"Art involves creating constructs to make sense of all
the contradictory feelings within."
-- John Cameron Mitchell
The Dorothy H. Hirshon Film Festival presents
Featuring: The Cinema of Transgression
April 4 - May 4, 2007
Artist in Residence John Cameron Mitchell
A special series of screenings, panels and master classes presented by the Department of Media Studies.
Carol Wilder, Chair
Dawnja Burris, Associate Chair
Anthony Weeks, Student Producer
Positioned against both academic cinema studies and much underground filmmaking, the cinema of transgression uses shock value and humor to challenge taboos wherever they are situated. Transgressive cinema subverts dominant culture with the wit of John Waters and the experimental panache of Andy Warhol.
This annual event was established by a bequest from the late Dorothy Hirshon, a trustee of New School University for 61 years, with the mission of promoting excellence and education in the filmmaking arts. This fifth Hirshon Film Festival is devoted to independent filmmaking and includes lectures, screenings and master classes with the artist-in- residence, John Cameron Mitchell.
With his recently-acclaimed film Shortbus and the now-classic rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell has created works that are, at once, interrogations of social and cultural conventions around sex, gender, and identity; celebrations of irreverence and provocation; poignant commentaries on marginalization and so-called deviance; and utopian idealism. Mitchell’s theatricality, comedic wit, and use of music within the narrative provide both entertainment and emotional depth.
In addition to his talent as director, for which he won the 2001 Sundance Film Festival directing prize for Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell has enjoyed success as an actor, producer, and writer. Nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Actor for Hedwig, Mitchell has also appeared on the Broadway stage in productions of “Six Degrees of Separation”, “The Secret Garden”, and “The Destiny of Me.” Mitchell was the executive producer of Jonathan Caouette’s 2003 film Tarnation.
The New School is pleased and honored to welcome John Cameron Mitchell as the 2007 Hirshon Film Festival artist-in-residence.
SCHEDULE OF PRIVATE EVENTS
Thursday, April 5, 2007
John Cameron Mitchell Master Class and Lecture
6:00-8:00pm, Swayduck Auditorium, 65 Fifth Avenue
Open to New School students and faculty. Attendees must be seated by 6:00 PM.
Monday, April 9, 2007
John Cameron Mitchell Small Master Class 1
By invitation only. Application required. Open to MA Media Studies, Documentary
Media Studies Certificate, and Film Certificate students. Please click here (PDF File) for more information.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
John Cameron Mitchell Small Master Class 2
By invitation only. Application required. Open to MA Media Studies, Documentary
Media Studies Certificate, and Film Certificate students. Please click here (PDF File) for more information.
SCHEDULE OF PUBLIC EVENTS
Friday, April 13, 2007
Screening
"Hedwig and the Angry Inch John Cameron Mitchell"
6:00-8:30pm, Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street
Please come and enjoy a special opportunity to hear the filmmaker introduce his film
and conduct Q & A afterwards.
Adapted from the critically acclaimed off-Broadway rock theatre hit, Hedwig and The Angry Inch tells
the story of an "internationally ignored" rock singer, Hedwig, and her search for stardom and love.
Born a boy named Hansel whose life's dream is to find his other half, Hedwig reluctantly submits to a
sex change operation in order to marry an American G.I. and get over the Berlin Wall to freedom.
The operation is botched, leaving her with the aforementioned "angry inch". Finding herself high, dry
and divorced in a Kansas trailer park, she pushes on to form a rock band and encounters a lover/protégé
in young Tommy Gnosis, who eventually leaves her, steals her songs and becomes a huge rock star.
A bitter yet witty Hedwig with her pan-Slavic band, The Angry Inch, shadows Tommy's stadium tour,
performing in near-empty restaurants for bewildered diners and a few die-hard fans. Through a collage
of songs, flashbacks and animation, Hedwig tells her life story while on a tour of chain strip-mall seafood
restaurants, trying to capitalize on her tabloid celebrity as the supposed ex-lover of famed rock star,
Tommy Gnosis. Somewhere between the crab cakes and the cramped motel rooms, between the anguish
and the acid-wash, she pursues her dreams and discovers the origin of love.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Screening
"The 28th Annual New School Invitational Film Show"
7:00-9:00 pm, Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street
Reception to follow
The 28th annual Invitational Film Show, presenting the year’s outstanding New School student films,
concludes the 2007 Dorothy H. Hirshon Film Festival. Films have been selected in a juried competition
by a panel of distinguished filmmakers and film industry professionals and represent the exceptional
narratives, documentaries and experimental shorts produced in the New School Film Production program.
Note: Unless otherwise noted, all public events are free on a first-come, first-served basis.