The Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) announced that artist and filmmaker Ja’Tovia Gary will spend the month of January on the JBFC campus as REMIX Artist-in-Residence.
Originally from Dallas, Texas, Ms. Gary is a Brooklyn-based artist who studied documentary filmmaking at Brooklyn College before earning her MFA from the School of Visual Arts. She also spent time in India, studying at the LV Prasad Film & TV Academy.
Ms. Gary has worked with luminaries such as Spike Lee, who she assisted on the Michael Jackson documentary “Bad 25,” and Ken Burns, for whom she worked as an assistant editor on the two part biographical documentary, “Jackie Robinson.” In 2016 her own short film, “An Ecstatic Experience,” screened at numerous festivals, including the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and the Atlanta Film Festival, and was exhibited at MoMA PS1.
JBFC will screen “An Ecstatic Experience” before “Losing Ground,” a 1982 film directed by Kathleen Collins, which inspired Ms. Gary during the making of her short.
“[My] film is a response to state sanctioned violence…during the time I was constructing it, I had the opportunity to screen Collins’ ‘Losing Ground.’ I was so incredibly inspired by her and her work that I begin to think on the notion of ecstasy and what it means to search for ‘an ecstatic experience’ during this contemporary political moment.”
Ms. Gary will be in attendance at this program to talk about the two films. She will also introduce a screening of “Daughters of the Dust,” Julie Dash’s seminal 1991 film, and present the film to high school students at a private screening, where she will be on hand for a Q&A.
During her time as Artist-in-Residence at the JBFC, Ms. Gary will edit her Sundance Institute supported documentary, “The Evidence of Things Not Seen,” about a troubled young artist who discovers trans-generational trauma and mental illness throughout her family tree.
As an artist, Ms. Gary’s work examines race, gender, and sexuality in relation to popular media, interests which echo those of JBFC’s year-round film series REMIX: The Modern Black Experience in Film, Media, and Art.
The Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) is a nonprofit arts and education hub located on a three-building campus in the New York Metro area. The JBFC brings the transformative power of film to the surrounding community through unique programming and discussion, shared experiences, and educational initiatives. Since opening in 2001, over 3,000,000 people have enjoyed the best of current American and foreign cinema, unique film series, and special events at the five screen theater complex. A pioneer in visual literacy education, the Jacob Burns Film Center offers courses in filmmaking, screenwriting, and animation for students of all ages at our state-of-the-art Media Arts Lab and develops curriculums for public schools throughout the region.
