About

Yvonne Rainer (b. 1934) is an American dancer, choreographer and filmmaker. She is a pioneering figure of the avant garde movement, with her work crossing mediums in bold and experimental ways.

This program brings together the seven feature films that Rainer directed between 1972 and 1996. Her films blend archival footage, reconstructions, still photography and innovative audiovisual approaches to explore the personal and the political. They are spirited and vital works, brimming with droll humour and literary sophistication. Screening alongside these films is the impressionistic documentary Rainer Variations 2002, which explores Rainer’s life and work while playfully adopting her own stylistic techniques in its form.

Rainer's films have recently been restored in 4K by the Museum of Modern Art and the Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation. Her work has earned her a MacArthur Fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, and three Rockefeller Fellowships – establishing her as one of the key performance artists of the twentieth century.

Program curated by Robert Hughes, Australian Cinémathèque. Additional writing by Isabella Leung-Dias.