Where is She Now?

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Co-Star Filmmakers/Curators:

Some Kind of Loving

Astria Suparak, curator
March 25, 2014

How did you find out about Joanie 4 Jackie and how old were you at the time?
From one of Miranda July’s performances, either at the Los Angeles Riot Grrrl Convention in 1995 (I was 17 and part of that RG chapter) or in 1997 at Dumba in Brooklyn.

What interested you about the project?
Joanie 4 Jackie created a network that could be both wide-reaching and intimate for a demographic often ignored: females interested in making and seeing movies outside of mainstream conventions. The open call nature leveled the playing field and the chainletter format added an element of unpredictability for both participants and viewers. There wasn’t anything like it at the time.

At the time you participated in Joanie 4 Jackie did you consider yourself a filmmaker? What was your relationship to making movies?
I was a college student and considered myself an artist who dabbled in filmmaking, and I ran a weekly screening series of independent and experimental media at Pratt Institute. Much of my programming supported artists who were young, female, queer, of color, and/or emerging. I set up two events with Miranda July and Big Miss Moviola in New York, in November 1998 and March 2000.

Do you have any specific anecdotes or memories associated with the project?
I finished working on the Some Kind of Loving tape and poster a few weeks after graduating from college, working on borrowed computers in short-term sublets. Looking back on that time, I really appreciate how Miranda trusted and encouraged me to curate the tape as I wished. The video duplication company stopped production on the tape when they realized it contained sexual imagery, and Miranda just switched companies rather than asking me or the artists to make changes or compromise our visions. It wasn’t even a question for her – she simply found another option to make it happen and moved quickly.

Miranda asked for photos of myself and the artists, to use in the poster and on the J4J website. I’d never done a photoshoot before. My friend Nell and I bought disposable cameras from a pharmacy and snuck into the natural history museum in Albany, NY. We were kicked out after being caught climbing around the dioramas, but not before Nell took the photo with the taxidermied wildcats behind me, which appears on the tape’s poster insert.

What did you think/feel about the Joanie 4 Jackie at the time? And now, in retrospect?
It was a really unique way to build a community. I love the intention and what came out of it. Many people involved with J4J have continued to work in film, art, and advocacy for the rights of women and the LGBTQ community. I’m so glad that more people will be able to access Joanie 4 Jackie through these archives.

I briefly travelled with curated film programs before Miranda’s and my J4J / Some Kind of Loving tour together in 2000. And afterwards, I toured frequently for several years, helping to distribute and promote works not widely available and to strengthen an international community of microcinemas and alternative art spaces. This was all before YouTube, Vimeo, and fast internet – when access to these voices and visions was dependent upon someone physically bringing the work to different cities, sometimes with a suitcase full of film reels and video tapes.

If you attended a screening, can you tell us where and when it was and anything else you remember about it?
The first J4J screening I went to was at Dumba in Brooklyn (1997), and the movie made on the spot by attendees was such an unexpected way to incorporate the audience into what they were seeing on the screen, to turn passive watchers into active makers, and a great way to build excitement throughout the evening. The prompt was something like, “Nobody knows that I can…”, and anyone could privately videotape themselves responding to it in a separate space from the screening room.

In 2000 Miranda and I toured the West Coast with selections from the Some Kind of Loving Co-Star Tape and her performance in progress, The Swan Tool. It was the first time I had toured with other people and my first time visiting many of those places. I remember having stage fright when I got on stage and saw hundreds of people looking back at me, waiting for me to speak, at the grand, balconied Capitol Theater in Olympia.

What institutions, groups, people, publications and movements were inspiring you at the time of your participation in J4J?
Performance-based video art, avant-garde cinema, Fluxus, Conceptual Art, Riot Grrrl, Queercore, Andrea Grover and Aurora Picture Show, Ed Halter and the New York Underground Film Festival, Scott Miller Berry and Dumba, M.M. Serra and the Film-makers’ Cooperative, Robert Beck Memorial Cinema, Ocularis, Anthology Film Archives, all the filmmakers in the Some Kind of Loving tape, artists like Valie Export, Adrian Piper, Mike Kelley, Kirsten Stoltmann, Julie Murray, Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Takahiko Iimura and Sadie Benning, and friends Koen Holtkamp, Nell Brady and Jennifer Sullivan.

