Opening Reception: @ Work: portraits by Zoe Beloff and Eric Muzzy

@ Work: portraits by Zoe Beloff and Eric Muzzy
opening reception: Sunday, April 21, 5-8 pm

Sanitary Tortilla Factory and Basement Films present @ WORK, a documentary public art project by Zoe Beloff and Eric Muzzy that was created to celebrate the working people of New York.

The project gives workers a platform to share their thoughts about their work, their world, and their dreams for the future. The project takes on multiple forms of portraiture. From the start Zoe and Eric saw themselves as facilitators. Their first step was to interview each worker. They began the conversation with the words, “we are here for you…”. Subsequently they build the interviews into short films both serious and playful that situates the subject in place and time. Each worker was invited to choose a song that energized them. This exhibition is presented as part of Experiments in Cinema v19.8, Basement Film’s annual international experimental film festival.

Zoe Beloff is a visual artist and filmmaker. With a focus on social justice, she draws timelines between past and present to imagine a more egalitarian future. Zoe’s work has been featured in international exhibitions and screenings including the Whitney Museum, Site Santa Fe, the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and the Pompidou Center in Paris. However, she particularly enjoys working in alternative venues that are free and open to the community. She is a Professor at Queens College.

Eric Muzzy studied documentary filmmaking at Temple University though he started his young professional life peripatetically in a series of pursuits including factory worker, cabinet maker, house builder, deckhand and cameraman. He has worked in the film industry as well as acting as director of photography on independent films. He regularly collaborates with two New York artists, Zoe Beloff and composer and singer Shelley Hirsch. He is also engaged in still photography.