There will be no cheek-pinching of Ken Jacobs at special day celebrating his avant-garde classic STAR SPANGLED TO DEATH
Union Docs
322 Union Ave.
Saturday, September 18, 1:30
Suggested donation: $12
www.uniondocs.org
www.starspangledtodeath.com
Union Docs, in conjunction with Electronic Arts Intermix, will honor legendary filmmaker and artist Ken Jacobs with a full day of festive events on Saturday, September 18, built around the Brooklyn native’s magnum opus, the no-budget STAR SPANGLED TO DEATH, which was begun in the 1950s and completed in 2004. Jacobs describes the four-hundred-minute work as “an epic film shot for hundreds of dollars! [C]ombining found-films with my own more-or-less staged filming, it pictures a stolen and dangerously sold-out America, allowing examples of popular culture to self-indict. Racial and religious insanity, monopolization of wealth and the purposeful dumbing down of citizens and addiction to war oppose a Beat playfulness.” The cast includes Jacobs, Jack Smith as the Spirit Not of Life But of Living, and Jerry Sims as Suffering. The day will feature a screening of the film, a Star Spangled Supper, a Jacobs-led tour of East Village locations used in the film, and a discussion with J. Hoberman and Jacobs at around 10:00. This is a spectacular program that lovers of independent, avant-garde film and the city itself should not miss.