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Tuesday, Feb 17, 1998
Heavenly Intercourse: An Evening with Alice Anne Parker, Films and Reading
Alice Anne Parker (a.k.a. Anne Severson) will present a selection of her radical films made between 1969 and 1974. From the first, I Change I Am the Same (1969, c. 1 min, B&W), a very funny, very short film of a man and woman exchanging their clothes; to the legendary Near the Big Chakra (1972, 17 mins, Color, Silent), "an unhurried view of thirty-seven human female vaginas," and its complementary film Introduction to Humanities (1972, 5 mins, B&W); to the exquisite Riverbody (1970, 7 mins, B&W), a continuous dissolve of eighty-seven nudes, Parker has created fascinating yet mysterious portraits of human diversity. Referring to Near the Big Chakra, Agnes Varda wrote, "This film is a new approach to our femininity"; long before gender studies, Parker's films examined sexuality and questioned gender. Animals Running (1974, 23 mins, B&W) and The Struggle of the Meat (1974, 4 mins, Color) are beautiful studies of animal life in continual movement or repeating loops. Since making her last film, Parker has worked as a psychic and dream interpreter, and wrote Understand Your Dreams. Tonight she will read from her newest book, The Last of the Dream People, a fictional story based on research on the Senoi tribespeople of central Malaysia, known for their dream work.-Kathy Geritz
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