M.M. Serra
Historia
M.M. Serra is an experimental filmmaker, curator and author. She is the Executive Director of Film-Makers' Cooperative.
For over 70 years, Jonas Mekas, internationally known as the "godfather" of avant-garde cinema, documented his life in what came to be known as his diary films. From his arrival in New York City as a displaced person in 1949 to his death in 2019, he chronicled the trauma and loss of exile while pioneering institutions to support the growth of independent film in the United States. Fragments of Paradise is an intimate look at his life and work constructed from thousands of hours of his own video and film diaries-including never-before-seen tapes and unpublished audio recordings. It is a story about finding beauty amidst profound loss, and a man who tried to make sense of it all... with a camera.
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Spring time in my garden with Francesca, visual variations of green light and shadows.
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Exploration of the life and work of Jack Waters and Peter Cramer.
Herself
What makes a rebel? This 78 minute documentary probes the psyche of bad-boy publisher and free speech warrior Barney Rosset, whose mid-century legal and cultural battles smashed sexual and political taboos in the United States — unleashing the counter-culture of the 1960s and introducing millions of young intellectuals to the most radical currents in literature, film, theater and politics. In his late eighties, coming to terms with his life, Barney Rosset began to obsessively sculpt an autobiographical 15′ x 22′ surreal wall mural, embedded with jewel-like vignettes crafted out of found objects, each a clue to the conflicts and obsessions that drove Barney’s lifetime rebellion against authority. A cast of artists, a neurologist, and a shaman connect the clues and piece together Barney’s life.
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New Tribute to Carolee Schneemann with Peggy Ahwesh. Shot on location at Carolee’s house in 2010. Made in the aftermath of her death, the filmmaker revisited old footage at Carolee’s divine house to resurrect memories of her.
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Sourced from five 16mm filmstrips found outside of a closing adult bookstore on New York's former 42nd Street sex district.
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An experimental documentary filmed over a two-year period, NOTES FROM THE LOWER EAST SIDE includes such personalities as Clayton Patterson, performance artist Penny Arcade, Anthology's own Jed Rapfogel, and other amazing HOWL Fest personalities.
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Ever wondered how to crystallize the body of a cat? Here M.M. Serra's dark and ethereal exploration of counterculture and body manipulation extends to the animal kingdom. Artist Katherine Bauer recites her recipe for Crystallum, her playfully witchy process of growing crystals on the carcass of her deceased feline friend, Pickles. Bauer also quotes "The Torture Garden," the 19th Century French novel by Octave Mirbeau, accompanied by the dirge of heavy rock music. Serra's passion for finding cinematic beauty in the absurd and humor in provocation make her work charming, singular and visceral.
Herself
Experimental filmmaker Pip Chodorov traces the course of experimental film in America, taking the very personal point of view of someone who grew up as part of the experimental film community.
Herself
A series of video letters between José Luis Guerín and Jonas Mekas.
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Bitch-Beauty is an experimental documentary paralleling the lives of Anne Hanavan, whose experiences as part of the underground scene in the East Village of the 1980s was contemporary with now-deceased actress Zoe Tamerlis Lund, the actor and screenwriter of Bad Lieutenant, who died of a heroin/cocaine overdose in 1999. Using Hanavan's films, performances, readings, and music as well as footage from Lund's work, Bitch-Beauty is an intense seven-minute time capsule of addiction, the perils of street prostitution, and subsequent renewal or revival through cathartic self-expression.
MM Serra and Jonas Mekas sign a paper in 3D.
Director
ART PARADE is a meditation on staring and display, and on the ambiguous energies that emanate from both. Much of the film is dominated by the stunning presence of Kembra Pfahler (leader and co-founder of rock-performance troupe The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black) escorted by a chorus of her Karen Black Girls.
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A fantasy ad that infiltrates three leading visionary designers and their boutiques.
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Sound by Jennifer Reeves Part of the "Ad It Up" series of shorts that are parodies of commercials.
herself
La directora de la Film-makers' Coop, M. M. Serra, relata sus experiencias de la mañana del atentado contra el World Trade Center, un mes después de los hechos.
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A dark and sensual experimental narrative that explores a skilled technical worker's fantasies during her nights as a femme in the lower east side of New York.
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A period-style advertisement recontextualized from a feminist perspective.
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Sound composition by Zeena Parkins. Erotic dance performance by Goddess Rosemary.
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Where art & erotica meet! Using a series of exciting sex games in which sadism and punishment are central, dark masturbation tales are portrayed. On the soundtrack, John Zorn & David Shea inter-wires with mastery magician Aleister Crowley with sound of acoustic instruments to an invigorating soundscape.
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A curious meditation on the pleasures and terrors of s/m, in which interviews with enthusiasts collide with choice porn clips, Fleisher cartoons, Hans Bellmer poupees and a couple of sphincter-tightening routines. The results are compelling, this film lingers, never once slipping into hype or deadly cool.’ – Manohla Dargis, Reel To Reel, Village Voice, 1992.
Director
"This is Freud's Dora told by Dora: a fresh revelation, a successful voyeurism. We are allowed to sit on three therapeutic sessions to hear the confessions as M.M. reenacts her past: becomes demure, becomes hurt, disassociates. Her "Mum" is indicted: peasant, barely literate, wanting her daughter to be happy, "to be married" as she says in her last letter. The irony is immense: defining the abuse as secret shame, never confronting "Mr. Goertler," Mum wishes her daughter to attain social liberation in the shape for a happy (mythic?) marriage." -- Abigail Child
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Using Pixelvision video transferred to 16mm film, these works map the visual space of emotional investigation.
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Film of Jack Smith's apartment starring Penny Arcade before it was reposed by the "evil landlords."
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Colorful, energetic, delicate and sensual, this early short by M.M. Serra presents her unique vision of eroticism and poetic cinema in a fast-paced collage of dreamlike imagery. Fragments of a poem by C. Breeze are read and manipulated in a manner recalling the tape experiments of Steve Reich. Rich reds and deep blues stutter and sparkle along with her descriptions of love and "canine sex." TURNER is a brief glimpse at Serra's roots in the New York avant-garde and the Film-makers' Cooperative.
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Inspired by Christo, a Christmas celebration wrapping (with red and green ribbons) of a seaside house in Puerto Pinesco, Mexico. (16mm / color / sound)
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Delicate fleeting imagery catches, in two minutes, the flurry of the city’s changing moods.
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16mm / color and b/w / sound
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16mm / color / sound
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Premier of Lhasa Club, a small club in L.A. California. It was famous for providing an eclectic program. Jean-Pierre Boccara opened the club in 1982 and started to book punk/new wave band combined with performance artists, cabaret acts, comedians, poets and art-exhibition.
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"... portrays the views of a first generation Italian-American woman though her life experiences as immigrant, factory worker, and as the 'emotional heart of the family.'" – Fabrice Ziolkowski
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Filmed on vacation in Hawaii, EYE ETC. explores the light, colors and sensuous movement of the Hawaiian culture.
