Nan Goldin (US)

Screening: Bette Gordon—Variety (1983)

10 March

When

10 March

Sunday, 10-11:40am (AEST)

Venue

ACMI [i]
Federation Square, Melbourne
Daily, 10am – 5pm

Accessibility

Wheelchair access

Price

Full $9 ACMI Member $7

Take a trip to Nan Goldin’s New York City with director Bette Gordon’s femme film noir.

In a grungy 80s New York City, aspiring writer Christine (Sandy McLeod) is in desperate need of work and is given a tip by her friend Nan (played by photographer Nan Goldin) that Times Square porn cinema Variety is looking for a ticket seller. The reserved Christine takes the job and soon finds herself drawn into the cinema’s seedy underbelly; watching the films in her break, quoting the dialogue verbatim to her puzzled boyfriend and taking a particular interest in a mysterious rich patron who frequents the cinema. It’s not long before her voyeuristic interests in the cinema and its denizens develop into full-blown obsession.

A crowning film in the DIY No Wave scene of New York in the 80s, director Bette Gordon’s Variety is a who’s who of the US indie film and art scene. Grunge writer Kathy Acker contributed to the screenplay; regular Jim Jarmusch collaborators Tom DiCillo and John Lurie shot the film and provided the score respectively; and New Queer Cinema pioneer, producer Christine Vachon, worked on the film as a production assistant.

Nan Goldin, who plays a version of herself, is a central force in Variety, which was filmed at the Times Square bar where she had once worked. The film captures the New York scene around Goldin and its neon-lit aesthetic is very much in tune with her own intimate still portraits of friends and lovers. Throughout production, Goldin captured photography on set in a series that was eventually published in 2009.

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Artists

Founding Partners
  • Bowness Family Foundation
  • Naomi Milgrom Foundation
Major Government Partners
  • City of Melbourne Arts Grants Program
  • Creative Victoria
Major Partners
  • Maddocks

PHOTO Australia respectfully acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands upon which we work and live, and the rich and diverse Indigenous cultures across what is now called Australia. For over 60,000 years, Indigenous arts and culture have thrived on this sacred land, and we honour Elders and cultural leaders past and present. This was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.

01–24 March