Leslie
Thornton

“Her work found its first location, and inspiration, in what in those times was understood as an ‘avant-garde’ film practice; the quoted term, suspiciously suspended, is rarely invoked in these times, but the rigor, the pure oppositional avowal, and the belief in moving imagery’s electro-shock potential”—Cinematexas

The career of American filmmaker and artist Leslie Thornton spans five decades. Thornton occupied an important place in cinema history early in her career, straddling structural filmmaking and the feminist avant-garde, using the materiality of film to interrogate matters of identity, representation, history, and perception. Her experimental practice has continued to evolve into the 2010s as she incorporates new technologies into her videos and installations. This retrospective takes a comprehensive look at Thornton’s work and includes selections by her contemporaries and influences, including Su Friedrich, Werner Herzog, Eric Baudelaire, and Pere Portabella.