Polaroids: Mapplethorpe
January 13 -April 5, 2009
Alsdorf Gallery

BLOCK CINEMA
Friday, March 6, 8:00 PM

Still Moving
(Robert Mapplethorpe, 1978, U.S., 11 minutes, DVD)
One of two films directed by Robert Mapplethorpe, Still Moving is, in the words of its creators, “a homage to William Blake.” Made in collaboration with Patti Smith. Courtesy of the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation.

Black, White + Grey
(James Crump, 2007, U.S., 76 minutes, BetaSP)
Black, White + Gray is a documentary about Sam Wagstaff, who was a formative influence on Robert Mapplethorpe. A Yale graduate and naval ensign in WWII, Wagstaff went on to work as an advertising man during the heyday of Madison Avenue and then as an art curator and photography collector. Perhaps best known as Mapplethorpe’s lover and patron, Wagstaff gave Mapplethorpe his first large format camera. This documentary traces Wagstaff's remarkable life from its conventional beginnings through his fascinating career in the arts to his death in 1987 of AIDS.