"The Talk of the Town": June PMA Films Series

In conjunction with our exhibition, Peggy Bacon: Biting, Never Bitter, PMA Films presents a series of films about young female artists in the city on saturdays in june.

PROGRAM NOTES:

Films about artists tend to follow a familiar arc. We see a rise, and then a fall, and maybe another rise. In the artist biopic, we encounter scenes that tidily suggest the inspiration for future, world-famous work. We see earnest strivers, difficult personalities, the temptation of drink or drugs, and partners that simply cannot take it anymore. Because these narratives are often canonical and based on real lives (usually male lives), we are dealing with figures of some legend; they feel more like symbols than human beings engaging with the world as it is.

“The Talk of the Town,” our June film series, takes an expansive view of a tiny sliver of the struggling artist narrative, focusing on young female artists figuring out their lives and careers as they deal with the pressures of the city. Inspired by the work and career of Peggy Bacon, featured in our exhibition “Peggy Bacon: Biting, never Bitter,” “The Talk of the Town” chronicles over 60 years of filmic representations of the artist as a young schemer, striver, or starlet. Beginning with Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s classic of backstage sniping and competition (1950’s All About Eve) and concluding with Noah Baumbach’s instantly iconic portrait of Millennial drift (2012’s Frances Ha), the films in this series proffer many different possible paths for the young woman at work in the big city.

Elsewhere in the series, you’ll find Agnès Varda’s New Wave-inflected breakthrough about a Parisian singer awaiting the results of a biopsy (1962’s Cléo from 5 to 7), Chantal Akerman’s enduring experimental documentary comprised of letters written to the New York transplant by her mother (1977’s News from Home), and an underseen, recently restored classic of independent Black cinema: 1998’s Drylongso, Cauleen Smith’s portrait of a strong-willed photographer navigating her ambition and diffidence as a serial killer targets the young Black men of Oakland. - Christopher Gray, PMA Films

“The Talk of the Town” Film Schedule:

Saturday, June 1 at 3 p.m.: All About Eve (1950), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Buy tickets here.

Saturday, June 8 at 3 p.m.: Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), directed by Agnès Varda. Buy tickets here.

Saturday, June 15 at 3 p.m.: News from Home (1977), directed by Chantal Akerman. Buy tickets here.

Saturday, June 22 at 3 p.m.: Drylongso (1998), directed by Cauleen Smith. Buy tickets here.

Saturday, June 29 at 3 p.m.: Frances Ha (2012), directed by Noah Baumbach. Buy tickets here.