[untitled] film series: Persona with Tshay

Join us on Wednesday, November 20th at 6 PM for a screening of Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 film, Persona, followed by a discussion with Tshay. An enigmatic and frequently studied film, Persona presents questions of domestic relations, psychology, and the uncanny, similarly explored in the exhibition Joanna Piotrowksa: unseeing eyes, restless bodies. This is the third and final of three parts in the [untitled] film series, which aims to deepen our understanding of Piotrowska’s work.

Captioning will be available for this program.

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Selected Film
Persona, dir. Ingmar Bergman, 93 minutes
By the midsixties, Ingmar Bergman had already conjured many of the cinema’s most unforgettable images. But with the radical Persona, this supreme artist attained new levels of visual poetry. In the first of a series of legendary performances for Bergman, Liv Ullmann plays a stage actor who has inexplicably gone mute; an equally mesmerizing Bibi Andersson is the garrulous young nurse caring for her in a remote island cottage. While isolated together there, the women perform a mysterious spiritual and emotional transference that would prove to be one of cinema’s most influential creations. Acted with astonishing nuance and shot in stark contrast and soft light by the great Sven Nykvist, Persona is a penetrating, dreamlike work of profound psychological depth.

About the series
[untitled] is a three-part film series inspired by ICA’s current exhibition, Joanna Piotrowska: unseeing eyes, restless bodies, that highlights the various technical or thematic devices Piotrowska employs in cultivating her highly enigmatic and cinematic aesthetic. Each screening will begin with an offering that inspires close looking and ends with a group discussion moderated by a selected guest speaker. We invite participants to view the films together, exchange their perspectives, and engage in mutual learning. Film screenings will take place on September 18th, October 23rd, and November 20th.

About the guest speaker
Tshay is a Jamaican-American filmmaker and artist from Amityville, NY. She is a writer, director, producer, shooter, and editor who uses filmmaking to imagine a world where Black people have full creative agency over their lives. Working in close collaboration with loved ones, Tshay creates films across documentary, fiction and hybrid forms, namely her debut narrative short film, gales., which screened at BlackStar Film Festival, American Black Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival, and a number of universities and organizations worldwide. She is the recipient of awards from Art Works, Sachs Arts, and Independence Public Media Foundation, and holds degrees from both University of Pennsylvania and University College London. She is currently developing her debut animated film, TELL ME WHEN YOU GET HOME., through her production company Studio Tshay.

Support
Programming at ICA is made possible in part by the Emily and Jerry Spiegel Fund to Support Contemporary Culture and Visual Arts and the Lise Spiegel Wilks and Jeffrey Wilks Family Foundation. Public and Student Engagement at ICA is supported by the Bernstein Public Engagement Fund, Suzanne Weiss Doft & Jacob W. Doft, Stacey & Robert Goergen Jr., Hilarie L. & Mitchell Morgan, the Nash Family Foundation, Joline & David Stemerman, and by Dana McDonald Strong & Mark W. Strong.

Support for Joanna Piotrowska: unseeing eyes, restless bodies has been provided by The Inchworm Fund. Additional support has been provided by Danielle Anderman, Cecile & Chris D’Amelio, Stacey Burke Frost & Benjamin Marc Frost, Christina Weiss Lurie, Norma & Lawrence Reichlin, and Stephanie & David Simon.