M.M. Serra

For over 70 years, Jonas Mekas, internationally known as the "godfather" of avant-garde cinema, documented his life in what came to be known as his diary films. From his arrival in New York City as a displaced person in 1949 to his death in 2019, he chronicled the trauma and loss of exile while pioneering institutions to support the growth of independent film in the United States. Fragments of Paradise is an intimate look at his life and work constructed from thousands of hours of his own video and film diaries-including never-before-seen tapes and unpublished audio recordings. It is a story about finding beauty amidst profound loss, and a man who tried to make sense of it all... with a camera.

Experimental filmmaker Pip Chodorov traces the course of experimental film in America, taking the very personal point of view of someone who grew up as part of the experimental film community.

What makes a rebel? This 78 minute documentary probes the psyche of bad-boy publisher and free speech warrior Barney Rosset, whose mid-century legal and cultural battles smashed sexual and political taboos in the United States — unleashing the counter-culture of the 1960s and introducing millions of young intellectuals to the most radical currents in literature, film, theater and politics. In his late eighties, coming to terms with his life, Barney Rosset began to obsessively sculpt an autobiographical 15′ x 22′ surreal wall mural, embedded with jewel-like vignettes crafted out of found objects, each a clue to the conflicts and obsessions that drove Barney’s lifetime rebellion against authority. A cast of artists, a neurologist, and a shaman connect the clues and piece together Barney’s life.

A fantasy ad that infiltrates three leading visionary designers and their boutiques.

Two lesbians decide to kill their gay roommate.

Spring time in my garden with Francesca, visual variations of green light and shadows.

A series of video letters between José Luis Guerín and Jonas Mekas.

Director of the Film-makers Coop, M.M. Serra, recollects her morning on September 11, 2001. The Coop is a few blocks from the New York Worlds Trade Center. The tape was shot a month after, while we were waiting to have lunch together.

Film of Jack Smith's apartment starring Penny Arcade before it was reposed by the "evil landlords."

MM Serra and Jonas Mekas sign a paper in 3D.

A wholesome moment: Jonas Mekas, MM Serra, Ken Jacobs, and Flo Jacobs take lavender from a stranger's bush.

An experimental documentary filmed over a two-year period, NOTES FROM THE LOWER EAST SIDE includes such personalities as Clayton Patterson, performance artist Penny Arcade, Anthology's own Jed Rapfogel, and other amazing HOWL Fest personalities.

Ever wondered how to crystallize the body of a cat? Here M.M. Serra's dark and ethereal exploration of counterculture and body manipulation extends to the animal kingdom. Artist Katherine Bauer recites her recipe for Crystallum, her playfully witchy process of growing crystals on the carcass of her deceased feline friend, Pickles. Bauer also quotes "The Torture Garden," the 19th Century French novel by Octave Mirbeau, accompanied by the dirge of heavy rock music. Serra's passion for finding cinematic beauty in the absurd and humor in provocation make her work charming, singular and visceral.

Colorful, energetic, delicate and sensual, this early short by M.M. Serra presents her unique vision of eroticism and poetic cinema in a fast-paced collage of dreamlike imagery. Fragments of a poem by C. Breeze are read and manipulated in a manner recalling the tape experiments of Steve Reich. Rich reds and deep blues stutter and sparkle along with her descriptions of love and "canine sex." TURNER is a brief glimpse at Serra's roots in the New York avant-garde and the Film-makers' Cooperative.

Bitch-Beauty is an experimental documentary paralleling the lives of Anne Hanavan, whose experiences as part of the underground scene in the East Village of the 1980s was contemporary with now-deceased actress Zoe Tamerlis Lund, the actor and screenwriter of Bad Lieutenant, who died of a heroin/cocaine overdose in 1999. Using Hanavan's films, performances, readings, and music as well as footage from Lund's work, Bitch-Beauty is an intense seven-minute time capsule of addiction, the perils of street prostitution, and subsequent renewal or revival through cathartic self-expression.

Activities at home with Mistress and her naughty pet.

Filmed on vacation in Hawaii, EYE ETC. explores the light, colors and sensuous movement of the Hawaiian culture.

A curious meditation on the pleasures and terrors of s/m, in which interviews with enthusiasts collide with choice porn clips, Fleisher cartoons, Hans Bellmer poupees and a couple of sphincter-tightening routines. The results are compelling, this film lingers, never once slipping into hype or deadly cool.’ – Manohla Dargis, Reel To Reel, Village Voice, 1992.

Sound composition by Zeena Parkins. Erotic dance performance by Goddess Rosemary.

MARY MAGDALENE is a construct of personal, mythological and political projections of the fluid identity of the individual. This digital representation fragments and layers the profile that is representative of multiple gender identities. These fragments and layers use the reflections of the elements through which gender is culturally established. In the religious community, the name “Mary Magdalene” is the woman as flesh, the wanton woman. This film emphasizes the camera as a weapon for the filmmaker to create her own visual projection.