Uptown Girl: The Cinema Of Shirley Clarke

Uptown Girl: The Cinema Of Shirley Clarke

 
Cited by John Cassavetes and Ingmar Bergman as an inspiration, Academy-Award-winning director Shirley Clarke personified the Beat era, breaking with her Park Avenue upbringing and exploring personal and political freedoms through dance, film and video art. A dedicated activist, organiser and pivotal figure in the New American Cinema, her films challenged ideas of reality and fiction, and traversed the American class and race divide.

Curated by ACMI Film Programmer Kristy Matheson, Uptown Girl: The Cinema of Shirley Clarke will screen at ACMI from Tuesday 24th of October through to Tuesday 5th of November. For further film details and session times, visit acmi.net.au/uptown-girl-shirley-clarke
 
Rome is Burning (U18+)
24th of October at 7pm and 2nd of November at 4.30pm
In 1970, directors Noël Burch and André S. Labarthe interviewed Shirley Clarke in a Paris apartment. Bursting with an infectious, frenetic energy, Clarke discussed art, politics and the filmmaking process sat amongst a circle of friends which included Yoko Ono and Jacques Rivette.

The Connection (U18+)
25th of October at 7pm and 2nd of November at 6.30pm
Premiering at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, Clarke's debut was an adaptation of Jack Gelber's off-Broadway play about a group of junkies waiting to score in a downtown loft. Banned for public exhibition on grounds of obscenity, The Connection had jazz, junk and scandal making it the epitome of Beat culture.

The Cool World (M)
26th and 29th of October at 7pm
The first American independent film to appear at the Venice Film Festival, The Cool World charted the fortunes of aspiring gang leader Duke, on the streets of Harlem.  Featuring a musical score by Dizzy Gillespie, the New Yorker described Clarke's sophomore film as a 'vibrant, unflinching, streetwise drama".  

Grey Gardens (PG)
27th of October at 3.30pm and 2nd of November at 9pm
Made nearly a decade after Portrait of Jason, the Maysles brothers' Grey Gardens offered another riveting 'performance' on film.  Oblivious to their crumbling surrounds, faded socialite Edith Beale and her daughter (also Edith) redefine -fabulous' in a film that is hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure.

Portrait of Jason (U18+)
27th of October at 5.30pm and 4th of November at 7pm
Shirley Clarke's unique portrait of a gay, black, self-described hustler is widely considered her masterpiece.  Filmed over 12 hours in her apartment at the Chelsea Hotel, Jason Holiday tells tales, breaks down and offers up a 'performance' that is utterly original and completely unshakeable.

On the Bowery (U18+)
28th of October at 7pm and 3rd of November at 6pm
A contemporary of Shirley Clarke's in the New American Cinema group, Lionel Rogosin was also interested in exploring social consciousness through new forms of cinema. The Academy Award® nominated On the Bowery is an innovative and moving docu-fiction of down and outers living in the iconic New York locale.
 
Chelsea Girls (R18+)
31st of October at 7.30pm
In 1965 Shirley Clarke took up residence at the legendary Chelsea Hotel where her best friend, Warhol superstar Viva also lived. The following year Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey embarked on their epic, two-screen film that is an intoxicating mix of sex, drugs, boredom, masochism and humour.
 
Ornette: Made in America (U18+)
1st of November at 7.30pm and 3rd of November at 7.30pm
Ornette Coleman was the subject of Clarke's final film, a hypnotic portrait which she shot from 1968 to his Fort Worth Texas homecoming in 1983.  An amalgam of free jazz and video art, Ornette: Made in America explores the creative inspirations and intellectual pursuits of one of the great innovators of jazz music.
 
Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel With The World (U18+)
3rd of November at 3.30pm
Often cited as an anomaly in Clarke's filmography, Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel With the World offers an insight into her ability as a pure documentarian, one who was able to capture the humour and grace of the iconic American poet. The film won the 1963 Academy Award® for Documentary Feature.

Lions Love (U18+)
5th of November at 7pm
Agnès Varda's cool and loose 'film within a film' features Hair creators Gerome Ragni, James Rado, superstar Viva and Shirley Clarke. Set against a backdrop of the Warhol assassination attempt and the Bobby Kennedy shooting, Varda's -trippy' tale gives way to a deeper statement on Hollywood and the American Dream.