What do you do now – professionally and otherwise? Are you still involved in filmmaking?
I’ve curated for art spaces and festivals, producing exhibitions, projects, events, and publications. I’m now working as an artist and independent curator. It’s not dissimilar to what I was doing with the screening series in college and with Some Kind of Loving – expanding notions of art and culture, exploring ideas, supporting artists and politics I feel passionate about, showcasing unique and underrepresented perspectives, and bringing different groups of people together.

Anything you would like to see on the J4J site?
Looks like you already have everything on the site. Maybe a list of past screenings, and a list of filmmakers?

Jane Gang, Fine Lines
February 25, 2016

How did you find out about Joanie 4 Jackie and how old were you at the time?
Astria Suparak, the curator, asked me. She had seen Fine Lines and some of my other S8 films. I had brought back the concept of running a low budget, short film nite for the local’s entertainment on the L.E.S. in 1996. I started the Pink Pony Film Nites out of the Pink Pony Café next door to Max Fish on Ludlow St, NYC. It was a scene that had blossomed back in London in the mid 90s with film nites around town above pubs, in old funeral homes etc. I moved back to NYC in 1996, my contemporaries were of the E.Village 80s scene: Artists, musicians and original Grafitti kats like Futura and Sharp. I worked in the Café and began the monthly movie nite. First honoring some friends, the original filmmakers from the Cinema of Transgression: Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Beth B, Nick Zedd and of course, Richard Kern among others. It was a great time in the history of the cutting edge creativity of Downtown New York back in the 90s and noughties. Astria at the time was a student at Pratt and an active participant in the booming Low-budget movie scene that my Pink Pony Film Nites had resuscitated. There was of course Anthology film Achives, the film Coop and Millennium film workshop along with a few movie projections in clubs. As video had arrived and made filmmaking easier, cheaper and way more accessible to many more people, the momentum of individual storytelling through low-budget film and video was affordable, vibrant and kicking off. As in London, within a year other venues downtown and in Brooklyn had their own movie nites, and the scene caught the attention of The New York Times etc. It was at the beginning of the time of the rise of the International Film Festival circuit.

What interested you about the project?
Astria was way more of an academic than myself, with all the language and knowledge of the contemporary arts. She was also completely passionate, open-minded, driven and devoted to carry individual, erratic artistic subversive visions into the lives of students, educational institutions and the wider public. She was back then a rare, evolved Being mingling in the mess that is the cauldron of cutting-edge talent in progress. As a curator and Co-Star she had the Package in mind. Some Kind of Loving is a spillage of silver mercury balls on a tabletop: Whole and fragile, difficult to contain. Astria and Miranda have managed to do just that. I loved the idea too, the whole of the Joanie4Jackie & Miss Moviola projects.

At the time you participated in Joanie 4 Jackie did you consider yourself a filmmaker? What was your relationship to making movies?
I made my first S8 ‘Every Master Taught a Different Way’ while at The Slade School of Art, 1981. I was at Art School when tutors would say ‘stick to one medium’ And this old and stuffy School frowned upon a (Female?) painter who went off and submerged herself in every aspect of movie making: Writing, directing, editing, drawn animation sections, prop & costume making, acting along with my friends, finding the right music scores and musicians etc It was a tepid tale of Harlequin, 25 minutes long and I completely misjudged how to communicate the storyline. It was great fun to make and took a long time and went down like a lead balloon. In 1989 I started writing for short S8 films again and by 2001 I had completed 8 with one half finished. ‘Every Master…’ got cut up and became the visuals for Inside Out 1992. (An experimental, narrative, specifically about insanity: The mental madness.). Film making for me has always been about engaging with fellow creative folk who bring their own element to the finished product. It’s my foray into 3D after painting. I don’t make sculpture I make movies.

