My understanding of open city is that it is a military designation that creates a hallow of protection over an urban setting. All of its defenses have been abandoned, and a kind of diplomatic trust ensues. Having lived through the initial shock and the harrowing aftereffects of September 11, 2001, I was wondering how it would feel to visit a perfectly preserved Civil War fort situated at the mouth of the East River to “protect and defend” the people of New York City. Fort Schuyler is a remarkably picturesque and serene enclave that is perched on the tip of a finger of land that juts into the water. Surrounded by the White Stone and the Throgs Neck Bridges, the fort would seem to have a more prominent place in the city’s consciousness. Instead, we felt as if our drive across this narrow piece of land was taking us to a remote island way off the coast and into the Atlantic Ocean.
About Lynne Sachs
Lynne Sachs
Co-director: Abecedarium NYC
Director: Elutriate, Foudroyant, Georgic, Lapidary, Selenography, Umbel, Xenogenisis, Yashmak
Segment Director: Audile, Bibliomancy, Culminant, Diglot
Videographer: Kermis, Nosogeography
Lynne Sachs' films, videos, installations and web projects explore the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences by weaving together poetry, collage, painting, politics and layered sound design. Since 1994, her five essay films have taken her to Vietnam, Bosnia, Israel and Germany -- sites affected by international war -- where she tries to work in the space between a community’s collective memory and her own subjective perceptions. Strongly committed to a dialogue between cinematic theory and practice, Lynne searches for a rigorous play between image and sound, pushing the visual and aural textures in her work with each and every new project. Supported by fellowships from the Rockefeller and Jerome Foundations and the New York State Council on the Arts, Lynne’s films have screened at the Museum of Modern Art, the Pacific Film Archive, the Sundance Film Festival and recently in a mini-retrospective at the Buenos Aires Film Festival. She teaches experimental film and video at New York University and lives in Brooklyn with filmmaker Mark Street. www.lynnesachs.com
