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Jem Cohen’s newest film is a documentary-based, interdisciplinary hybrid built from footage he gathered in Nova Scotia over the past decade, coupled with live music and texts that range from folklore to mundane local newspaper fragments to poems by Elizabeth Bishop and Don Domanski. As an artist who has explored and deplored the disappearance of regional character brought on by corporate-driven homogeneity, the discovery of Cape Breton was a revelation for Jem, who describes it as a place as beautiful as any he has ever seen throughout his travels, but one that remains elusive and deeply “itself.”

This commissioned project, premiering here at EMPAC and featuring such stellar musicians as Guy Picciotto (Fugazi), T. Griffin, and Jim White (Dirty Three), will be a visual and sonic exploration that primarily exists as a visceral evocation of place, and for someone known primarily as an urban filmmaker, a rare foray into intensive engagement with the natural landscape.

Curator: Kathleen Forde

April 23 — Screening of Occupy Wall Street Documentary

Please join resident, Jem Cohen, for a screening and discussion about his recent documentary work around Occupy Wall Street @ 2pm in the Theater. FREE.

Bio:

Jem Cohen has made over 40 films including Chain, Benjamin Smoke, Empires of Tin, Lost Book Found, and Instrument. Some projects are personal/political city portraits made on travels around the globe. Others are portraits of friends, artists, and musicians. His works are in the collections of MoMA and the Whitney Museum of American Art and have been broadcast by PBS, Arte, and the Sundance Channel. He has received grants from several foundations, including Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Alpert, the NEA, and Creative Capital.