A perennial and dynamic presence in American avant-garde circles from New York to Los Angeles, Amy Halpern (1953–2022) remained dedicated to probing cinema’s special capacity to heighten perception and reveal ephemeral states of consciousness. Though her films may appear dream-like, they are designed, as she once put it, to render what it is like to be truly lucid and awake, experiencing reality in its fullness. Informed by a profound awareness of the world around her, Halpern’s rich, associative films invite us to savour the everyday in their devoted study of gesture, light, ritual, movement, and the mesmerising intensity of the gaze. Ranging from avant-garde portraiture to rapturous surveys of animal and substances engaged in constant cycles of change, Halpern’s empathetic, non-anthropocentric cinema also exudes a fierce commitment to anti-racism and a keen distrust of authority, instead invoking solidarity and individual and collective transformation.

Falling Lessons: The Films of Amy Halpern is curated by Sophia Satchell-Baeza and presented in association with Sisters of the Extreme. 

Access to the View (Amy Halpern / 2000 / USA / 2’ / 16mm / sound) 
Cheshire Cat (Amy Halpern / 2012 / USA / 5’ / 16mm / sound) 
Ginko Yellow (Amy Halpern / 2022 / USA / 5’ / 16mm / silent) 
Hula (Amy Halpern / 2022 / USA / 6’ / 16mm / sound) 
Jane Looking (Amy Halpern / 2020 / USA / 2’ / 16mm / silent) 
#27 (Amy Halpern / 2019 / USA / 3’ / 16mm / silent) 
My Dear Evaporant (Amy Halpern / 2022 / USA / 5’ / 16mm / silent) 
Chabrot (Amy Halpern / 2022 / USA / 3’ / 16mm / sound) 
Three Minute Hells (Amy Halpern / 2012 / USA / 14’ / 16mm / English spoken) 
Unowned Luxuries #3 (Amy Halpern / 2020 / USA / 2’ / 16mm /silent) 
Elixir (Amy Halpern / 2012 / USA / 7’ / 16mm / silent) 
Cigarette Burn (Amy Halpern / 1978 / USA / 7’ / 16mm / English spoken) 
Emit a Beam, See a Light (Amy Halpern / 2022 / USA / 3’ / 16mm / English spoken) 
Vezalay Curtains (Amy Halpern / 2019 / USA / 4’ / Digital / sound) 
 
With an introduction by Sophia Satchell-Baeza.