SCREEN: Kevin Jerome Everson

MOCA’s online platform for experimental film and video art returns this October with SCREEN: Kevin Jerome Everson. Throughout the month, moca.org/screen will host four short films, one each week, by artist and filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson: IFO (2017), Traveling Shoes (2019), Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Filling (2014), and Music from the Edge of the Allegheny Plateau (2019). This particular group of films features Mansfield, Ohio as a shared subject, seen through its geographical landscape, residents, myths, and histories.

Everson (b. 1965, Mansfield, OH) is one of today’s most prolific and influential experimental filmmakers. His work reframes the quotidian, emphasizing labor as a structuring element of American life. Simultaneously sharp and poetic, Everson’s films offers a dream-like vision of everyday activities through vignettes that combine fictional narratives and banal realism, amounting to one of the most vital, creative, and necessary documents of contemporary Black life.

SCREEN: Kevin Jerome Everson is organized by Troyese Robinson.

Screening Schedule:

October 8-14, 2020
IFO is about three famous UFO sightings over Mansfield, Ohio. With Albert Thomas, Elijah Bailey Harris, Saveon Moore, Carmenita Higginbotham, Matilda Washington, Tre'Zahn Gamble.

October 15-21, 2020
Traveling Shoes is based on the hit record by the Ohio based gospel group, The Brown Singers. With Sidney Brown Sr., Robert Whitfeld, Matilda Washington, Kimberly Knox.

October 22-28, 2020
Vanilla Cake With Strawberry Filling is a carefully cut memorial cake.

October 29-November 5, 2020
Music from the Edge of the Allegheny Plateau is loosely based on William Klein’s 1980 documentary, “The Little Richard Story.” The city of Mansfield. Ohio sits at the Allegheny Plateau and has an incredible range of musical talent. With Sidney Brown Jr., Jamie Hillard, Taj Torrence, Matilda Washington, Robert Whitfield, Sandra Whitfield. Commissioned by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

All films ©Kevin Jerome Everson; courtesy the artist; Trilobite-Arts DAC; Picture Palace Pictures.

About the Artist:
Kevin Jerome Everson (b. 1965, Mansfield, Ohio US) B.F,A. University of Akron; M.F.A Ohio University. Professor of Art at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Recipient of the 2020 Berlin Prize; the 24th Heinz Award in Arts and Humanities (2019); the Alpert Award in Film/Video (2012); American Academy in Rome Prize (2002); and numerous fellowships and grants including Guggenheim, Creative Capital, NEA, Ohio Arts Council and Virginia Museum. His artwork–photography, sculpture and films–since 1997, 11 features and more than 180 short form works–have been the subject of retrospectives and solo exhibitions at Tate Modern (Film); Whitney Museum of American Art; Centre Pompidou; Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul; Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina, Novi Sad; SECCA, Winston-Salem; Harvard Film Archive; group shows including ICA, Philadelphia; kunsthalle Wien; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; and have been featured in the 2008, 2012, and 2017 Whitney Biennial, the 2013 Sharjah Biennial and the 2018 Carnegie International. The films screen regularly at international film festivals, including Rotterdam, Berlin, Sundance, Toronto, Venice, BFI/London, AFI, NYFF, Oberhausen and BlackStar.

A two disc blu ray set “How You Live Your Story: Selected Works by Kevin Jerome Everson”, is scheduled for release by Second Run (UK) on November 9, 2020. Click here for more info.

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