NewFilmmakers Spring Fest presents
Amy Greenfield’s CLUB MIDNIGHT/AGAINST CENSORSHIP
80 Minutes, 35mm, 16mm. and Video
Saturday, April 3, 2010 8:00 PM
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue at 2nd Street
Admission: $6.00
In February YouTube censored Greenfield’s films including segments from Club Midnight/Against Censorship.
Greenfield was outraged at such censorship of art, placing it mistakenly in the category of “pornography”. The absence of any way to appeal directly to YouTube impelled Greenfield to contact the National Coalition Against Censorship. Supporting her work, and agreeing that the issue is very important for filmmakers, the NCAC, with the leading internet civil rights organization, Electronic Frontier Foundation, went up against the internet giant to help bring to light the issue of YouTube/Google’s censorship of nudity. With an outpouring of press and public support on the internet, You Tube, in an unprecedented and potentially ground-breaking decision, restored Greenfield’s films to their site, unrestricted, recognizing her use of nudity as art.
Described by Vince Musetto of the New York Post as a “female empowering mix of cutting-edge film and raw performance art” Club Midnight is an evening-long film cycle of six interlinking films which transform the expressiveness of multi-talented, dance-trained erotic dancers into emotion drenched, dynamic, visually dazzling digital cinema.
Now, only at the New Filmmakers Spring Fest can people see Club Midnight/Agaist Censorship complete and uncensored, on the big screen, in 35mm., Cinemascope and double projection, with the filmmaker and Svetlana Mintcheva of the National Coalition Against Censorship present to discuss film art, nudity, censorship and the internet with the audience.
The evening will begin with the theatrical premiere of MUSEic of The BODy, edited in 2009 from Greenfield’s 1994 video/performance named a New York Times 10 Best of The Arts (“A nude attacks a piano with her long strand of pearls. Magical! Unforgettable!” Jennifer Dunning) and end with the signature film with Dennis Hopper giving voice to Poet Laureate Charles Simic’s poetry as we see Neo-Burlesque stars Andrea Beeman and Bonnie Dunn turning neo-noir vamping into existential angst revealing themselves body and soul.
The films in Club Midnight/Against Censorship have been screened at the Berlin Film Festival (Official Selection), Houston Film Festival (Gold Prize), Williamsburg Surreal Film Festival (First Prize), Athens Film Festival (A Best American Short), the Dance On Camera/Lincoln Center Festival, The National Gallery Of Art (featured in CineDance In America) and more.
The filmmaker and Svetlana Mintcheva of the National Coalition, will be present at the Spring Fest screening to discuss film, art, nudity, censorship and the internet.
Visit www.newfilmmakers.com and http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/02/youtube-amy-greenfield-ar t.html