PREMIERE
SCREENING!
Friday,
June 27, 2014, 8:00pm
Produced, Directed, Photographed and Edited by Manfred
Kirchheimer
Music by Charles Mingus
Ticket
Price: $25
651 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, NY
Summary:
STATIONS OF THE ELEVATED (1981) is a 45-minute
city symphony directed, produced and edited by Manfred Kirchheimer. Shot
on lush 16mm color reversal stock, the film weaves together vivid images of
graffiti-covered elevated subway trains crisscrossing the gritty urban
landscape of 1970s New York, to a commentary-free soundtrack that combines
ambient city noise with jazz and gospel by Charles Mingus and Aretha Franklin.
Gliding through the South Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan - making
a rural detour past a correctional facility upstate – Stations of the Elevated is an impressionistic portrait of
and tribute to a New York that has long since disappeared.
Stations captures the exuberant height of the 1970's
graffiti movement in New York, featuring the work of early legends including
Lee, Fabulous 5, Shadow, Daze, Kase, Butch, Blade, Slave, 12 T2B, Ree, and
Pusher. At a time when graffiti was largely dismissed as vandalism and a
symbol of urban decay, Kirchheimer explores it as a form of self-expression and
a reaction to New York's social and economic conditions, an artistic
counterpoint to the "legalized vandalism" dominating the city's
visual landscape in the form of corporate advertising. Juxtaposing the
colorful imagery of 'tagged' cars with shots of hand-painted billboards
depicting hamburgers and bikini-clad women, Stations
forces audiences to ask: "What is urban art, and what role does it play in
the daily life of a city?"
*This
event will feature live music by the Mingus Dynasty, the original ensemble
formed by Sue Mingus after Charles' death in 1979 to continue his legacy.
The Dynasty will perform a set of selections from the film score as a
prelude to the screening.
