Joan Jonas Movies

  • 1981
    Strong Medicine

    Strong Medicine

    Strong Medicine

    5.61981HD

    Adaptation of an avant-garde play about Rhoda, a hysterical heroine who feels oppressed by the people around her. She suffers through her birthday...

    Strong Medicine
  • 1976
    Regrouping

    Regrouping

    Regrouping

    4.71976HD

    In this experimental film, Borden explores the dynamics among the members of a woman’s group. As she interviews people who know them, such as...

    Regrouping
  • 1972
    Organic Honey's Visual Telepathy

    Organic Honey's Visual Telepathy

    Organic Honey's Visual Telepathy

    01972HD

    Organic Honey's Visual Telepathy is based on Jonas' 1972 performance of the same name, the first in which she used video. In an enigmatic ritual of...

    Organic Honey's Visual Telepathy
  • 1984
    Double Lunar Dogs

    Double Lunar Dogs

    Double Lunar Dogs

    01984HD

    Based on Robert Heinlein’s 1941 story “Universe,” Double Lunar Dogs presents a vision of post-apocalyptic survival aboard a...

    Double Lunar Dogs
  • 1989
    Volcano Saga

    Volcano Saga

    Volcano Saga

    01989HD

    This short film shot in Iceland and New York, which is based on a thirteenth-century Icelandic Laxdeala Saga, features Tilda Swinton as a young woman...

    Volcano Saga
  • 1976
    I Want to Live in the Country (And Other Romances)

    I Want to Live in the Country (And Other Romances)

    I Want to Live in the Country (And Other Romances)

    101976HD

    Jonas intercuts scenes of the Nova Scotia countryside with images of a studio set-up reminiscent of a di Chirico painting. The soundtrack includes...

    I Want to Live in the Country (And Other Romances)
  • 1975
    Keep Busy

    Keep Busy

    Keep Busy

    01975HD

    The protagonists’ astounding verbal gymnastics and often incomprehensible interactions tend to descend into nonsense, and with the syncopated...

    Keep Busy
  • 2004
    The Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Things

    The Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Things

    The Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Things

    02004HD

    Five-channel video installation which responds to German art historian Aby Warburg’s essay about his visit to the American Southwest.

    The Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Things
  • 1983
    He Saw Her Burning

    He Saw Her Burning

    He Saw Her Burning

    01983HD

    He Saw Her Burning, which is based on a 1983 performance, is a provocative narrative collage, a surreal juxtaposition of two narrated texts. A man...

    He Saw Her Burning
  • 1972
    Vertical Roll

    Vertical Roll

    Vertical Roll

    41972HD

    Cast as an “electronic erotic seductress,” the multiple costumes and roles performed by Jonas critically examine the ever-changing, but...

    Vertical Roll
  • 1972
    Duet

    Duet

    Duet

    01972HD

    In this seminal exploration of the phenomenology of video as a mirror and as "reality," Jonas, face-to-face with her own recorded image, performs a...

    Duet
  • 1971
    Paul Revere

    Paul Revere

    Paul Revere

    01971HD

    The film is an adaptation from two sources: Kinesics and Context by Ray L. Birdwhistell, and Choreomania, a performance by Joan Jonas

    Paul Revere
  • 2015
    In the Trees

    In the Trees

    In the Trees

    02015HD

    2015. USA. Directed by Joan Jonas. Presented as a two-channel diptych: Green Timeline (3:41 min.); Mirror Timeline (3:48 min.). 7 min.

    In the Trees
  • 2006
    My New Theater VI: Good Night Good Morning '06

    My New Theater VI: Good Night Good Morning '06

    My New Theater VI: Good Night Good Morning '06

    02006HD

    This film was made in the summer of 2006 in Jonas's Nova Scotia home. It reuses the format of a 1976 film in which the artist recorded herself...

    My New Theater VI: Good Night Good Morning '06
  • 1968
    Wind

    Wind

    Wind

    01968HD

    Cutting between snowy fields and a raw seashore, Jonas focuses on a group of performers moving through a stark, windswept landscape. The 16mm film...

    Wind
  • 1992
    Revolted by the Thought of Known Places...Sweeney Astray

    Revolted by the Thought of Known Places...Sweeney Astray

    Revolted by the Thought of Known Places...Sweeney Astray

    01992HD

    1992/1994. USA. Directed by Joan Jonas. Presented as a two-channel diptych: Berlin Wall (9:39 min.); Berlin Road (9:35 min.). 19 min.

    Revolted by the Thought of Known Places...Sweeney Astray
  • 1980
    Upsidedown and Backwards

    Upsidedown and Backwards

    Upsidedown and Backwards

    01980HD

    In Upsidedown and Backwards, two fairy tales — The Frog Prince and The Boy Who Went Out to Learn Fear — are told simultaneously, one...

    Upsidedown and Backwards
  • 2007
    Shadows/Como

    Shadows/Como

    Shadows/Como

    02007HD

    Frenetic silhouettes pass us by.

    Shadows/Como
  • 1970
    Lines in the Sand

    Lines in the Sand

    Lines in the Sand

    01970HD

    "Commissioned by Dokumenta XI in 2002, Jonas' multimedia performance piece Lines in the Sand takes up two works by the poet H.D. (Hilda...

    Lines in the Sand
  • 1973
    Barking

    Barking

    Barking

    01973HD

    Barking is infused with a sense of mystery, the anticipation that something is about to happen. A car is parked outside a house in a rural Nova...

    Barking