Join us Tuesday, September 17, at 6 pm, for a screening of Peter Greenaway’s A Zed & Two Noughts (UK/Netherlands, 1985, 115 min., 35mm to digital transfer), which screens as part of our Nature’s Underworld Film Series, featuring eight films inspired by the exhibition Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld, and our Whole Grain: Experiments in Film and Video program.

Greenaway’s beautifully disturbing and darkly humorous take on erotic obsession and death begins with a horrific automobile-swan accident in front of the Rotterdam Zoo, where two women die and a third loses her leg. The two widowers, twin zoologists fixate on their wives’ bodies, and slowly become obsessed with evolution and decomposition—even going as far as to meticulously craft exquisitely morbid time-lapsed films of decaying creatures.

This screening is free and open to the public.

About Nature’s Underworld Film Series

Nature’s Underworld Film Series features both popular Hollywood cinema and experimental works that examine humankind’s strained relationship with the environment. The series is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld. Dion and Rockman, both film lovers, have cited many of these films as sources of inspiration. The series includes a special screening of Life of Pi (2012) on September 30, at which Alexis Rockman will introduce the film and talk about his experience working on it.

Nature’s Underworld Film Series Screenings

– Thursday, September 12, 6 pm: The Birds (1963)

– Tuesday, September 17, 6 pm: A Zed & Two Noughts (1985)

– Monday, September 30, 6 pm: Life of Pi (2012)

– Thursday, October 17, 6 pm: Night of the Hunter (1955)

– Thursday, October 24, 6 pm: La Jetée (1962) and Weekend (1967)

– Thursday, November 14, 6 pm: Silent Running (1972)

– Thursday, November 21, 6 pm: Last Things (2022)

All screenings are free and open to the public.

About Whole Grain

The Tang Teaching Museum’s Whole Grain series explores classic and contemporary work in experimental film and video. Whole Grain is programmed by Assistant Director for Engagement Tom Yoshikami.