London Screening of Michelle Handelman’s Film ‘Irma Vep, The Last Breath’
Still from ‘Irma Vep’ by Michelle Handelman
Michelle Handelman’s film Irma Vep, The Last Breath (USA 2013/2015) will be featured opening night in the Fashion In Film Festival, London March 11, 2017 as a part of ‘Resurrecting and re-Editing the Cinema Diva‘.
Irma Vep, The Last Breath stars Zackary Drucker (TRANSPARENT) and Jack Doroshow AKA Mother Flawless Sabrina (THE QUEEN) in a queer imagining of silent film icon Irma Vep and the first cinematic vamp, Musidora.
About Michelle Handelman
Michelle Handelman uses video, live performance and photography to make confrontational works that explore the sublime in its various forms of excess and nothingness. In the mid 90s Michelle Handelman directed and produced the feature documentary BloodSisters (Bravo Award 1999), an in-depth look at the San Francisco Leatherdyke scene that has just been re-released by the Tribeca Film Institute’s Reframe Collection. Michelle Handelman’s 2014 film Irma Vep, the Last Breath takes up motifs from the silent movie such as gazes, affected body language and the figure of the masked woman. It presents a space between genders, between vamps of the silent era and the contemporary queer – smashing the shiny veneer to reveal dark, subconscious layers of fluid identity. Her videos have screened internationally including Georges Pompidou Centre, Paris; ICA, London; MIT List Visual Arts Center; Guangzhou 53 Art Museum; American Film Institute and 3LD Art & Technology Center, NYC. Michelle is an Associate Professor in the Film and Media department at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York City. She lives in Brooklyn.
Irma Vep by Michelle Handelman