Panel Discussion: Thursday, September 10, 2020 | 6:00pm
Free to the public
Blue Star Contemporary and Ruby City present a two-part virtual event for their continuing collaboration, the Contemporary Film Series. For this edition, an eight-minute film produced by sculptor Lara Schnitger and director/choreographer Kitty McNamee titled, BURDEN HALVED (2020) will be shown concurrently on the organizations’ Facebook Live and Instagram TV streams via @BlueStarArt and @RubyCity as well as on ... view more »
Panel Discussion: Thursday, September 10, 2020 | 6:00pm
Free to the public
Blue Star Contemporary and Ruby City present a two-part virtual event for their continuing collaboration, the Contemporary Film Series. For this edition, an eight-minute film produced by sculptor Lara Schnitger and director/choreographer Kitty McNamee titled, BURDEN HALVED (2020) will be shown concurrently on the organizations’ Facebook Live and Instagram TV streams via @BlueStarArt and @RubyCity as well as on Ruby City’s AppleTV app. This event marks the film’s premiere in a visual art institution context and features direction and choreography by McNamee and wearable sculptures created by Schnitger, a Linda Pace Foundation Collection artist. Accompanying music is composed and played by Flea. The film traces the journey of four dancers struggling to manage their individual burdens and finding solace when their isolated experiences converge and their burdens are shared, halved, and eventually removed.
The three-day online film viewing will conclude with a panel discussion on Thursday, September 10, 2020 at 6pm with the artist and director/choreographer moderated by Ruby City Director, Elyse A. Gonzales and Blue Star Contemporary Curator and Exhibition Manager Jacqueline Saragoza McGilvray. To register to participate in the free Zoom panel discussion, visit the Facebook event page, bluestarcontemporary.org. or rubycity.org
About the Artists
Lara Schnitger (b.1969 in Haarlem, Netherlands) is a Dutch–American sculptor and painter, living and working in Los Angeles and Amsterdam. Schnitger studied at the Royal Academy of Art (The Hague) from 1987 to 1991 and spent a year on a residency at the Kitakyushu Centre for Contemporary Art in southern Japan.
Schnitger works in knitted and sewn textile sculptures, videos and collages, and has produced a book about art created from mundane materials such as fabric, titled Lara Schnitger: Fragile Kingdom. [1]
Schnitger’s work has been shown internationally at galleries and museums such as Magasin 3 in Stockholm, the Chinese European Art Center in Xiamen, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Kunstwerke in Berlin, the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, The Power Plant in Toronto, and the Royal Academy in London. She participated in the Liverpool Biennial in 1999 and the Shanghai Biennial in 2002.
Kitty McNamee is an artist, a creator and most importantly a collaborator. Her early years in LA were spent honing her craft as Artistic Director of Hysterica Dance Co., a consistently prolific and creative collective that redefined dance in Los Angeles. Her unique approach to direction and choreography was declared by Dance Magazine to possess “an outsize talent for that most elusive gift, originality.”
McNamee has collaborated extensively with performing arts organizations as well as large-scale businesses. At the LA Philharmonic she has developed new productions of Rite of Spring, Firebird, Bolero, Esa Pekka Salonen’s Wing on Wing, and more. Ballets include RIFT commissioned by Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and the Kennedy Center, and the creation of the new ballets Traces and Transit for National Choreographer’s Initiative. Her work for some of the country’s largest Opera companies includes Romeo et Juliette, La Traviata, La Rondine, and Tales of Hoffman. Theater credits include Secret Cinema’s groundbreaking live performances with Laura Marling in London, the World Premiere of Colony Collapse (commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Midsummer Night’s Dream (LA Phil/Disney Hall), and Sondheim’s 75th (Hollywood Bowl). McNamee finds shifting from high art settings to the demands of pop culture to be invigorating consequently, she has worked with Target, Adobe MAX, Novartis, Mercedes Benz, Grey Ant and Uniglo.
ABOUT THE FILM
BURDEN HALVED (2020)
DIRECTOR + CHOREOGRAPHER
Kitty McNamee
ART DIRECTION + SCULPTURES
Lara Schnitger
SOLO BASS EXTRAPOLATION
Flea
DANCERS
Raymond Ejiofor
Reshma Gajjar
Derek Schiesel
Zak Ryan Schlegel
EDITOR
Lori Lovoy-Goran
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Pavel Yatsenko
SOUND DESIGN
Adam King
PRODUCERS
Kitty McNamee
Lara Schnitger
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Julie Schmid
FIRST ASSISTANT CAMERA
Majd Mazin
STILL PHOTOGRAPHER
Meeno Pulice
PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS
Miyuki Kawamura
Kourtnie Labay
About The Contemporary Film Series
The Contemporary Film Series is a natural partnership between Ruby City, who fosters the creation, presentation, and understanding of innovative expression through contemporary art and Blue Star Contemporary, who inspires, nurtures, and innovates through contemporary art. Through this collaboration, both organizations demonstrate a commitment to providing access to compelling films that galvanize meaningful conversations within the San Antonio community and beyond.
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