Water and Power and Seeking the Monkey King

Floor Three, Susan and John Hess Family Gallery and Theater

Two of the most important figures in the history of avant-garde film are brought together in this double bill. Pat O’Neill’s noir Water and Power uses superimposition, special effects, time-lapse shots and layered imagery to tell a science-fiction inflected story set in the near future, of the struggle for water in a dystopic desert created by Los Angeles’ vast water consumption.

Ken Jacobs’ abstract digital animation draws the viewer into an optical plane somewhere between two and three dimensions, creating a crystalline space into which he inserts intertitles of searing political observations, echoing a thundering musical score by J.G. Thirlwell.  Jacobs’ epitaph for late Capitalism breaks through the patina of optical beauty, revealing a stark reality beneath.

Pat O’Neill (b. 1939), Water and Power, 1989
Ken Jacobs (b. 1933), Seeking the Monkey King, 2011

Tickets are required ($12 adults, students, and seniors; free for members). Doors open thirty minutes before the program begins. Ticket holders are guaranteed admission until the start of the program, at which time any unclaimed seats will be released.