Do you have any specific anecdotes or memories associated with your movie?
Fine Lines became my most popular S8 film on the international short film and video-poem circuit, 1998 –2001. I wrote most of it on a train from London to Amsterdam, I had set off the go see a Vermeer exhibition (the type of life-style I’m still aiming for) I realized I was in fact writing two separate stories, the other became ‘Inside Out’. I’d been shooting film for another film at the time and one or two Kodak reels came back from the lab completely black. So I scratched it as the visual for Fine Lines. This was my fastest and easiest film I’ve made. I feel a little embarrassed or ashamed that its about child abuse and there’s one line that still jars off-key to me, other than that I get a huge kick out of writing and film making. And I am proud of my work. I won’t let any of it out the door unless its shoes are polished.

What did you think/feel about the Joanie 4 Jackie at the time? And now, in retrospect?
We were all so busy with our own projects and there’s always so much more to do. I really appreciated back then as I do now anyone taking the time to include my work in their project, carrying it forth into a dialogue within the context of the wider world. Sadly I never got as involved as I would’ve liked along the way but I am truly grateful to all the work and effort that Astria and Miranda (and whoever else was and is involved) have put into this project. I love being honored alongside these strong fellow filmmakers. Never one to like the label ‘Feminist’ or ‘Woman Filmmaker’ etc it is a sad fact that we are marginalized (It only took me 54 years to face that one!) So for all the ladies who recognized that and paved the way before me, I thank you!

If you attended a screening, can you tell us where and when it was and anything else you remember about it?
I am yet to attend a screening.(Yes, I did write that in the hope I will one day) I always felt a tinge of green when Astria would send me press from the tour. I LOVE going on tour! I’m sure it was a lot of fun.

What institutions, groups, people, publications and movements were inspiring you at the time of your participation in J4J?
I think I wrote about some inspirations above: The downtown NYC vibe was an overflow of creativity. I was still in touch with the Underground Film movement in London, The Exploding Cinema and Omsk etc and I invited the London Underground to The Big Pond Film Fest a three-day event at the Pink Pony. I was very involved in the short film and Underground film scene up till 2003. I curated quite a few film shows for the New York Underground Film Festival, The NY Lesbian & Gay film Festival, I did the opening film program for Sensation exhibition (YBAs at The Brooklyn Museum), The Toronto Short Film Festive, I was on The Mix Festival committee, I won the Kodak Award for ‘Down The Tube’ in 1998, a couple of other awards from Austin Texas and I also curated 2 film shows for The Yale Center for British Art, the first as part of Patrick Caulfield exhibition 1999 and in 2000 a 4 leg extravaganza: The Parson’s Nose, consisting of British short film, music (Jim Thirwell & Gensis P.Orridge) Performance (which I wrote & directed)With English Kills, World Famous B*B, Angel 11:11 & Marianna Ellenberg. I took the American Film-makers over to The London Underground film Festival for 2/3 years. It was all a lot of fun. I stopped, closed my door and went back to painting full time. In a cornball fashion I find inspiration everywhere. I could fill a book with one sentence..in fact I did once. ( a little Love 4 Stanley Kubrick)

What do you do now – professionally and otherwise? Are you still involved in filmmaking?
I am very involved in writing at present. I am writing ‘Pianos From Heaven:“Look Up!” which will have the first three condensed Chapters published in The Canyon News within the next 2 months. I have just completed a condensed Saga, also published in The Canyon News (CanyonNews90210) a Los Angeles local paper, online and in print that covers the Hills from Malibu to Los Feliz. ‘The Clean Up Saga.’(Parts 1 – 11) Dec 2014-Dec 2015. Before this project, which I aim to turn into film either for TV or movies I was writing drafts for an animation project and a TV show as well as painting and exhibiting. www.janegang.com I have a street wear label Cash Only: www.cashonlyapparel.com And I am lucky to have my wonderful fun and brilliant son, Boulevard who is a huge and totally magical inspiration. The Clean Up Saga is a new form of cross-genre writing from SiFi through paranormal to comedy. Set in the past, present and future (as are my paintings). Semi autobiographical, I have referenced my Super 8 film making days throughout. To get this spectacular news about the Getty Research Institute Gift from Miranda July comes with a potent air of 360degree synchronicity into my life. I thank all of you for making this possible, especially Astria.

