showtime (PDT). Registration ends 1 hour before the start time.
    • 30 minutes before each screening, NWFF will send a link and password to your registered e-mail address! (Don’t see it? Check your spam filter.) The password will expire at the end of the screening. No late seating!
    • If by showtime you do not receive an e-mail with details, please contact louie@nwfilmforum.org for a quick follow-up. (But please, check your spam!)
    PROGRAM PARTNERS

    The Northwest Film Forum

    ACCESS
    This event is public.
    ACCESSIBILITY
    Accessible from wherever you might find internet access!