About the artist

New York based film artist Jennifer Reeves has made 25+ filmworks to date, from experimental shorts and features to multiple projection performances scored by live music. Some of her visceral 16mm films immerse viewers in intricate, unfamiliar cinematic territory. 

They investigate themes of mental health and recovery, feminism and sexuality, and the beauty and decay of the natural world. Another body of Reeves’ work investigates more formal and abstract aspects of the film’s materiality. Fear of Blushing (2001) and Color Neutral (2014), both included in the screening at Rubicon, are animations made through various alterations of the film itself, such as hand-painting, hand-processing, or erosion of the emulsion.

Reeves’ films have shown all over the world at international film festivals including those in Berlin, Sundance, Vancouver, London, Toronto, New York, Seoul, and Rotterdam; the Robert Flaherty Seminar, Princeton University; Sundance Channel; and Museum of Modern Art. Reeves has taught film and animation courses at The Cooper Union School of Art since 2005.  

Saturday, May 9, 8:30 pm
Rubicon Cinema at Blue Sky Studio
943 Dopler Street, Akron, OH 44303

Admission: Free (suggested $10 donation)
BYO beverages and snacks

For our Season 9 finale, we are excited to welcome filmmaker Jennifer Reeves, along with her collaborator and co-producer Randy Sterns. Based in New York, Reeves is an internationally acclaimed artist whose work has appeared at major film festivals and museums. Her films explore themes ranging from feminism to the natural world to the abstract beauty of hand-altered film.

Former Akronites, Reeves and Sterns began making their videos together here in the 1980s. Come to Rubicon on May 9 for the screening, and stay after to enjoy a conversation with our visiting guests.

Program:

Fear of Blushing, 2001, 16mm, color, sound, 6 min

Fear of Blushing bursts forth with irrepressible hand-painted color, corroded emulsion and a menacing soundscape of looped voices, distorted instrumentals, samples & rhythm. Fleeting visions and voices erupt out of the ominous abstraction in unusual juxtapositions, suggesting a cinematic free-association marked by anxiety, pleasure and shame. Best appreciated in the immediate; the 7200 painted frames fly by at an average of 12 per second.

Color Neutral, 2014, 16mm, color, sound, 3 min

Anything but gray, a color expression sparkles, bubbles, and fractures in this hand-crafted 16mm film. Reeves utilized an array of mediums and direct-on-film techniques to create this exuberant, psychedelic morsel of cinema as material. But it speaks to the end of one era or another, a time for letting go and celebration. Control triumphs over disorder. Reeves mixed samples from rusty, dusty old machines, records, and electric waves to create an aural passage through technological processes.

The Gloria of Your Imagination, 2025, single-channel cinema version, color, sound, 98 min

In 1964, 30-year-old waitress and single mother named Gloria, was persuaded to engage in psychotherapy sessions on film, with three of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century. Reeves newest dual-projection film breaks down and expands the 1965 educational film series “Three Approaches to Psychotherapy” with an intricate superimposed montage of scenes from Gloria’s unguarded sessions, with numerous film artifacts of her lifetime: newsreels, home movies, commercials, cold war propaganda, and educational films from the 1930s-1970s. The compelling layered montage brings out the absurdity, anger, and profound revelations that arise from baring one’s secrets to the experts. Daughter of Polish immigrants, Gloria embarks on a spiritual journey that is both inspiring and heartrending. From Catholic school girl to teenage bride and psychotherapy patient, Gloria forges her own honest and principled self as a remarkably independent thinker and generous soul, whose life was cut terribly short.