Anything you would like to see on the J4J site?
The site looks terrific.

Karen Yasinsky, No Place Like Home #1
January 16, 2017

How did you find out about Joanie 4 Jackie and how old were you at the time?
The curator Astria Suparak invited me to be included. She saw my movie in a gallery in NYC. I was around 34.

What interested you about the project?
I loved the idea behind Joanie 4 Jackie and Astria’s interests and enthusiasms.

At the time you participated in Joanie 4 Jackie did you consider yourself a filmmaker? What was your relationship to making movies?
No I didn’t consider myself a filmmaker. I thought of myself as an artist which now I allow as a more inclusive way of being, encompassing the work I put towards inquiries in drawing, animation, video, painting, etc. I guess I thought of myself as a gallery artist. I painted, drew and made animations but it all existed within the gallery. The tape and screenings brought me into a world of experimental filmmaking which really felt like home.

Do you have any specific anecdotes or memories associated with your movie?
This was only the second puppet animation I’d made and I had a very Ed Wood attitude towards filmmaking. I wanted to make a movie about Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, specifically about her denial of reality. I felt this was represented by the sparkling ruby slippers so when I was making the animation model, I thought, why make the whole figure if the focus is on the clicking of heels. Somewhere close to the end of the model construction I realized the power and other strangeness of this new character – a woman that only exists from the waist down.

What did you think/feel about the Joanie 4 Jackie at the time? And now, in retrospect?
It was so very inclusive and non judgmental. Compared to the art world, there was no money involved which allowed for a kind of freedom and mutual support. Having my movie get outside of a gallery and reach so many more people in their bedrooms or in theaters was exciting. The intimacy of the structure really suited my subject matter and ideas. Still does. In retrospect I wish I’d I’d known about it sooner. It’s a great structure for communication and distribution.

If you attended a screening, can you tell us where and when it was and anything else you remember about it?
I remember the “I Saw Bones” screening at the 2000 New York Underground Film Festival where I met Miranda and she had a really present and outward energy on stage for the Q&A afterwards. After Astria screened “Sex on the Fritz” at the festival, a precursor to “Some Kind of Loving” that came out a few months later, one person asked if it was pot rolling around in my animation – it was a representation of tumbleweeds on the open plain – a super crude representation. I don’t remember many things from my past but that question sticks with me.

What institutions, groups, people, publications and movements were inspiring you at the time of your participation in J4J?
I was inspired by old films and other artists. I remember Sue Williams, Bruce Nauman was huge to me and I regularly went to Theater 80 and the Film Forum.

What do you do now – professionally and otherwise? Are you still involved in filmmaking?
I’m still an artist and I teach film at Johns Hopkins University. I now spend much more time making experimental movies than I did back then but I still draw, paint and make things. The structure of my movies has influenced how I put my ideas together with things I make. I can definitely trace what I do now and my freedom in filmmaking (structures and treatment of subjects) to the Joanie 4 Jackie tape. It got me thinking about the moving image and introduced me to amazing women thinking about movies and ideas and making weird and wonderful films.

Stephanie Barber, pornfilm
February 23, 2016

How did you find out about Joanie 4 Jackie and how old were you at the time?
Astria asked to share this short film on the Some Kind of Loving Tape.

What interested you about the project?
I like the women that were organizing the tape.

At the time you participated in Joanie 4 Jackie did you consider yourself a filmmaker? What was your relationship to making movies?
Yes, I was a filmmaker working in 16mm film.

What did you think/feel about the Joanie 4 Jackie at the time? And now, in retrospect?
I did not know the history of the project before the Some Kind of Loving tape came out and now I think it seems like an extraordinary, generous project, both the curated tapes and the chain letter-esque tapes.

What do you do now – professionally and otherwise? Are you still involved in filmmaking?
Filmmaker.

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