The Brooklyn-based theater director and filmmaker Lucas Kane’s films examine how aesthetics are intertwined with political struggle while also discussing larger, far-reaching sociopolitical issues through a very personal lens. His approach grounds abstract concepts in the tangible, tactile details of lived experience and the spaces we occupy.
First presented in a gallery on a loop, Impressions of Resistance and Erasure is composed of Super-8 and 16mm footage filmed outside New York City’s City Hall during and shortly after the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020. It captures the life cycle of graffiti through images of vibrant political tags and scenes of their systematic removal by maintenance crews using high-pressure washers, leaving behind little more than cloudy pools of water and paint.
Filmed on 16mm, Jacob’s House expands further on these themes of displacement and resilience, standing as an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of the violence of eviction. It follows Jacob, a Brooklyn artist, fighting to stay in the place he’s called home for more than 12 years. Kane paints a bleak yet beautiful picture of what it’s like to face the threat of eviction, detailing how an aggressive landlord systematically buys out Jacob’s housemates, installs padlocks and security cameras throughout the building, and willfully destroys the property. This is perhaps most starkly illustrated by the utterly unusable kitchen, with a camera installed in a corner of the ceiling, silently watching over the rubble and debris.
Jacob’s House bears witness to a profound loss. Jacob reflects on his years spent in his neighborhood: sharing his art with neighbors, the joy of spending time with others in his now overgrown backyard, and the broader cultural energy of his community, which dissipated as other long-time residents were slowly pushed out by developers over the years. The film’s palette thoughtfully complements Jacob’s home, grounding him in the physical space he’s fighting so hard to keep. People like Jacob are the ones who create and develop a neighborhood’s cultural fabric, and they’re too often the ones who find themselves violently discarded by the forces of gentrification.
Three Songs for Peter Brook shifts focus to Kane’s experiences in the theater world. Narrated by the director and presented in a journal format filmed primarily on Super-8, it considers the legacy of the prolific director Peter Brook. The film blends new footage of the places where Brook’s final original play Why? was performed on tour with heavily damaged archival footage from an early play’s open rehearsals at BAM. This assemblage of decaying film creates a bridge between the personal and the historical. Together, these filmic portraits of erasure, eviction, and legacy form a thoughtful triptych on the politics of space and memory.
Three Portraits by Lucas Kane screens this evening, November 21, at Anthology Film Archives. Lucas Kane will be in attendance for a Q&A.
