Monday January 29 * 7pm * RSVP (suggested donation $0-15)

Arts workers and their accomplices are invited to join us for a screening and open discussion around Mission Drift, a new film by Charles de Agustin. (2023, US. Video (b/w, sound) and discussion. Approx 90 minutes inclusive of discussion. Audio description and open captioning.)

Mission Drift follows a nonprofit art gallery worker who tries to stay afloat when a horny sadomasochistic philanthropist infiltrates the organization. An experimental essay film tinged with noir and fantasy, the work is driven by research into the sparse history of federal US arts funding since the 1930s and more recent universal basic income trials. The film’s tragic narrative takes aim at how seductive philanthropy can be and points toward the need to constantly reinvent strategies against mechanisms of capture. Various formal strategies in the work also intend to explore the relationships between accessibility, complicity, precarity, and cinema.

Its medium described as “video and discussion,” Mission Drift may only be publicly presented if it is followed by a robust audience discussion on the issues at hand. All guests will be essential parts of the conversation with artists Charles de Agustin, Claire Alrich, and Layne Garrett rooted in our experiences of working in the arts alongside the hosting institution’s specific context. The aim is to expose untapped potential for organizing through the arts, considering tensions between the state, philanthropy, and grassroots movements.

Please note that the discussion audio will be recorded, though only an anonymized (i.e. names and other identifying details deleted) text transcript will be used for the artist’s future research purposes.

The film has integrated audio description and open captions.