Programmed by Alex Lei of BRUISER and Benjamin Crais, with an intro by Lei

The first of two fall programs at Suns Cinema dedicated to Jon Jost, this screening pairs two of Jost’s urban films: the short CITY (1964) and the feature ALL THE VERMEERS IN NEW YORK (1990). Jost’s fourth film, CITY was shot in Chicago while the filmmaker was awaiting his imprisonment for refusing to be drafted for the Vietnam War. VERMEERS, meanwhile, is one of Jost’s highest-budget works (at only $240,000) and his first shot on 35mm. A comedy of manners set in New York in the late 80s, ALL THE VERMEERS IN NEW YORK follows a French actress meets a stockbroker before a Vermeer portrait at the Met; at the height of the stock market / art market boom, what do dreams of love and art mean?

CITY 1964 15 Min
1964, Autumn in Chicago. This was my 4th film, shot while waiting to go to prison for refusing to serve in the US military. Silent. B&W. I think it captures the sense of depression, of loneliness within the city. Looking back it seems almost archaic, Chicago as some kind of East Bloc country in Soviet times.

ALL THE VERMEERS IN NEW YORK 1990 87 Min
A parable of the missteps of life enacted in the hothouse world of late 1980’s New York, in which the art market and the stock market each boomed, and in process spawned a smorgasbord of “yuppie” delusions which still persist. Anna, a French actress studying in New York, crosses paths with a successful stock-broker, Mark, standing before a Vermeer portrait at the Metropolitan, thence ensues a peculiar romance of missed meanings and connections, with tangential asides to the steaming arts world and stock market, loft-mate conflicts, and, perhaps, love. Wrapped up in their blindered worlds, Anna and Mark deflect away from their chances, leaving at the conclusion the wistful face of Vermeer’s portrait enigmatically asking questions.