JENNIFER MONTGOMERY: TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS & THE AGONAL PHASE
PROGRAM:
TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS
2000, TRT 19 minutes, 16mm & video
Distributed by Video Data Bank
"Begun as a consideration of the upgrading from manual to digital film editing techniques,Transitional Objects explores the anxiety and loss inevitable in such a transition while also suggesting the consequences of other life transitions. The video takes its title from D.W. Winnicott's theory of children's use of transitional objects to negotiate the gaps between internal reality and the shared reality of people and things. Remarkably layered, Transitional Objects weaves together considerations of splicing, Winnicott, sewing, motherhood, new technology and loss of mastery." –Carl Bogner"Playtime with psychoanalytic theory mischief-maker Jennifer Montgomery, who toys with the boundaries between self and other, and sutures together chimeras before your eyes."–New York Video Festival
THE AGONAL PHASE
2010, TRT 42 minutes, HD
with Christopher Montgomery, Laszlo McKenzie, and Vivian Montgomery. Distributed by Video Data Bank
In the aftermath of a death things may seem very quiet, but there are struggles going on so deep not even those who struggle can recognize them. This film looks and listens for signs of those struggles. Psychoanalytic interjections consider the nature of time and rumination, and are used to step outside of the terribly interiorized state of mourning. JM
"The agonal phase: the visible events that take place when life is in the act of extricating itself from protoplasm too compromised to sustain it any longer. They are like some violent outbursts of protest arising deep in the primitive unconscious raging against the too-hasty departure of the spirit; no matter its preparation by even months of antecedent illness, the body often is reluctant to agree to the divorce." Sherwin Nuland, How We Die
Jennifer Montgomery's film titles include Deliver (2008), Notes on the Death of Kodachrome (2006), Threads of Belonging (2003), Transitional Objects (2000), Troika, (1998), Art For Teachers of Children (1995), I, a Lamb (1992), Age 12: Love With a Little L (1990), and Home Avenue (1989). Her newest film, The Agonal Phase (2010), premiered at the New York Film Festival.
These films range from experimental essays to experimental features, and are distributed by Zeitgeist Films, Waterbearer Films, Women Make Movies, and Video Data Bank. Her work has shown at international festivals, as well as the 2008 Whitney Biennial (NYC), MoMA (NYC), the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Gene Siskel Film Center (Chicago), the ICA (London), and the Walker Arts Center (Minneapolis). She has been the recipient of many grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. She now lives in Arlington, MA.
