Jo Andres – In Remembrance
Tuesday, April 9, 7:00 PM
Jo Andres (1954 – 2019) worked as a filmmaker, choreographer, dancer and artist.
She first became known on the kinetic downtown New York performance scene of the 1980s for her film/dance/light performances, shown at the reigning venues of the era, among them The Performing Garage, La Mama E.T.C., P.S. 122, St. Marks Danspace, and the Collective for Living Cinema.
Black Kites, Andres’ 1996 award-winning film, aired on PBS, RAI Italian TV and screened in Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, London and Human Rights Watch Film Festivals. Andres directed music and art videos, as well as her own film performance works. She served as Executive Producer for Bonnie Hawthorne’s recent documentary Dreaming of a Vetter World about an organic farming family.
Andres was a dance consultant to the acclaimed Wooster Group. She has been an artist in residence at leading universities, museums and art colonies, including Yaddo and The Rockefeller Study Center in Bellagio, Italy. She earned her Masters of Fine Arts in Film from Ohio University in 1984.
Black Kites
Director: Jo Andres, 1996, USA, 26 min.
Based on 1992 journals of Bosnian visual artist Alma Hajric who was forced into a basement shelter to survive the siege of Sarajevo, Black Kites skillfully merges the reality-based content of her journal with interpretive visual material to reveal the simple, sometimes beautiful, yet brutal truth of her existence. Non-linear, dreamlike and spectral, Black Kites is a testament to artistry, imagination and the resiliency of the human psyche. Features performances by Mimi Goese, Lillian Kiesler, and Lucian and Steve Buscemi. Mira Furlan, a prominent actress from the former Yugoslavia serves as narrator.
Liquid Tara
Director: Jo Andres, 2011, USA, 9 min.
Liquid Tara is a meditation on many faces of The Divine Feminine. Ethereal & earthy, Liquid Tara undulates in watery images of Icons and Symbols of The Divine Feminine, dissolving one to the other. Destruction by fire; resurrection to light: ever-changing cycles. Featuring IONE.
When the Curtain Comes Down
Director: Jo Andres, 2012, USA, 5 min.
“It was the night before Halloween and the lights dimmed at the Royal Albert Hall. Images of embers and apparitions, fit for the occasion, flickered on a giant screen behind the stage as the music began to play. Suddenly, the actor Steve Buscemi makes his entrance on celluloid, delivering a newly recorded rendition of the recitation from When The Curtain Comes Down, in the guise of a 1920s barker and song and dance man.” – from Diana Krall’s Glad Rag Doll tour.
Lillian Kiesler: On the Head of a Pin
Director: Jo Andres, 2000, USA, 20 min.
A video love note to Lillian Kiesler.
Lillian tells her stories of Hans Hoffman, Frederick Kiesler, the New York City art scene of the 1940’s and 50’s, and her longtime relationship with visual artist Maryette Charleton.