2018 | United States | Documentary

Stephen Varble: A Lecture by David Getsy

  • English - 112 mins
  • Director | Stephen Varble
  • Writer | David Getsy
  • Producer | -

STATUS: In Distribution

This film is currently not available.   

Stephen Varble (1946-1984) staged gender-confounding costume performances on the streets of 1970s Manhattan, and he became infamous for his anti-commercial disruptions of galleries, banks, and boutiques. In 1978, he retreated from this public work to focus on the making of an epic, unfinished piece of video art, Journey to the Sun, until his death in the first days of 1984. Lush, ribald, and unorthodox, the video mixed non-narrative costume performances with a surrealist fable of a messianic martyr, the Warbler. Far ahead of its time, the complex video draws on the legacies of Jack Smith, of whom Varble was an acolyte, and centers on Varble’s identification with the equally reclusive actress Greta Garbo. 

Performance Art Genderqueer Art History Lecture Artist Profile Queer Art 1970s New York Underground Theater
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