SHIRLEY CLARKE
Aurora Picture Show celebrates the creative spirit of Shirley Clarke with a program of rarely seen short films and a conversation with Wendy Clarke!
SHIRLEY CLARKE: SHORT FILMS
Outdoor screenings Saturday, March 6, 2021 (7 & 9pm)
Aurora Picture Show courtyard - 2442 Bartlett Street
Free admission. Advance RSVP required. Masks and distancing are required.
Online streaming of this program has been made available for current Aurora members, Saturday-Tuesday, March 6-9. Members may request access.
CONVERSATION WITH WENDY CLARKE
Tuesday, March 9 (5:30pm CST)
Free, live converation with artist and daughter of Shirley Clarke, via Zoom.
Though she’s less celebrated than many of the important filmmakers she's influenced, Shirley Clarke was a key figure of experimental and independent cinema during the 1950s, ‘60s, and beyond. Clarke began as a dancer, studying under famed dancer/choreographer Martha Graham. As she began to make films, translating concepts of movement and rhythm to moving image, she studied under avant-garde filmmaker Hans Richter. Clarke became a driving force in the New American Cinema scene in New York, and a founding member of Jonas Mekas’ Film-Makers Cooperative. Alternating between genres and approaches, and continually experimenting, Clarke's body of work is beyond simple categorization. ''I'm revolting against the conventions of movies,” said Clarke in a 1962 interview. “Who says a film has to cost a million dollars and be safe and innocuous enough to satisfy every 12-year-old in America? We’re creating a movie equivalent of Off Broadway–fresh and experimental and personal.''
Aurora is proud to present SHIRLEY CLARKE: SHORT FILMS, a curated selection of Clarke’s rarely-seen short films made in the 1950s and 60s. Presented in two free screenings in Aurora's outdoor courtyard on Saturday, March 6 (7 & 9pm), this hour-long program features a range of short film experiments–including her earliest dance films (Dances in the Sun (1953), Moment in Love (1957)), her dynamic "city symphony" (Bridges-Go-Round (1958)), playful documentaries (In Paris Parks (1954), Skyscraper (1960)) and a both personal and political piece made in collaboration with her daughter (Butterfly (1967)). These screenings require advance rsvps, and masks and social distancing at the event.
In conjunction with this program, we’re excited to host an online CONVERSATION WITH WENDY CLARKE, the daughter of Shirley Clarke and an innovative video artist in her own right. This free, live talk will take place via Zoom on Tuesday, March 9 (5:30pm CST). Wendy, who can be seen in the program as a little girl in her mother's film In Paris Parks and as a young woman in their collaboration Butterfly, will discuss some of the films in the program and the personal and creative impact of her mother on her life and work. "She gave me the gift of gender confidence that she had to fight for. We had a very special relationship, one that not many artists that I know experienced." says Wendy Clarke. "She was completely supportive of my work and we had long conversations about the potential of the video, film, dance, and painting mediums.”
