still from Beyond Voluntary Control
Wednesday March 8 * 7pm * TICKETS
Rhizome is pleased to present the films of Baltimore/Wisconsin-based filmmaker Cathy Cook along with a post-screening discussion with the filmmaker.
Cathy Cook is a moving image artist whose interdisciplinary works address issues of human physical and psychological challenges, gender stereotypes and the vulnerability of the natural world, using a non-narrative aesthetic.
As an artist, filmmaker, educator and eco-activist, Cathy Cook has been creating films, animation, poetry films, collages, and installations since the early 1980’s. She has exhibited her award-winning work internationally in both solo and group shows including MOMA, The Whitney Museum, PBS, and numerous other venues. In 2001, Cook was awarded a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship.
Nature, topical social issues, and poetry have been staples in her creative work. Cook’s “Cranes in Motion” project took her to the largest migration locations for Sandhill Cranes and Whooping Cranes. Currently, Cook is an Associate Professor in Cinematic Arts at UMBC. Cook migrates between Baltimore and Wisconsin, where she lives on a small swampy lake with her dog Zippy and they share residence with cranes, loons, eagles, badgers, deer, herons, and coyotes…..
The Match That Started My Fire
(1992, 19 min, 16mm) | Live-action / found footage
This unconventional comedy explores women’s sexuality through candid stories of sexual discoveries, fantasies, and pleasures. Visually stunning, yet unnerving, the film is a visual montage of found industrial films and original footage of swirling skirts, monumental machinery, ocean life, and befuddled reaction shots. The phone rings and the girl-talk begins: secrets emerge and confessions build as the audience is taken on an adventure of sensual humor.
Beyond Voluntary Control
(2000, 30min, 16mm & DVD) | Live-action / Animation, Color, Sound
”Beyond Voluntary Control” conveys the experience of psychological and physical confinement. Through a surreal montage of haunting images from diverse sources, a sense of the obsessions, phobias, and diseases that constrict personal freedom is tellingly communicated. Dancer David Figueroa contributes his original and evocative movements to the mix. A soundtrack with poems by Emily Dickinson and Sharon Olds escorts the visual, and an interview with the filmmaker’s mother poignantly underscores the latter’s struggle with Parkinson’s disease.
– lock yourself in, let yourself go –
Mother Nature
(1996, 5min, 16mm) | Live-action / found footage / performance
A comical look on who truly makes the world go around.
Summer Home
(2015, 1.50 min) 4k Digital Video, silent.
A meditative perspective of waterfowls’ summer home.
still from The Match That Started My Fire