By Matt Whitman
Although the arguments exist, we find it difficult not to acknowledge an inextricable link—a continuum of mutual influence—between our self and our environment. Living in a city like New York, is no less one such example of this inevitable almost dialectic opposition of forces that exist between who we are as individuals and the circumstances (social, economic, political, topographic) in which the self becomes situated—either by choice, influence, or even accident. Reductively, we usually consider only a handful of narratives guiding how these circumstances come to be. Namely, that there are those of us who are born and raised within the actual city limits of New York and those who through some set of circumstances, migrate and undergo a naturalization process unique to this city alone.
Corrupting the City at Jefferson Market Library is a curated series of film screenings and subsequent discussions as part of the Library’s Jefferson Market University series of courses. Our goal in this admittedly and inevitably brief, yet ongoing investigation via three works on film and digitized film (On the Waterfront directed by Elia Kazan on Thursday August 4th, Midnight Cowboy directed by John Schlesinger on Thursday August 11th and Serpico directed by Sidney Lumet on Thursday August 18th), is to cultivate a provisional sense of what constitutes the relationship between the self (along with its biases, dreams, desires) and the environment of the self. In the context of these films, our discussion will center around the notion of “corruption.” Even in polarizing and sometimes disparate ways, each of these works speak to a cumulative definition of corruption and the struggle against it as an acknowledged social construct—yet one with very perceivable, even tangible effects. Also at hand in a discussion of these films will, of course, be the historical moment in which each is set: three varying decades and climates in New York City history—as these too, must unavoidably shape the sociopolitical positioning and subsequent agency of the self in its contemporary moment.
All film screenings will begin at 7 pm and the discussion of each film will conclude by 10 pm.
Matt Whitman is an American experimental filmmaker and video artist based in New York City. He teaches at Parsons School of Design where he has served as a member of the part-time faculty for two years. He has hosted film screenings and led panel discussions at Jefferson Market since 2014 and previously taught the course Ephemeral New York, Ephemeral Image as part of the Library’s JMU series of courses.
