The Cinematheque

Presented by The Cinematheque, the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, and Griffin Art Projects

The Cinematheque joins with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and Griffin Art Projects in presenting ​“The Rage to Live: Queer Film Legacies and the Work of David Wojnarowicz and Marlon Riggs,” a film and lecture series organized in conjunction with two current art exhibitions. 

The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery exhibition David Wojnarowicz: Photography & Film 1978–1992 is the first to concentrate solely on the artist’s photographic and filmic work, and presents over 100 photographs, test prints, silkscreens, 16mm and Super 8 films, and collaborative videos. Wojnarowicz (1954–1992) came into prominence in the New York art world of the 1980s, actively embracing all media and forging an expansive range of work both fiercely political and highly personal. He had already gained national repute by the time he was diagnosed with HIV in 1988. His body of work was as conceptually rigorous as it was stylistically diverse, resolutely and fervently political at a time when the AIDS epidemic was cutting down a generation of artists due in large part to government inaction. 

The Griffin Art Projects exhibition The Sodomite Invasion: Experimentation, Politics and Sexuality in the work of Jimmy DeSana and Marlon T. Riggs is a double solo show pairing the work of two American artists: the fine art photographer Jimmy DeSana (1949–1990), a radical spirit and highly influential voice in the field of photography based in NYC, and the experimental filmmaker and documentarist Marlon Riggs (1957–1994), a vocal activist in the fight against HIV/AIDS, whose filmic work primarily explores race relations and sexuality. Both died of AIDS-related illness. Riggs’s oeuvre screens as part of the film program at The Cinematheque. 

“The Rage to Live: Queer Film Legacies and the Work of David Wojnarowicz and Marlon Riggs” is dedicated to the context of AIDS and activism and the enduring legacy of this historically and culturally important moment in art and film. 

Events

• January 31, 2020 6:30
• The Rage to Live: Opening Keynote

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• February 1, 2020 1:00
• The Rage to Live: Panel

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• February 1, 2020 7:00
• The Rage to Live Keynote: Robert Reid-Pharr

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• February 2, 2020 6:00
• The Rage to Live: Closing Night Reception

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• February 2, 2020 1:00
• The Rage to Live Keynote: Adrian Stimson

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