In recognition of Women’s History Month, join us for a special screening of experimental films made by members of Women Artist Filmmakers, a network established in 1974 to discover, celebrate, and support women artists who make films. Members included Dorothy Beskind, Susan Brockman, Doris Chase, Silvianna Goldsmith, Maria Lassnig, Carolee Schneemann, Rosalind Schneider, Olga Spiegel, and Alida Walsh. In 1975, its members organized a film series as part of the exhibition Women Artists Here and Now at Ashawagh Hall in Springs, NY. The exhibition was co-organized by visual artists Joyce Kozloff and Joan Semmel and included numerous female artists who were and are active in the East End, including Semmel, Lynda Benglis, Hedda Sterne, and Miriam Schapiro, among others.

The program will be introduced by visual artist Sara VanDerBeek, a Springs resident and co-founder of Soft Network. A Q+A with VanDer Beek and Rosalind Schneider will take place after the screening, moderated by Senior Curator Corinne Erni.

Selfportrait (Maria Lassnig, Austria/USA, 1971, 5 min). Courtesy SixPackFilms, Vienna.
Plumb Line (Carolee Schneemann, USA, 1968-71, 14 min). Courtesy EAI, New York and the Carolee Schneemann Foundation.
Depot (Susan Brockman, USA, 1975, 10 min). Courtesy Susan Brockman estate.
Circles II (Doris Chase, USA, 1972, 14 min). Courtesy Filmmakers’ Cooperative.
Parallax (Rosalind Schneider, USA, 1973, 21 min). Courtesy the Artist.

About the screening

This selection of films was organized by Schneider and Martha Edelheit, one of the group’s original members, for a commemorative screening conducted at The Arts Center at Duck Creek in Springs in 2021. The event was the conclusion of Soft Network’s multi-venue programming entitled Interior Scroll or What I Did on My Vacation which explored feminist, inter-generational, and multi-disciplinary artistic interactions that have been integral to the ongoing development of the arts communities of the East End.