Anne Charlotte Robertson, Depression Focus Please, 1984, USA, film still
Pixillation, 1976, USA, 3 min.
Depression Focus Please, 1984, USA, 4 min.
Apologies, 1986/1990, USA, 17 min.
Five Year Diary Reel 26: February 28–May 20 1983: First Semester Grad School, 1983, USA, 26 min.
Five Year Diary Reel 83: December 24 1995–March 19 1997: Untitled (Final Finished Reel of the Five Year Diary), 1995–97, USA, 26 min.
Melon Patches, 1998, USA, 27 min.
The second documenta 14 program of films by Anne Charlotte Robertson showcases the radical modes of self-portraiture and diaristic cinema uniquely refined across her prolific yet all-too-short career. While the rarely seen Pixillation is among her most arresting early works—a stark, oneiric vision of Robertson defying the elements and her camera’s mirror gaze—the now iconic Apologies spellbindingly transforms a harsh yet brazenly comic self-depreciatory rant into an incantatory catharsis. Two “Reels” are included of her magnum opus, the Five Year Diary, here represented by the fascinating Reel 26: First Year Grad School which captures freshman Robertson in dialogue with her Massachusetts College of the Arts mentor, Super-8 maverick Saul Levine, as well as Reel 83, the poignant final chapter of her self-effacing epic. The program closes on a quietly uplifting note with the lovely Melon Patches, a bucolic ode to Robertson’s beloved garden.
August 9: With presentation by Haden Guest, director of the Harvard Film Archive