Museum of the Moving Image Presents Janie Geiser Retrospective

The Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) in Queens, New York, presents Unraveling Realities: The Films of Janie Geiser, a career retrospective of multimedia artist and School of Theater faculty Janie Geiser. Running Friday, Sept. 15 and Saturday, Sept. 16, Geiser is set to appear in person at each of the retrospective’s three programs.

Delving into Geiser’s distinct oeuvre of experimental film, puppetry, and collage, this survey of her work takes place as part of MoMI’s Persistent Visions series. More about Unraveling Realities from MoMI: 

Each of the three programs highlights a different phase of her practice, from her early film The Red Book (1994), shown alongside her series The Nervous Films; to a program of her most recent works, which includes films completed during the first years of the pandemic. Geiser’s complex visual compositions, juxtaposed with her multivalent soundtracks, rhythmically expose the materiality of her medium. These hauntingly beautiful works enter the realms of dreams, memories, mystery, identity, and loss, challenging perception, provoking introspection, and rewarding curiosity. 

A number of the films screening during the retrospective are New York premieres, including all of the films in Program 2: Time, a Substance. Find the retrospective program below.

Lauded as a “pioneer of the renaissance of American avant-garde puppet performance,” Geiser is known for spellbinding live performances integrating projection and performing objects. Geiser is the recipient of a Doris Duke Award, a Creative Capital Award, an OBIE Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her work resides in the Academy of Motion Pictures Archive for preservation, and her 2000 short film “The Fourth Watch” was ranked as one of the top 10 experimental films of its decade by Film Comment Magazine.