a field of bloom and hum on film
A Room of One’s Own

A black and white photo, framed by a black border, of a smiling child's mouth with missing front teeth.
Still image from A Place Called Lovely (dir. Sadie Benning, US, 1991, 14 min., digital, courtesy of Video Data Bank)

Join us Thursday, March 20, at 6 pm, for the first of five screenings in our series a field of bloom and hum on film. The six films and videos in this program, entitled A Room of One’s Own, are in the queer diaristic tradition, treating the camera—or the celluloid itself—as a tool for confession, irony, erotic desire, and self-fashioning. The series, inspired by the exhibition a field of bloom and hum, is part of Whole Grain: Experiments in Film & Video.

The program includes:
Gently Down the Stream (dir. Su Friedrich, US, 1981, 12 min., 16mm)
A Place Called Lovely (dir. Sadie Benning, US, 1991, 14 min., digital)
Creeping Crimson (dir. George Kuchar, US, 1987, 15 min., digital)
The Male GaYze (dir. Jack Waters, US, 1990, 11 min., 16mm)
Solitary Acts #5 (dir. Naz Dinçel, US, 2015, 5 min., digital)
Oh Paulo (dir. Cam Archer, US, 2024, 16 min., digital)

About a field of bloom and hum on film

Weaving together historical and contemporary film/video works by artists, this five-screening series, guest-curated by Jon Davies, pulls out threads and expands on the exhibition a field of bloom and hum, which focuses on queer lives and networks. How do we survive both individually and collectively when we are under threat? How does “queer” reimagine what kinship can be? What can we do for our elders and for those who will come after us? What lessons does the queer and trans past hold for our fraught present? Rethinking body and voice, the personal and the political, and the space between the living and the dead, each program draws on a queer cultural practice that was key to the 1980s–1990s—the era when the word “queer” was first reclaimed to name a new wave of radical activist, artistic and intellectual activity catalyzed by the (ongoing) AIDS pandemic—and considers its meaning, power and value today, in a time of great peril. All shorts programs bring together 16mm film and video.

a field of bloom and hum on film Screenings

– Thursday, March 20, 6 pm: A Room of One’s Own

– Thursday, March 27, 7 pm: The Hatred of Capitalism

– Thursday, April 3, 6 pm: The Dancer from the Dance

– Saturday, April 5, 2 pm: Eternal Homes of the Transient Heart

– Thursday, April 10, 6 pm: The Personal Is Political

All screenings are free and open to the public.

About Jon Davies

Jon Davies is a curator, writer and scholar from Montreal. In 2023, he received his PhD in Art History from Stanford University and co-curated the 68th Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, Queer World-Mending, with artist Steve Reinke, which took place at Skidmore College. He is the 2024–2025 General Idea Fellow at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

About Whole Grain

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

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