The piece begins with one woman reading the text in English while the other does an on-the-spot translation into German. Their roles periodically flip and at some points both are speaking entirely in English or in German. The women read a series of one-sentence instructions that tell the audience which of the screens they should be looking at. The first questions are very formal, like what one might have to fill out on a visa form, but as it progresses the inquiries become more intimate and suggestive.

In El Adios Largos, artist-archivist Andrew Lampert undertakes a speculative, restoration of Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye based on the premise that the film's negative has been lost and the sole surviving print is incorrect in every way: 16mm rather than 35mm, black and white instead of Technicolor, and dubbed into Spanish. (N.B. proper prints and a negative do exist, just not in Lampert's possession!) With dubious methods used to achieve authenticity, El Adios Largos is at once an uncanny aesthetic experience and a playful exploration of the philosophical conundrums involved for those working to preserve film history for generations to come.

Imageless cinemascope track negative trailer for a 1970 pornographic film. “Elected to the National Film Registry in 2007, HEAD/TAIL is the only imageless film that could still be banned in 31 states.” –Andrew Lampert

A drama of relations between strangers. Vantage point is everything.

Originally presented in 2000 in Mexico City, re-staged soon after at Anthology, and recorded during a presentation at the Getty Center in 2005, this performance piece features a script drawn from Del Taco corporate materials (with creative modifications by Lampert), as well as actual Del Taco corporate videos, to highlight the blithe, breathtakingly oblivious cultural appropriation perpetrated by a “Mexican” fast-food chain. — Anthology Film Archives

The story centres on an orphaned quartet (boy, two girls, a baby) washed ashore on a desert island in what just might be the Bahamas. There, they encounter a pile of branches that transforms into a dubious Jesus-esque bearded man, as well as a doppelganger family of naked black children.

The story centres on an orphaned quartet (boy, two girls, a baby) washed ashore on a desert island in what just might be the Bahamas. There, they encounter a pile of branches that transforms into a dubious Jesus-esque bearded man, as well as a doppelganger family of naked black children.