The Nightingale - Life in a Tin Can

Life in a Tin Can
Programmed by Caitlin Ryan and Drew Durepos
October 27, 2020, 9 pm CDT
Nightingale Cinema
Streaming on Twitch

"The films in this program all explore the notion of feeling constricted and contained, operating in introspective modes. And yet, each one offers an impulse outward and away, an escape route to somewhere beyond the edges it limns. And each work does so with its own unique logic of humor and play. Some are heavy. Some are light. All are circular. Admittedly, some feature other popular shapes, but we don’t know what to make of those.

When we started assembling this program back in late 2019, we noticed that the works we were considering all featured some sort of circle image, circular aspect, or cyclical pattern. In an effort to be as daft as possible, we latched onto this observation as the key to unlocking the mystery of whatever the hell we were doing. Months later, circles began to reveal themselves all around us. We missed the familiar circles of our fellow artists and friends, in spaces like the Nightingale. We noted the circle in the spherical shape of the virus. We felt the circles form under our eyes, and the concentric squeeze of circumscribed lives, binding us in safety but exhausting us daily. We stared down at the top of a cylinder appearing on “Life in a Tin Can,” a mediocre Bee Gee’s album with a sleeve of questionable aesthetic merit, but also a phrase that speaks to our sense of isolation as we sink into winter. Will life be cold and metallic, or cozy and warm? Depends on the night, the sequence of events, and what’s being served. At this point, we’ll settle for a mix of both.

The Bee Gees sang that: “If you’re living in Chicago / it’s your home / if you’re living in Chicago / you’re alone.” Where do they get off making such declarations? And what the hell does that even mean? Dunno. But it sounds deep, it feels round, and it’s catchy." - Ryan & Durepos

Neal Vandenbergh, Green Mamba Jet Car
Leslie Supnet, A Time is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Laura Harrison, Little Red Giant: The Monster That I Was
Chris Reeves, Circular Breathing
Kera MacKenzie & Courtney Prokopas, Wonder Machine
Zachary Hutchinson, Pigkick
Amy Lockhart, Jessica
JP Marchant, Driving Around in Circles (In the Suburbs)
Tyler Williams, PURE FILTH
Carl Elsaesser, The Misbehaving Image
Paul Dickinson, 2016, June 28 (World Premiere!)
Deborah Stratman, Xenoi
Nellie Kluz, DD

$7-10 suggested donation for the artists and Brave Space Alliance
Q&A to follow!
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